FOWLS AS A SPECULATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3886, 30 March 1877, Page 2

FOWLS AS A SPECULATION.

Why fowls do not pay is thus explained by the " Illustrated Book of Poultry :"— Of still more importance than wise selection of breeds is • the proper age of the birds themselves. Considered merely as a producer of stock, no hen should be allowed to see more ' than her third autumn. "With valuable fowls the case is of course different, as, apart even from prize-winning, a dozen fertile eggs from a proved first-class bird may be well worth the keep of a year ; but, as regards the mere production of eatable product, rule must be rigidly enforced of killing every hen at the age of two, and a-half years, at the first sympton of moult., i. In many breeds, Brahmas the second season's eggs are more • numerous than the first, but after that all fowls show a great falling off, while they also become too tough to be eaten. On the. other hand, by killing at the age stated, they may be either eaten or sold at a fair •price, while the best part of their lives only is an expense to the corn-bin. . 'No •rule is so imperative to .profitable poultry keeping, and none is so constantly .neglected by all except /the skilled, breeders, who know it too welT,ever'tb heglect.it. We have repeatedly been shown hens of very uncertain age, except that they wei;e [ certainly over seven years, running ■- a narrow but ornamental goal at the bottom of a garden ; and their fair owners wondered they, did not lay ! Their laying was done, except for a stray egg once a month or so, just to keep up the sweet memories of the past, and awaken hopes never to be realized. For fowls to be profitable, they must be regularly killed at moulting time, when two and a-half years old. Of course, if they are- pets, it is hard to kill them, and the female members of the family especially will protest. That is another matter. A hen may be kept to be petted just as lawfully as a canary ; , but the object then in view should be borne in mind, and nothing more in the shape of profit expected from one than from the other.