The trap nest text book

Front matter

Class _TSkil Bnnk

Cofiyright^

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Preface

IN this book I want 1<> have a heart-to-heart talk with the Thoughtful Reader. I have the advantage that I can talk all of the time and the reader cannot talk back. The reader has the advantage that he can "cut me out" at any time, if he become bored. I shall not try to exhaust my subject or vocabulary and do not wish to exhaust the reader.

I am not talking- to the novice all of the time, I am talking to the render whoever he may be. There are some things in this book that I am sure some people do not want the novice in poultry keeping to know. T do want him to know them. That is the difference. The reader is for the nonce my friend and I propose to let him in on the ground floor. If he does not like it he can move out.

We poultry raisers are a free-and-easy lot. We can talk glibly on any subject whether we know anything about it or not.

Guessing counts and those who guess the nearest alike guess the oftenest. A plausible guess is contagious and we are now apparently enjoying a sort of guessing epidemic. Down South we don't guess so much but "I reckon" is the same disease modified by environment.

It saves a great deal of trouble and worry to be able to guess freely and often. "Of the making of many books there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh." Guessing saves study. When it causes weariness it is when it makes someone else tired.

Guessing promotes economy. Should we suspect that our hens are not as good as any, we can guess that they are better and so save buying new blood. We never guess that what costs nothing is well worth it for that would not be a practical guess. Guessing courageously and without too many unpractical, unbusiness-like scruples will increase our egg yield fifty per cent.

This form of guessing antedates the flood. It will never be stamped out. It thrives best in warm weather but survives the most frigid cold. If we guess ourselves out of the hen business we can guess about former egg records The longer we keep it up the bigger they grow.

If we rupture a heart string, and spend money Ave can guess that we will be swindled and after the goods come we can guess that we have been; and so it goes, this merry guessing bee. We could not stop it if Ave would and some of us would not stop it if Ave could.

The reader is beginning to guess iioav and Avhen he has read this book he will guess again. A\ r e simply cannot help it. We have all got the complaint; some have it worse than others, that is all.

There are several theories touched upon, some of them briefly discussed, in this modest little book. While I regard good theory to be better than bad practice, for any student, still I appreciate that unproven theories should be approached cautiously.

The test of time must be applied to every new theory as well as to every old theory that has been brushed up and offered once more. The old veteran will see them through. However firmly I may hold to certain views outlined herein, I do not expect others to wholly or even partially agree with me unless their own convictions will permit . My business interests have not, to my knowledge, had the most remote influence upon my opinions. I think some things that I have written may be opposed to my interests but I rather like to give my pen the right of way and let it go.

I am not a mind reader so the man who "always knew that" will not be given credit for such of his "original ideas" as I may have used. I give credit wherever I knoAV that credit is due and hold the rest in trust for the owner who succeeds in proving his claim . The first person singular will be used quite frequently without regard to precedent or contemporary opinion. There are but one of us and I am he, in this book.

Should the reader meet with anything that he does not like, a little skipping will discover something different. Our human nature is such that we applaud what others applaud, or what agrees with our present convictions, and condemn the rest.

If we are all right, then poultry knowledge is the most paradoxically mixed up mess of modern times.

My instructions for preparing and using the Ideal Trap Nests and the drawings that illustrate them are as simple and as easily to be understood as I know how to make them. Brevity is said to be the soul of wit but contemporary poultry literature shows that accuracy of statement can be very easily sacrificed to brevity. I am not one of those who believe that "all there is to know" about poultry raising, for profit or anything else, can be couched in language so simple that a child can understand.

I have tried to avoid unnecessary conplication in my choice of a not very large number of words in expressing a few of my ideas in regard to a part of what there is to know. A quart of milk cannot be delivered without a suitable vessel to put it in. I am dependent upon the Thoughtful Reader for an understanding, on his part, of what I have to say.

This book is not designed to be au encyclopedia of poultry wisdom. There are books that claim to be. There are many things connected with poultry keeping of which I shall say nothing. It is of no consequence to the reader how much or little regarding those things I may or

THE TKAP NEST TEXT BOOK <

may not know. Suffice it to say that it is considerable, both ways.

The Poultry Press, long may it live and prosper, make a business of arving both genera] and specific instruction in poultry culture. Some of this instruction is from competent sources and is reliable, some of it we will not discuss here. There are a number of good poultry papers and I have no doubt that there would be more if Mr. Edward C. Madden of Washington, D. C. kept hens and realized the importance of promoting the poultry business in all of its legitimate branches. May he never get a stale egg in his Tom-and-Jerry.

