POULTRY-KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 39, 15 February 1935, Page 15

POULTRY-KEEPING.

ESTIMATING THE PROFITS. STOCK DETERIORATES QUICKffJT.

(By ORPINGTON.)

It is usually the town dweller who hns had little or nothing to do with tho upe and downe that beset the production of primary commodities, beyond perhaps the keeping of a small garden' and a run of half a dozen hens, who is apt to indulge in arithmetical theories as to the profits that could be made from 1000 layers, on the same basis as he reckons tho profits of his garden pen. Rigid amounts' will be allowed per 100 hene for Btock, shedding, rent, food, and even, perhaps, for labour, and production considered a conservative estimato at, say, 250 egae per hen each year. In actual fact it is amazing how different from these theories practical poultry keeping accounts can work out. Even on the simplest plant where perhaps a largo laying shed is set in a graee paddock and stocked with pullets to run on free range, it is yet found necessary to leave a generous allowance for extra expenses during the first year or two, while on a poultry farm that sets out to bo up-to-date and carry hatching, rearing and table bird appliances as well as trap-nests and accommodation for single penning and stud cockerels, the capital needed readily becomes out of all proportion to possible profits. Tho greatest yearly outlays necessary on a poultry plant beyond those of foodstuffs and labour are probably the expenses involved in replacing a proportion of the stock, and the depreciation on dead and live stock. When times are hard and the prices gained for old hens so very low, the natural tendency is to replace the minimum number of birds each year, poeeibly even reducing stock slightly, or eke to carry out the usual amount of rearing, but still carry more over year birds "to pay the food bills," thus allowing the plant to become somewhat overstocked. Cutting Down Depreciation. Depreciation on most poultry plants in this country is not high, as far as the shedding is concerned, because this can be fairly simple, and is usually of corrugated iron or heavy timber which will last much longer than the mass production articles of England or America. But one of the greatest losses occurs in the depreciation of live stock. A pullet that costs at least 7/C to rear to laying time is only worth 1/0 or 2/C, according to whether it is a light or heavy breed bird, when she is a few months over two years old, at the end of her second laying season. This means that at least £25 per 100 birds must be made during their two years' production, beyond that spent on food, housing and labour for them, before they can make a profit.

During these years of poor egg-prices every poultry farmer must have endeavoured to reduce his food costs, to manage with less outside labour, to cut dowji hie overhead expenses. A practical expert, J. H. Lucas, writing in "Eggs," suggests that it is very necessary that this loss by depreciation of live stock be reduced. His theory is that as soon as the flush laying season commences every layer on the farm is dispensed with. Day-old chicks are purchased early in the spring, say July or August, so that the pullets are little over a year old when sent to market, and they command roasting chicken pricee when these aro at their most scarce period.

The principal advantages are that this cuts out entirely the long unprofitable period even first-year birds have, first from September to January, when production costs are below the prices realised for eggs, and then during the moult, when the birds are out of production altogether; that runs generally used by the layers in spring can be limed and rested ready for the young stock; that labour costs can be cut down considerably, since in that busiest season, the late spring and early summer, there would be only the young stock to attend to; that more stock could actually be carried on the same plant; that 3/0 for light breed pullets and 4/0 or more for heavy, breeds when they are sold, reduces the depreciation very considerably.

This practice, which is entirely novel, as far as the writer is concerned, probably follows rather naturally on specialised and all-the-year-rouncl hatching which is becoming the custom elsewhere. It washes out entirely the interest most poultrymcn here have in breeding, rearing their own stock, and selling stock for stud purposes. In theory it has much to recommend it, but as far as most of us are concerned, the idea amounts mainly to a hint to cull the layer thoroughly and early so that the growing stock may have more room and more attention. Ventilation of Houses. The simplest means of adequate ventilation for poultry seems to be that by which fresh air enters at the floor from every direction, so that there is no draught, and the impure air leaves at the highest point under the roof. Taking a shed, without flooring, of anything from 20 to 00 square feet in floor area, it is not difficult to raise this up from the. ground level, so that there is a clear space of from four to six inches below the sides of the shed. If bricks are not available to put under the uprights and at intervals of a. few feet under the four sides, wooden blocks could be used. Use as hard timber as possible to prevent early rotting, since the blocks will be in contact with the ground. The house is thus eet up, and the floor ventilation is created; it remains to arrange an exit for the spent air. This may already exist. Where there is already an opening in the front of a lean-to type of shed, it is also at the highest point of the roof, to which stale air goes. Where corrugated iron is used tliero also is often quite sufficient "ventilation*' already between the roof and sides. The ideal (apart from ridge roof ventilation) is to have gaps of 2in depth only running immediately under the roof at both ends of a lean-to shed. If, however, there ie absolutely no overhang of rooling here, rain may drive in, so that it might be better to choose back or front for the opening where the roofing is more likely to jut out, When the shed is raised, even these few inches, the perches may require to be lowered, specially for heavy breed hens. They are better to be not more than 2Aft*from the ground. Should the shed be less than sft high it would be advisable to make also a slatted floor on which the birds will roost happily and require no perches. They have then agreater proportion of the air above them and are nearer the supply. Possibly the present perches can be used as battens for the foundation of the floor. Cheap bundles of laths, possibly odd lengths, can be purchased from a builder and these nailed an inch or inch and a half apart on the battens, a _ _,