DEAR EGGS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 67, 20 March 1937, Page 25

DEAR EGGS

A TWOFOLD REASON

Soon Gggs will be dearer; some say that they will touch 3s 6d a dozen this autumn, and the housewife who has no knowledge of poultrykeeping usually has much to say on the subject. If she is a good housekeeper she will be well supplied with preserved eggs, put down during the spring flush when eggs were obtainable at a little over Is per dozen. More householders should preserve eggs during the spring, since the. poultrykeeper, as well as the consumer, would prefer less price extremes for eggs. The reason for high egg prices during the late autumn is twofold; firstly, most of the adult hens are in a full moult and will be out of production for from eight to sixteen weeks; secondly, it is not easy to procure a steady egg yield from the pullet flock. Pullets hatched during the early spring will lay well in the autumn under good management, but this management must be good, and even under expert care production will often be lower than expected. The price usually rises slowly to a point where consumption drops very considerably, and then once the flock starts laying again the price will drop far more suddenly than it rose. Eggs are usually cheapest about September, and dearest about May. Organised control of marketing will no doubt help towards a more even price-level and greater per capita consumption. Those who must have their own supply of eggs during the autumn months must look to the pullets to produce them. Such pullets must be hatched in August or September and be well reared. They will need to be well fed and housed if they are to produce well during the dear egg period, and a good pullet is worth from 8s to 14s today purely as an egg machine. The same bird by July will be worth only a few. shillings. Most poultry keepers reckon to maintain their flock at 60 per cent, pullets and 40 per cent, adult hens, but these proportions may vary according to seasons and the system of management. The householder who requires a few fowls, to supply breakfast eggs should keep some pullets and some older hens, but.as their management is often rather indifferent the following plan practised by an old hand is worthy of mention. His system is to buy his pullets about the end of June just after the high egg price drops, and as a rule he can procure good pullets at from 5s to 7s each. These he keeps until they commence to moult about February or March, when they are killed for table use. Their house is then thoroughly cleaned out and left empty, while their yard is dug over and sown down, partly in grass, partly in high-growing green vegetables. ' This.- spell' of three months is invaluable' to the equipment, but means, of course, a shortage of fresh eggs. Since, however, ample are preserved during the spring, it is not an undue hardship.to purchase a very few for boiling purpdses if they are required. All of us like . out-of-season foodstuffs, but if we would recognise that the Creator arranged things to give us a variety and if we made-full use of each product in its natural, season, living would be more pleasant and less costly. If perfectly clean, fresh, eggs are preserved or chilled they arc almost as good as fresh eggs, but. do' not attempt to preserve inferior eggs, or to store eggs long after they are removed from the chiller or preservative.