This is a special book issued for a specific purpose. Primarily to show how to make and use the Ideal Trap Nest under a license controlled by my patents.

I have thought best to include a discussion of several subjects, some of them intimately and others remotely connected with the use of trap nests.

These articles have been written at different times and we feel differently at different times. I am sorry that photographs of my feelings at different times were not ready in time to have cuts made. What may seem to be a strange intermingling of seriousness and foolishness in some places, is easily accounted for. When a man begins to read up "the reason why chicks die in the shell" and gets to the point Avhere he is asked to consider if the hen does not feed the chick through the shell, hence it starves to death in the incubator, he must move slowly. When his manly brow begins to throb and what appears to be the unquestionable fact that freshlyfertilized eggs are more likely to hatch well in a well-operated incubator than under the average sitting hen conies in to perplex, it is well to unbend and indulge in a little harmless frivolity. This takes off the strain and he can more safely take up the latest "Law of Sex." If the house cat happens to be a female she wall be a good subject for experiment. An\' rule that will work with her will also work in the poultry yard. When a youth I spent a short time each year, for several years, on the peaceful shores of Lake Winnepesaukee but I failed to note that a quiet and contented mode of life and absence of friction with the outer world and its strenuous (immortal word) struggle for existence and supremacy had produced so many females among the population that soprano and contralto were the only parts taught in the winter singing schools. Probably this was because I was not there in the winter. The reader who fails to catch my point is referred to current gossip in poultrydom.

A talented writer who has published a very good book that claims to contain "all that there is to know" about poultry keeping has not yet answered the following perfectly reasonable question addressed to him last spring by the author of this book: "Can you furnish me with that you know to have been a persistent layer?" "If so, at what price?" The courteous inquiry and a stamp failed to bring a reply to that question. A second letter also failed.

I received samples of shell that indicated that the hen that laid the egg had neither laid freely or long. I do not know if the Sage of TTolfboro knew that or not although he claims that we can learn all that we wish to know by observation without the aid of trap nests.

In my serious writing I desire that my words be taken at their face value. The personal equation as a factor in discussion is often given undue weight. An error is none the less an error because promulgated by those who command a high place in society, literature, politics, religion or business. A fact is a fact however humble its source. Behind this little book is the authority of a fairly good number of hens. To me they represent competent authority when we question them one at a time and do not endeavor to form our opinions when they are all talking at once.

There is nothing in this book that can harm anyone, nothing that need require much expenditure of time or money. Any time that an Ideal user becomes tired of using the nests as traps he can use them open and he will have as good open nests as I have ever seen.

I have been told that I take this business too seriously. That depends, of course, upon our point of view. A business that produces so many "wrecks along the shore" cannot be taken too seriously. These wrecks are not always due to the spending of too much money in preparing for the voyage. Many of them are due to a lack of knowledge of the laws of poultry navigation and the neglect to study the charts that show the rocks and the shoals that menace, and the beacon lights that guide or warn the poultry keeper.

There is nothing more important in the conduct of any pursuit, for business or pleasure, than intelligent thought. Nothing more harmful than hysterical assumption.

A man can keep hens, at a profit, for forty years and yet know very little about hens in general, or even his own, hens.

Current discussion proves that men may read and criticize and yet know very little of what they read or criticize. This can be applied to poultry keeping, the coal strike, or anything else that gets into print and attracts attention.

Scientific advertising, when it degenerates to scientific lying, may arouse sincere condemnation, but many judge too hastily and allow their own ignorance to mislead them woefully. What may appear incredible to us is often a coiuinon-place truth to those who know.

I have read exposes, written by apparently competent authority, that bore the undeniable hall-mark of presumptuous, ignorance. Because one editor is bribable we are not warranted in assuming that all editors are. Because one hundred advertisers are known to be obtaining money under false pretences, we are not justified in assuming that even a -ingle one of thousands of others are.

Popular thoughtlessness is responsible for much that is obnoxious to the intelligent observer in modern advertising-.

If the showman did not add a few hundred pounds to the bill-board weight of the fat lady, or the strong man's burden, he would get less patronage.

The subscriber's unwillingness to read, think, reason and learn is in great measure responsible for the unquestioned and bare-faced lies that adorn the advertising columns of our poultry papers and are thought by many business men to be necessary to success.

The plain unvarnished tale lacks interest with by far the great majority of people. The author who attempts to disprove this is running much risk unless he be well fortified by both money and acumen.

