RISKS OF PULLET BREEDING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 46, 7 August 1939, Page 2

RISKS OF PULLET BREEDING

The question whether breeding from pullets should be condemned has received conflicting answers, stater, a report issued by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture. Evidence aga : nst the practice is considerably stronger than that which supports it, and there now seems to be no doubt whatever says the rc?. port that continued breeding from immature birds in successive generations will lead to disastrous results. Investigation began in 1935. In the initial inquiry it was found that there was a mortality of 50 per cent (among the chickens bred from pul. lets which died while in the breeding pen, whereas the percentage among those from pulllets which lived was only 32. per cent. This finding suggested that the ability to live was inherited and was of such importanca as to warrant further inquiry' along similar and related lines.

In an inquiry carried out in 1536 the mortality among chickens hatched from hens was compared with that among chickens hatched from pullets. Further, the mortality in the flocks produced by the pullets which lived was compared with the mortality in, the flocks produced by pullets which died while in the breed ing pen. The investigation was taken a stage further to compare the mor. tality rates among the adults. The results are shown in the following table:— Percentage Mortality Dams used Chicks Adults Kcn s 37.8 23.4 Pullets which lived .. 39.8 23.5' Pullets which died .. 53.5 37.0 | These results show that the mortality among the birds from the pullets which lived was approximately the same as among those from the hens, but was very much higher in the case of the birds bred from Hir pullets which died.