POULTRY NOTES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 47, 7 February 1920, Page 2

POULTRY NOTES.

(Extract from a paper by, A. S. Skilton, Caretaker of Auckland Egg-laying Competition.)

This is an exceptionally good article, and I would advise readers to keep the clipping of it, as next week the article will be- continued. Now, eiery poultryman ought to know that cockerels do not inherit the high fecund factor in the same way as the pullets do, and the fact of these cockerels’ sisters putting up a very high record does not increase the value of her brothers ohe iota. • We must learn that male, birds inherit the high fecund factor from their mothers and the pullets from their fathers, and, therefore, .each must be valued on the record of its parent in a straight line decent, -and; not on the record of another bird of the same parentage. The price asked for these cockerels may, or may-nptj have been a reasonable figure, but they were not worth the price on ■their sister’s record. I would be bold enough to say that one cockerel-bred from this record breaking pullet is worth more than all her brothers put together to the man who is out to increase the egg-yield of his flock. You will find also that the pullets from this same mating will only respond in accordance with- - the strength of the fecund factor inherited from his mother. Therefore 1 would point out ■ that when we start to breed for egg production it is highly essential that we should know exactly the record of the male birds’ mother, and also those. of her antecedents if .possible. So far so good—poultry breeders recognise that the male bird' is half the breeding pen, so we see -that it is important that we should know exactly the pedigree of ottr male bird. It is also important that we should know the quality of the fecund factor inherited by the pens that we intend to mate.

This now brings me to a very important stage of my subject, as* having secured our male bird, bow should we proceed? This is the point where —I am sure we all make the mistake —the usual practice is to mate this male bird with one of our breeding pens (10 or a ijozen hens). We have done this same thing scores of times, and have had a ’ chance mating that has turned out above our expectations, and we are inclined to pat ourselves on the back and ■say “I knew that I would get something good,” but if we were honest to ourselves and to our fellow poultrymen we would admit that we had been disappointed a dozen times with these chance matings. These chance matings, in my opinion, are the reason why competitors jn our egg-laying -competitions are -at the top of the list one year and well down the next. We are sliding up and down; we have no definite aim, no set rule or method of . mating, and, therefore, no certainty of quality. ,