The great trouble with those people who are sincere in the belief that the trap-nest idea is not capable of general application is that a full understanding- of the question is wanting-. They fail, first of all, to comprehend that means for obtaining such understanding has been generally lacking. The author of this book has been largely instrumental in making such means available, not only directly in connection with the Ideal nest, but indirectly in other ways. If it is not meet that he should say this for whom should he wait?

Many very incorrectly assume that a popular recommendation of the trap-nest system in the abstract embodies a failure to understand the conditions under which poultry keeping, as a general proposition, is (or must be?) conducted. To dismiss this as briefly as possible, I will say that no one who cannot get his money's worth from a pratical trap-nest outfit can breed and maintain hens, either in large or small numbers, year in and year out, at a legitimate profit. Occasional ill-advised endorsements of nests that are impracticable should not effect the honest claims of other and practical nests, one of which is described in this book. Within my reach at this moment are the descriptions and specifications of a large number of trap-nests the like of which the poultry world has not yet heard of and sonic of them are good.

The poultry keeper who is obliged to be away from his birds nearly or quite all of the day is in constant evidence. He is not a fair representative of the poultry business, as a business, and were we to cease promoting appliances and supplies as of general utility that are of little use to him. most of us. editors and all, would shut up shop. The most serious fault possessed by an accurate 1 rap-nest is that it is willing to work first, last and all of the time for the user's interests.

The writer is not a scientist and there lias been no effort to adopt a

10 THE TRAP NEST TEXT BOOIv

scientific tone in any of my writing-, past or present. I have sought for the most simple language that would correctly define my meaning.

There is a tendency in poultry literature to simplify at the expense of accuracy. We are told, for instance, that too much corn will make a hen become broody. Such is not, necessarily, the case. A tendency toward broodiness carries with it a tendency to fatten, hence the wdiole process will be encouraged by the presence of food elements that can be readily converted into fat.

We are told that clover, vegetables and meat will make a hen lay a large number of eggs. Those foods will not, necessarily, bring about any such result. The elements contained in them will enable the hen with normal digestive and assimilative powers to feed such eggs as her inherent tendencies cause to be passed down. That number may be greater or less according to the capacity of the individual and the influences of surrounding conditions.

The scientific writer avIio makes a special study of foods and food values in their application to mankind or animals is prone to attribute far greater powers to his favorite foods than actual and general practice shows them to possess.

The recent boom in the by-products of certain concerns illustrate this point without lessening or increasing the actual value of those by-products in the least, as they are converted in the internal economy of those who eat them. One of the greatest points in favor of certain much-extolled foods for men or fowls is that they can be made to take the place, to a considerable extent, of heavier foods that are usually used in excess of the actual needs of the body. Overfeeding of ourselves, and those dependent upon us, is a national fault. A man can over-feed himself every day in the year without increasing his weight or the size of his aldermanic trade-mark.

Natural individual tendencies regulate, in a marked degree, the appropriation of food elements in the body. These tendencies vary with different individuals and are largely controlled by heredity.

One more reference to inaccurate writing and I will close this long, preamble. One writer of current poultry fact and fiction asserts with great assurance that all of the big egg records are made by pullets. Some of us who live where we can communicate freely with the outer world know that this is not so.

I had a flock of twenty-three not very remarkable hens last year (1901) that were hatched in '98 and '99 that averaged 124 2-3 eggs each for the year. Two of them laid 177 each, one 162, one 151 and so on down to 71, the lowest record. Some of these birds are yet with me and are laying well. These are exceptional hens, perhaps, but they have not received exceptional care,

While economic conditions make it necessary for us to maintain our fowls in Mocks, often large Hocks, the individual bird and its individual traits and tendencies must be the foundation upon which to base all accurate information regarding their proper maintenance and possible profitableness. The small pen of the breeder is but the result of the working of this law and is of no advantage whatever, in regard to fertility or anything else, except as it brings us closer to the individual bird.

The trap nest enables us to get still closer to the individual, whether the separate Hocks be large or small, and thereby enables us to judge of effect by the cause rather than of cause by the effect as is generally done.

With no furthur apology, 1 submit the following pages to the Thoughtful Reader.

The Author.

Yarmouth, Maine, October 1. 1902.

"Our doubts are traitors And make us lose The good we oft might win By fearing to attempt."

"Who dares not follow Truth where'er

Her footsteps lead, But says, 'Oh, guide not there, nor there!

