EGG-LAYING CAPACITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 260, 2 November 1928, Page 17

EGG-LAYING CAPACITY.

WHEN DOES IT END ?

L'SE OF OLDER BIRDS

A correspondent writes that lie thinks that I could give some interesting information re the egg-laying capacity of a fowl. He has been told that it" you kill a bird and count all the minute yolks you will get about three thousand eggs. If that is so, he asks, why do we say eggproduction is finished at two vearsV

In the first place, we don't say that egg-production is finished when a bird is two years old or has been laying for two years. A few years back it was found that it was more prolitable to feed the younger birds because the older ones were apparently worn out. But with later knowledge we are commencing to recognise that this may be a mistake, and if the birds are given food as near as possible to the composition of an egg they do not wear out. As a fact, the ovary tissue has never been really counted for the number of embryo yolks that it contains. I know there are some who have claimed to have done so, but it would be impossible, as there is not the least doubt that the ovary tissue goes on growing. Persons who pose as scientists in a small way will state that if you cut an orange pip or an apple pip and place it under a microscope you will see all the apples or oranges that that tree has ever produced. Well, that is just piille, because you could not examine an. apple pip nor an orange pip under a microscope, you could only examine sections of it, cut so thinly that the light would aliow through; tliat is, if you really wished to examine it.

It is the same as regards the tissue, you can only compute or guess. But it is a fact that there are many thousands of embryo yolks—a far greater number than the ordinary domestic hen would develop. It is a case of developing these embryo eggs, and that can only be done by the blood of the bird feeding the tissue, and good blood possessing everything required for the formation of the egg can only be made from food which contains these constituents in sufficient quantity. I have previously mentioned in this column that it is on record that a hen at a Canadian University laid 1278 eggs, and she was then in good health and vigour, but she had been fed for egg-production; in fact, in those days, twelve years ago, it was termed ''scientifically fed." You put the proper food in the hen and she will do the rest.

I once knew of a duck which was 20 or 21 years of age and still laid a few eggs each year.

I believe it would pay commercially to keep fowls another twelve months, providing they were really fed for eggproduction, in other words, supplied with everything required for the formation of eggs, so that there would not be undue strain on the birds' systems. One has to remember that when stock is replenished the young birds have to grow to the egglaying stage without giving any return.

Skinning Cockerels.

A correspondent saye lie understands that I once in this column advocated the ekinning of cockerels instead of plucking. He is quite right. Where Leghorn cockerels will not be ready for the market, eay, till about February, they often will not pay for the food consumed, and there k> no market for them when they are very small. What they realised would certainly not pay freight, cartage, commission, crates, etc., and I will admit that the plucking takee too long for the return in amount of meat. My correspondent has a large family, but tihey will not pluck the birds. He asks would it be best to destroy them. Well, I would get a dozen or two dozen (which, ever would make a big feed for a family), break all their necks, get eomeone to hold their feet and tear the ekin off in the same way as a rabbit is skinned. If you just run a knife under the skin up the breast, you will find that you can tear the skin off quite easily. Why should you pluck the birds? §wmply because it is the fashion to do so. You loee very little meat by having the ekin removed and you do save much time. You should be able to do about one a minute after the first half dozen. The drawing will also be quite simple then, because you will simply insert the knife at the point of the breast bone and, cutting through the very thin layer of flesh, remove the intestines. If you wish you could then break off the backe of the birds, thoroughly etew them and throw them away, leaving the liquor to boil the leg<s, breast and wings. That is the beet I can do and I think I have solved the problem for you, and you should have many tasty stews. Sulphur and Iron.

With, the advent of warmer weather it is advisable to give the birds small quantities of eulphur in the mash occasionally, not eo much from the medicinal point of view, but rather as a. constituent of the egg. Every egg contains a minute quantity of eulphur and the hen can procure the sulphur only from her food. Do not over-do the quantity. A teaspoonful to a dozen birds about pnee a. week is siiffi^ig^f,.

At this season of the year egg production ie at ite peak and the laying hen is daily utilising iron. Not only do they require iron for their own bodies to enable them to assimilate a sufficient amount of oxygen, but they aleo require iron for the yolk of the egg. The simplest way to give iron is to put a little sulphate of iron known as green stone, in the drinking water. When the sulphate of iron is given, the drinking veeeele, if poseible, should be of wood or china, not metal.