Agricultural History Review, Volume 69 Part 2 (2021), pp. 274–295

Public egg-laying trials, in which the production of a group of birds was formally measured and assessed under standardized conditions, were held to test levels of improvement resulting from breeding. In Britain they provided a quantitative way of assessing the productivity of different breeds and strains within breeds, enabling egg yields (the number of eggs per laying bird) and the laying life of birds to be compared. This article examines early egg-laying trials, which were organized by the Utility Poultry Club and Harper Adams Agricultural College, as well as the high-profile National Egg Laying Test, promoted initially by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) and also the Daily Mail newspaper in conjunction with the National Utility Poultry Society (NUPS). The latter became the National Poultry Test, which was modernized in the 1960s to reflect developments in commercial egg-laying and the newly emerging broiler industry. These trials established a system for comprehensive national, regional and county egg-laying trials. It is argued that egg-laying trials played an important role in increasing the egg-laying capacity of chickens and promoting modern intensive methods of production, benefiting small breeders and producers who, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, dominated the egg market. 

Complete Volume PDF