I have not strength to follow where

My feet would bleed; But show me worn ways, trodden fair

By feet more brave; Who fears to stand in Truth's broad glare, What others dared not will not dare,

Is but a slave."

Chapter I Instructions For Making And Using The Ideal Trap Nest

PATENTED IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA.

THE IDEAL NEST BOX.

THE IDEAL NEST BOX may be prepared from any box that is large enough to give comfortable room for a hen. It may be as large as desired, but should not be less than twelve inches wide, and should be at least 10 inches deep for Mediterraneans, 12 to 14 for Americans, and 14 to 16 for Asiatics, and high enough for the hen to stand erect (making due allowance for nest material) without touching her head to the top. Common soap boxes, canned-goods boxes and the like, stood on end, are often of suitable dimensions and are admirable for the purpose. With such boxes as these, the front and back referred to in these directions are what were, in the original box, the top and bottom. And the top and bottom of our nest box are the original ends.

Having selected a suitable box the cover should be carefully removed and the pieces cleated together to form the front for our nest box (see tig 1). These cleats should be nailed on 8 in. apart (C to D and S to T). Care must be taken that the nails do not project on the inside.

Saw an opening in this front of the following dimensions: (see fig. 1), mark out with pencil first. (For sake of clearness we will suppose that the box is 19 inches high when stood on end). Beginning- at C, 6 inches from the bottom A, mark from C to K., 8 inches; K to G, 8 inches; G- to D, 8 inches. Mark the angles J to L and I to H (from G to H should be 2 inches; G to I, 2 inches; J to K, 3 inches; and K to L, 3 inches).

Noav saw from D to H, M to I, N to J, C to L; split out the pieces and finish off to angles L. J and H, I and round edges with a knife; this leaves in our front an opening 8 inches high and 8 inches wide, with angles in the corners as shown in the figure. In no case should these angles be omitted.

The top cleat Q should be at least 3 inches wide, and the lower cleat R not less than 2 inches wide. The lower edge of the opening O (K, C) should be at least 5 inches above the bottom of the box, inside, so that

THE (DEAL TRAP NEST 13

the nesl material shall not interfere with the "Attachment". It may be lower, however, if a strip of 1-2 inch stuff, 4 inches wide, be nailed on edge across the bottom of the box, inside and 4 inches or more from the front to confine the nesl material. If this i> done a deeper box will he required.

By adopting- this method, a very low box may he used, even for large breeds, as an opening 1 1-2 inches wide may he cut in the front edge of the to]) of the box to permit the trap plate being raised to the full size of the opening (see V in figs. 5 and G). Thus it will be seen that a box 13 <>r 14 inches high might be used, but so* low a box would seldom be required and is not high enough for a hen to stand with comfort.

I earnestly recommend that when selecting or making nest boxes this matter of height he considered. It is a rare tiling to rind a covered nest that is high enough. Many. broken e.u^s, mutilated combs and bruised backs result from using nests that are too low.

For the purpose of removing' the hen and egg, the box may be fitted with a cover in the top, (tig. 2.) a door in the back, (figs. 3 and 6) or the front may be hinged to serve as a door, (tig. 5).

When trap nests are to be used in considerable numbers, they should be so made that the attendant can see if they are occupied without opening them. To attain this end the Ideal may be made with the hinged front, (tig. 5) ami used back to the wall, or if, used front to the wall, the door in the back may be made of narrow strips or laths cleated together so as to leave openings not more than 3-4 inches, wide between them, (fig 6.) When the box is used front to the wall the ■attendant can see into the nest through these narrow openings in the back. If the box is used back to the wall he can see at a glance if the trap is locked or the nest occupied ; an important distinction with some trap nests. I prefer this latter style, (fig. 5,) ki every case except when the nests are to be used on a littered floor or opening on a walk. When it is desired to hinge the front in order to use the box back to the wall. 3 inch strap hinges may be used and applied as shown in rig. 5. They may be easily bent so as to form a right angle. The door may be secured by any preferred form of hook or button. A simple catch, made by bending an ordinary screw hook at right angles, may be screwed into the edge of the box at any desired point and makes a strong and handy fastening, (see rig. 4.) This catch 1 designed especially for the Ideal and it is the only thoroughly satisfactory fastening that I have ever used, [t is strong and "stays put." 1 find it a very handy form of catch for various purposes such as fastening coop doors, holding up the bail of the water pail, etc. Screw hooks of any size can be placed in a bench vise and hammered into the right shape. In use, if they turn too hard, they should be screwed farther into the wood and then withdrawn the right distance . This will make them work easier . When making- the hinged front it should be made 1-4 inch narrower than the box inside and the cleats Q and R made as long- as the box is wide outside, as shown by the dotted lines E E, tigs. 1 and 8. The movable portion of this front should not extend below the bottom edge of the cleat R, the remaining' space is tilled by nailing a strip to the box, (see W, tig. 5.) A space of 1-2 inch should be left between tins strip and the bottom of the door to prevent the latter from binding.

