POULTRY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 254, 10 July 1926, Page 26

POULTRY NOTES

(By

“New Laid.")

The Breeding Stock. Many poultrymen fail to recognise the great iuniortance of tlie condition of the breeding stock from which the eggs for Incubation are taken and its relation to their success or failure. The breeding stock is the foundation of the business, the life of your undertaking, and the source of all the eggs which you intend shall produce chickens. Unless the breeding birds arc sound, healthy, and in the best possible condition for the reproduction of their kind, satisfactory results cannot be obtained. Eggs from well-fed, sound parent stock will hatch strong, sturdy chicks, even under what are considered quite unfavourable conditions. Eggs from birds out of condition, either from inbreeding, unsanitary surroundings, improper food, sickness or other causes, will never produce chicks that are worth the trouble it takes to hatch and rear them. When chicks die in the shell, are slow to hatch, or die off in large numbers within ten days lifter hatching, do not blame tlie incubator or brooder. First investigate carefully the condition of the breeding stock and tlie care, housing and food they receive. Nine times out of ten you will find that there is where the trouble lies. Breen for health if you wish to have and produce healthy chicks. Feed, house and care for health if you would keep your stock healthy. Remember the eggs are the seed from which you expect to produce and grow your crop of chicks; you cannot get good wheat from poor seed. It takes generations of careful selection to produce tin; best. Even then poor care and careless management may spoil it all. It is just tlie same with chickens whether you use artificial or natural methods. To be. successful you must start right; get a solid, lasting foundation. Breed for the health of future generations by beginning now to select your next year’s breeders for soundness and vigour—in a word —health. Keep them healthy by good food, good care and good management. Do not sow poor seed. From the breeder's standpoint the male bitil is practically one-half of the breeding pen, i.e., you depend upon him to fertilise the eggs laid by all the hens with which he is mated. For this reason, whatever else you do, you cannot afford to be careless or indifferent in your selection of the cock qr cockerel that is to head the pen. Furthermore, he must be carefully watched to see that lie is capable of performing the duty to which lie is assigned. Any laxness in this particular is fatal to good results. Aside from being a typical standard specimen of the variety which lie represents, he should also typify perfect health and soundness. Inferior or unhealthy male birds have no place whatever in the breeding pen. Never breed from a bird that has had or has apparently recovered from any serious sickness. In selecting a male bird for the bead of a breeding pen, choose one that is well proportioned, of good size and well matured; broad, smooth backed; tail well spread at base (don’t breed a pinched tail); full, deep chested; stout, strong legs and thighs, set well apart; good carriage and symmetry; well-formed comb and wattles, neither too large nor too small, of a bright, healthy red; keen, sharp, bright eyes; a well-shaped, stout beak of medium length, the whole head being perfectly proportioned to the body, and carried in a manner that gives the bird an alert, active, business-like appearance. He should be in the best possible condition, and capable of taking his place as head of the pen and bolding it against all comers. Aggressiveness in the male bird is a desirable quality. “Hen-feathered” males with an effeminate disposition have no plaee in the breeding pen. Do not breed from any bird, no matter how perfect a standard specimen he may be. if lie shows the following symptoms indicating that he is physically unsound: —Shortness of breath on running or jumping; blueness or dark colour of comb, face or wattles after chasing a hen or attempting service; pale face and comb; rattling in throat; canker of throat or mouth that does not yield promptly to treatment: putrid discharge from nostrils; foul discharge from vent; vertigo; violent shaking of the head with tendency to step backward or to one side; staggering, or w’obbling gait: Jerking walk like ‘'stringhalt"; paralysis of any kind; emaciated, debilitated condition; leg weakness; foot, hock or wing ulcers or abscesses; deformities of any kind or any other symptoms of a diseased condition. Examine the mouth and throat carefully and discard the bird if the mucous membrane appears unhealthy. Noto carefully the condition of the legs. (Sealy leg cun be easily cured, but it should be done before the bird is placed in the breeding pen, for the disease is contagious). If the legs feel hot and dry. look closely for other symptoms of disease. Hot feet and legs mean that something is wrong with the bird. It is a sure sign—“ Bulletin.”

Cost of Raising: Pullets. Answer to correspondent.—M.P. asks whether it would pay to rear pullets to sell at three, four or five months old, and how much they should bring at these ages? An article appeared in this column on August 22 last, in the course of which was given a copy of the report furnished bv the chief poultry instructor of the Department of Agriculture on the cost of raising pullets t.o the age of six mouths. This showed the cost to be an average net cost of 6/11% per bird for cost of food only. It must be noted, however, that the cost of feeding is,much higher to-day than when the trial was conducted, and the cost of the finished article will be proportionately liighc . At that time wheat was used at a cost of (i/S per bushel, bran was £7/5/per ton, and pollard £9/5/- per ton. _ To quote from the article—“ The costs given, as will be seen, relate to the period from the placing of the live chicks in the brooder up till the time they are six months old. In order to get the total cost of production, it will be necessary to add on the cost of eggs placed in the incubator and of the kerosene used during the hatch. On top of that must be reckoned the cost of kerosene or other fuel used for heating the brooder, unless, of course, a tireless brooder is used. Further than that, allowance should be made for labour, interest on capital invested in the plant used, and general expenses, if the question is to be pursued to its fullest conclusion.” The costs given above are for a trial extending to a period of six months; those for the periods mentioned by the correspondent will be proportionately less, and the prices to be charged will also vary accordingly. An important point, which is apt to be either overlooked or ignored by the would-be buyer, is that at the ages mentioned, the pullets have got past the perils and dangers nt their chickenhood, and are within fairly easy distance of coming into profit. It is quite impossible to give any hard and fast rule as to what the birds should be worth, as so much depends on breed, strain, time of hatching, etc., and it. must be remembered that even the poultrynian is worthy of his hire. In any ease, it is not good policy to sell pullets in advance, as the old saying about not counting your chickens before they are hatched still bolds good, nnd it might easilv happen that in having to fulfil orders the correspondent might run the flock required at home very short in numbers.