CHICKEN-RAISING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 226, 23 September 1932, Page 8

CHICKEN-RAISING.

MODERN WAY IN INDUSTRY. HATCHING BY THE THOUSAND BROODER AND INCUBATOR. Chicken-raising in New Zealand has not received nearly as much attention as it has, for instance, in Australia and in America, where the industry is very highly developed! A good idea of the modern chicken farm was gained by a visit to Mr. H. Sulley's three-acre farm at Papakura, where the chickens are raised, literally, by the thousand. From the day when the little yellow chick first cracks the shell and finally emerges from the egg to the time it is a grown pullet, and capable of looking after 1 itself, it knows no mother with silky feathers and sheltering wings—only the battery brooder, where it remains for ten days until it is strong enough to be placed with a couple of hundred or so others in grading pens. Eggs Not Handled. A patent incubator, worked by electricity, one of only two of its size and efficiency in the Dominion, has been installed, and in this 1000 egge are placed, and constitute a hatch. This incubator does 90 per cent of the work, and man the remaining 10 per cent. From the time the eggs are placed in the revolving drum suspended in the incubator to the time when the chickens have broken through the shells they are not turned, cooled or handled in any way. The temperature ia regulated by a long wooden fan, which continually revolves around the drum containing the eggs, and the heat is' supplied from two pipes at the top of the cabinet. When the chickens are hatching they drop through to,six trays at the bottom of the! incubator. Mr. Sulley said his losses' j would amount to not more than 2 per cent, which was phenomenal. Control of Temperature. The chicks are transferred from the incubator to a battery brooder, the largest in New Zealand, divided into 24 compartments and consisting of four decks. It is centrally heated from a coke

furnace, and the daiy-old chicks me placed on "the top deck, where tfley remain for three days. After eadrperiod of three days they are shifted down* deck, and on each successive deck there is a drop of five degrees in tempera? ture. There are troughs of food an<l water around every deck, to which the chicks have access by means of headholes. They are caged in by wirenetting, and, for cleanliness, they tread on wire-netting. This battery brooder is an excellent means of ■ rearing "■ the chicks until they are out of the ■■weak and early stages. It is capable of holding several thousands, and it r is - ; an attractive sight to see scores of little yellow heads peeping through the holes, as passengers do through portholes. When the older chicks in the brooder have "done time" on the lowest deck, they are transferred to the first of > a number of pens. Here, again, the chicles remain three days, until they reach the final and largest pen at the age of about eight weeks. The cockerels and puUete are then sorted out, ready for sale. The best of the older birds are kept for breeding purposes. • •