POULTRY KEEPING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 38, 15 February 1943, Page 2

POULTRY KEEPING

Why people should wonder at the shortage of eggs when the reason is so evident surprises me. The extraordinary thing is that people should keep poultry, as a business, at all, when practically all the pro. fits go to other people who have neither the work, expenses, nor re. sponsibility of running the business, In the first place there is the exor. bitant price of poultry feed, from which the Government makes a handsome profit, then there is the commission charged the poultry keeper for handling eggs and poultry; Sometime ago when there was a shortage of soft poultry food the Government department responsible refused permits to buy this food to any poultry keeper with less than 500 birds. There were hundreds of small poultry keepers with less than this number of birds who were forced to sell their flocks, while others slaughtered them, probably collectively running into thousands of potential layers of eggs, mothers of chickens. It is futile for the Agricultural Department to appeal to people to increase their poultry flocks, to increase production of eggs, unless they are prepared to remove these handicaps from the unfortunate poultry keepers. X. PLOITED. ;