POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 160, 8 July 1922, Page 20

POULTRY KEEPING.

THE THREE HUNDRED EGG HEN. (By K. J. TERRY). Continuing the subject of fche 300-egg hen I would by no means discard the irea'k, but I would prefer to breed from her full sisters rather than from the hen herself. The value of the male bird as regards the building up of an egglaying strain is not sufficiently recognised. He also must come of a long line of ancestors which were above the average layer. As showing the effect of the male bird, and at the same time how much easier it is to go back to nature's comparatively poor-laying bird, rather than the hen which the presentdry poultrykeeper requires, 1 will give my readers some actual experiments carried out by myself and friends. For twelve years in Australia I bred WMte Leghorns and Black Orpingtons with a view of increasing egg production. Starting with the best blood then procurable, pullets were tested for 12 months. The two best layers without any serious defects were given a rest 'and bred from, their progeny being tested for the ensuing twelve monfhs, and the two finest layers again being picked out to be bred from in the following year. Now, in fche first few years wien I did not have so much experience, and simply went for the number of eggs laid, the percentage oj heavy layers rapidly increased. But I awakened to the fact that I was starting to produce a flock of weeds —birde which required very cartful rearing and 'that the eggs were becoming smaller. I started to remedy this, discarding birds which did not show a fair , amount of constitution, and at the end of twelve years' work the two birds that I bred! from (they were sisters) one laid 247 eggs and the other 252 within the 12 months. . It was a rarity to get a JMOegg bird. On the other hand, 1 seldom bad a pullet whioh laid fewer than 209 eggs per annum. lam convinced that one can 'have flocks of birds laying from 180 to 200 eggs per annum—even large flocks, but 1 do not believe that one can get much higher than this unless birds are fed in euch a. manner as would make them deteriorate in constitution. Therefore beginners who think of embarking In the poultry industry should not be led astray and work out their profits on paper with a 300-egg bird as a basis. Anything over 150 eggs per bird per annum will show a profit, and, as before stated, the 180 to 200 average in even large flocks is easy to obtain. But even on this basis one must be continually on their guard to keep the average up. Remember the modern laying hen is an unnatural production, and we must keep her so. i FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS. r At one time I financed and supervised four egg-laying competitions. One ;of these was won by a team of six Black ;Orpingtone, laying 1308 or 1318, I am ,not certain which. The winners were the .descendants of the winners of the Rockdale competition. The owner of the birds was a monied and literary man, and had been breeding for egg production for some years as a hobby. He waa quite as proud as any school boy upon winning his first cup, and carried away the trophy through the streets without even waiting to Lave it wrapped up. But it was the undoing of his strain of birds. The birds which he had bred were close and tight in feather. He started to attend poultry shows, fell in love with a cockerel which was certainly handsome from the show point of view, and looked very grand and large (due in a great measure to his loose, fluffy feathers) bought the bird and introduced it with pride to the winning pen.

Now I ihad tested birds related to thia cockerel and a fair average for them was 100 eggs per annum. Six pullets, the progeny of the mating, only produced 807 eggs, against their mother's 1300 odd, under exactly the same conditions, and as the owner had killed off all his own male birds, after purchasing that handsome cockerel it took some few years to get his birds up to a fair layin» average. I might etate that prior to this gentletnan winning the competition his birds could be depended on to lav 180 to 220 eggs per annum, with a fair degree of certafnty. ANOTHER EXPERIMENT.

After eight years' work, when I thought I had the egg-laying propensity thoroughly stamped, I carried out what might be termed an extreme experiment. I procured, through the courtesy of the Curator of the Sydney Zoological Gardens some wild jungle fowl, the vanity being generally recognised as the ancestor of our domestic fowl. I mated these birds to pullets which I, SL r ,e n dß, had tested, as laying from 240 to 260 eggs per annum. The laying of the progeny was somewhat sensational. So many people believed that the progeny should be half of each parent, but it was certainly not so in «v £*?-,,^ th ° ne ««P«<» of a pullet wh.ch laid 57 eggs, the highest was 31 rp for the season, the avera-re beinu. In most cases seven or nine eejre r re J^ and then the »**• ttfn knocked off. If ~ot allowed to set they did not come on to lay again in a few weeks as should the domestic hen^ • l *t m o^? kins these renia-ks regarding the 300-egg hen somewhat lengthy, as I wish to guide the beginner and disabuse his mmd of the belief that having purchased good laying stock he has nothing further to do but find and gather the eggs. He must continually select and work in opposition *~ ™n, rP . or tf he has not time and inclination for this, then he must make judicious purcnases from time to time. But do not make the .mistake of numerous infusions of new •1,; ». 7™ have not * hat which misrht be called sixth sense in mating up your birds, ,t would be better to put yourself ln a good man's bands. The arms from the circular rim can oe any length or even duplicated. ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT. "Digger," Papakura, writes that his present occupation is not congenial. He r? S « ° fowle, which showed a profit of 16/Ti each last year. Do I know of «n y means whereby he can select eg<rs wluch w,ll hatch pullets? When would l advise him to start poultrykeeping on a large scale? In the first place I would advise him to hang on to his present position an?nnJ ,«= month8 ' keeping, we will say 100 to 150 birds, instead of the 30. He will thue gain experience and the scraps trom the house will not play the important part in the large flocks that they do with the 30 birds. It is utterly impossible to select eggs which will hatch pullets. The man who told you differently is a fool to stay in his" present position for he could be a millionaire if he went to America and could pick out eggs which would hatch gullets for the big poultry plants.