THE POULTRY YARD

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 22

THE POULTRY YARD

It is bad policy to wait until a poultry house is needed before starting to build it. If you build any laying houses you need now, and get the pullets into them before thej r start to lay you will prevent the stoppage in laying with possible moult that would be occasioned if shifted once they had commenced to lay. T’nere is no doubt about it that the fresher eggs are when they are brought under the influence of heat and moisture, both of which are essential factors, towards successful hatching, the better will bo the hatching results. There are times, however, when it is advisable to keep the eggs, until they are, at any rate, a day or so older. Eggs which have been subject to shaking such as th© vibration caused by a .railway journey ;will never produce really liveable chickens if the hatching process is begun right away. Many of the embryos will fail to live throughout the 21 days, -and those which do manage to hatch are worse than useless in that they are a constant source of trouble. Rather than place them under the hen or in an incubator at once, it is very much better to keep the eggs over for 24 hours, so that they may' settle properly. This may appear a< waste of time, but such is not the case, as experiments have proved. A common error in feeding wet mash is to feed too liberally and leave the surplus before the fowls until they have eaten it up. This is not' a desirable way. Instead give them what they will eat up in say 15 minutes, and then take the surplus away r.nd give it to any cockerels or growing stock which are always ready for more. Those who are not able to go back and remove the surplus should plan to feed a little less than the fowls want depending upon their making up the the deficiency from the dry mash hoppers. This dry mash can be utilised as a sort of balance wheel in feeding and regardless of whether moist-mash is fed or not, it should always be provided. But before deciding to depend upon it entirely be sure that the fowls will eat it freely enough to make about one half of the total day’s rations. If they will not do that, then you can depend upon it that they are not being efficiently fed for eggs. Trap nest records, both public and private, have shown that in almost every flock there is the widest range of individual production, varying all the way from ht-ns that lay no eggs at all to those whose records exceed 300 eggs in 12 months —and this is true almost regardless of breed and breeding. Hens that have no organic defect, but that lay only a limited number of eggs may do so because of an inherited incapacity for heavy egg production, or because they lack the vigorous digestive organs essential to such production, or are deficient in other important respects. Inferior poduction in the pullet year may also result from late hatching, or from some special and often unknown cause. Practically all good-sized unculled flocks contain some hens that are nonproductive, or practically so, and at least a few that are capable of laying 200 eggs or more in 12. months. In this respect the difference between ordinary and bred-to-lav flocks is simply one of degree. That is there are apt to be 200 egg layers in each, but there will be a much greater percentage of them in flocks that have been carefully bred for high production. And in even the best of flocks enough inferior birds will be found to repay the owner well for tho trouble of culling. In flocks of poor breeding the percentage of unprofitable layers may amount to as much as 50 per cent, of the entire number. In the last few years several methods of culling have been developed which make it possible to estimate the productiveness of hens with a high degree of accuracy by observing certain external characters. A careful study of these methods is advisable if you would obtain the best returns from you flocks.