POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 134, 9 June 1933, Page 12

POULTRY KEEPING.

SEASONAL HINTS.

BREEDING STOCK

(By ORPINGTON.)

To those who depend on broodies, it may seem absurd to think of the breeding pens yet, but many a farmer who has some one in the household who likes looking after chicks, would find it well worth while to invest in a small incubator. Sold with the maker's instructions, they are very easy to run, and when a busy housewife considers the labour of a number of small hatches of chicks running at different ages through the season, she will realise how easy it would be to have one, or at most only two decent hatches during the season. If breeders on the farm are to be used, it is wise to see that only the best are mated and to the best males procurable. If this is attended to some settings of eggs may be sold to neighbours or even chicks hatched for them. If he runs an incubator, tlie farmer has a distinct advantage over the poultry man in that ho can hatch early and late in the season without the ever present fear the intensive man has of getting his ground sick and unfit for rearing the later birds. The ideal is to have an early hatch in July for summer eggs, and then another hatch in the second half of September for pullets that will not moult in the autumn. The very early birds are invariably the most vigorous and get full advantage of the great growing season of the early spring. They will neck-moult early enough to bo in lay again while egg prices are still high. It is the late August and early September birds that disappoint their I owners by'moulting when they should be laying in the autumn.

Are Your Pullets Laying Well? This is the all important question at this season, for a poultry plant that is not producing during the short period when eggs command a good price, will never make ends meet, let alone 6how a profit. The old birds cannot be expected to do much just now, for the best of them are getting feathered up and finishing their rest before the breeding season. But any pullets hatched as they should have been before the middle of October, that have not laid now, should be culled. ■ That is, they will never be worth their keep as egg producers. It may seem hard to discard birds that look as if they would lay any day, but unless feed is very cheap, one must always keep in mind the fact that slow development and backwardness in laying indicate pulleta that will probably only lay about three eggs per week even in the spring, or perhaps lay quite a good clutch and then take long rests between them. So, if these late maturing birds seem too good to cull with a promise of a few eggs while prices are high, at least be sure and mark them with a special ring (and make a note of the reason), so that they will not, at any future date be put into a breeding pen. High fecundity, that is, the ability for good production, is closely linked with quick maturity in inheritance, and although we do not, want the other extreme of small racev birds that lay at 4 J to 5 months of age and remain undersized layers of small eggs, well managed pullets should not take more than seven months to lay. If pullets of different ages are run together, it is difficult and often impossible to know which are the late layers, and for this reason it is worth while marking each hatch differently by toe punching them at hatching time. However, this cannot be remedied at this season, and if there are more than a very few of the backward pullets among your flock, it is worth while, if you wish to keep them, separating them from the laying birds for special attention. Forcing diet does no good, but be sure they have a good mash and all the milk possible. A warm house with deep straw litter helps and on wet or very windy days, keep them inside with scattered grain in the litter for scratching exercise. On sunny days, of course, they are best on grass with shelter from a south wind. Encourage these birds to eat as much mash as possible rather than grain, always remembering that it is cheaper, anyway, and many very profitably contain 10 per cent, or 12 per cent, meat meal. Give them perhaps, mash as early as possible in the morning—not later than 7.30 a.m. —housescraps dried off with meals again between 11 a.m. and 12 noon, and then as much grain as they will eat, not later than 4 p.m. If grain has to be bought, kibbled maize is the best just now, having more warming properties than wheat or oats. Two per cent, veterinary cod liver oil helps the birds to digest the maximum of the egg forming materials in their mash, and is much better value for young birds than any forcing spice. This amount is only one tablespoonful to three pounds of dry mash. Mix it with a little meal first,' dry, and so with the whole, as with butter in pastry making. Many farmers are disappointed when their young stock do not come into lay in the autumn and they not only have no eggs to sell, but have to go short in the household, but they must bear in mind that the birds must be hatched in time for them to mature at the latest by May, and further, that it is a disheartening job trying ■ to feed up. undernourished pullets to laying condition at the last minute. Growth must be steady from the shell to laying without any checks or unnecessary hold backs, if the best results are to be obtained from any hatch.

Large Browji Eggs. Brown eggs aro always popular, but particularly-, so. where most of the supplies are 'drawn from the large Leghorn farms in. some districts. So far, very good egg size and colour have been maintained along with high production in the Rhode Island breed. The hens, although a heavy breed, are not as a rule very broody. Indeed, broodiness can be bred out of a strain if care is taken in mating, but crossing them, especially with another heavy breed, though even within the breed, does bring out the broody factor. Unfortunately it is not usually the very best layers that produce dark brown eggs. Indeed a pullet that starts off with a deep egg often lays them paler after a spell of desired to keep the darker brown eggs in a strain, therefore, it is worth making a note of their layers early in the layiilg season. The brown pigment is the last item to be added to the egg before it is laid, and it seems that birds which lay a greater number of eggs, perhaps than nature intended them to, are apt to run short of the necessary colouring matter. Small egg Rhode Island Reds are probably unknown in this country, and with the care that the breed deserves and our knowledge of genetics, should nover come into being.