VENTILATION.

The Ideal may be ventilated as much or little as is thought desirable. The comfort of the hen should certainly have consideration. Mr. Michael K. Boyer made ventilation one of the cardinal points in his trap nest "contest." The box may be ventilated by boring holes in the sides, using a large bit or auger, or a box may be constructed of slats or laths 3-4 of an inch apart, or the sides alone may be made in this way and the back solid. Openings should not be made in the top of the box unless it is to be used where the hens cannot perch on it, as their droppings will go through and soil the nest. If the box is high no openings should be made that will be above the fowl's head when she stands erect. Hens will jump toward the light that enters above their heads and may break their eggs. Boxes having openings in the lower part of the sides or back, should be used where they will not be exposed to direct draughts of air. The form of the trap-plate and the hen-opening are such as to provide air, probably sufficient in many cases.

TO MAKE THE ATTACHMENT.

The Ideal Attachment, a sample of which accompanies the plan sheet, consists of a trap-plate, (A fig. 8) and a pawl or trigger (Pfig. 8). For the trap-plate take a piece of 1-2 inch dressed board not less than 9 inches wide and 11 inches long (old boxes w-ill often provide suitable pieces.) Place the model on this and mark around it with a pencil ; bore 1-4 inch hole in exactly same place as in sample; draw straight lines as shown in tig 7, then saw from A to B, C to D, E to F, G to D, H to I, J to K, L to M ; cut notches and finish to curved lines with knife.

The pawl (P fig. 8) is made from 3-4 inch stuff. It is very important that this pawl be at least 1-4 inch thicker than the trap-plate which should be at least 1-2 inch thick. Mark out from sample; the grain of the wood should run lengthwise of the pawl ; bore 1-4 inch hole in exactly the same place as model, then saw out and finish with knife.

T1IK IDEAL TRAP NEST, 15

TO PUT ON THE ATTACHMENT.

The trap-plate should be secured to the inside of the front beatenwire screw, 1 1-2 inches long. This screw should enter the front at a point jusl 3-4 of an inch above the top of opening O, or 8 3-4 in. above the bottom edge, and 1 inch from the side of the box. sec fig. 8.

When the box has the door in the hack or a cover in the top, the front is nailed on and the trap-plate, when closed, rests againstthe side of the box. When the front is hinged to open as a door a small piece of wood. 1 inch thick. 1 inch wide and 1 1-2 inch Long, is nailed on to the inside of the front to serve as a stop for the trap-plate, see W, fig. 8. Two pieces of L-2 inch stuff, one piece on top of the other, will answer.

The trap-plate should be attached to the front so loosely that it will fall back quickly when raised to its full height, and yet not so loosely that the pawl will fall behind it when it is pushed inward by the hen.

The pawl is also secured to the front so that it will move freely and at such a point that the end of the pawl shall tit easily into the lower notch in the trap-plate, (N fig. 8), and at such a height that the top of the pawl, (Z tie;. 8), will he 3 1-4 inches above a point directly in line with the lower edge of the hen opening O. If the trap-plate and pawl have been properly hung the opening from X to Y (rig. 2) will be about 2 1-2 inches wide when the trap-plate is down and the pawl will tall from its raised position when this opening has been increased to 4 1-2 inches by raising the trap-plate (fig. 9). Should the breed be of very -mall size, so that they can enter the box without opening the trap-plate 4 1-2 inches, a strip of 1-2 inch stuff 6 inches long, should be tacked on to the inside of the box at Z. tig. 2: the pawl will then fall when the opening is 4 inches wide: or. if preferred, the curved recess in the edge of the trap-plate need not be so large as that in the pattern when the [deal is to be used with Mediterraneans; for Asiatics of very large size this recess may be made 1 inch deeper if desired. Both the trap-plate and pawl should fall easily from any position when allowed to drop, either quickly or slowly, as upon the correct working of this trap-plate and pawl the accuracy of the trap depends.