CHICKS AND EGGS IN DEMAND.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 1 October 1927, Page 6

CHICKS AND EGGS IN DEMAND.

POULTRY INDUSTRY BUSY.

the height of the season

Local poultrynien all report record business and demand tor their product this year and a Chronicle representative who visited some of the local farms was interested and surprised at the ‘- extent and activity of this phase of the poultry industry. Chicks and eggs from Levin go to alb parts of the Dominion and the output of local incubators has a good name wherever it goes. A typical fowl-ranch is that of Mr. H. Legef, of the Settlement, a breeder whose name has been before the public for many years. When the pressman called, he had just over 2000 eggs in the incubators, in which the lamps are not extinguished between June and November. The period of incubation is 21 days, and as soon as one batch of chickens is taken out, it is replaced by another setting of eggs. The eggs are turned each day, and an ingenious contrivance has now been adopted which greatly facilitates the operation. The day-old chickens are consigned in cardboard'boxes, in which they travel long distances safely, whether by rail or steamer, Mr. Lcger was probably the first breeder in the Dominion to send out young chickens on commercial lines, and he looks forward to the day when the Government will make the arrangement more convenient for all concerned by allowing the birds to be forwarded by post, a practice which has been followed since IWB in the United States, where the number so transported has reached 130 million in a year. Through the quality of these young birds, which are hatched from eggs selected according to the laying records of the hens, Mr. Lcger has developed a business which takes up the greater part of his time during the winter and spring months. The success of artificial hatching is now thoroughly established, as is shown by the fact that his losses do not amount to more than six or seven chickens in a year. All the fowls and chickens on" the property are White Leghorns, and the stock is reinforced from time to time by importations of high-class cockerels. Quite a large number of chicks are being reared to the pullet stage, and between the ages of three and a-half and five weeks they show by their combs whether they, are males or females.

The grown fowls have spacious runs, where they develop naturally, and a uniform type of the breed is evident throughout the farm. There are many pnize-winners and representatives of record-making families amo'njg them, such as roosters from strains in which the hen has laid 314 eggs in a year; also a hen which was one of the trio that won the Mt. Albert (Auckland) egg-laying competition in 1925. Particular attention is paid to the feeding of the fowls, the grain ration being supplemented by lucerne, green oats and silver beet. Poultry-men nowadays find that they have not time to cultivate grain crops for their fowls, but that it pays them to grow sufficient greenstuff to balance the diet. Feeding and breeding are the two main requisites in successful poultryfarming, and the evidences of these conditions are plainly to be seen in the healthy and active condition of Mr Leger’s flocks and their records at the competitions. Poultry-farming on a big scale is to be seen on the property of Mr G. Webb, whose business has grown very rapidly this year, showing that there is a boom in the industry and also that he has been ready- to take advantage of it in the right way, by meeting the demand quickly and building-up his resources at the same time.

Mr Webb’s farm, which is at the comer of Kawiu ami Bartholomew Roads, is naturally suited to the rearing of fowls, as plenty of shelter is afforded by the tall trees on it, while the drainage is good. The houses, both for chickens and grown birds, are scientifically arranged. They have had small beginnings, but have been added to year by year till, with their runs, they till up the best part of an acre. One of the most interesting places on the ranch, and where much work is carried out every day, is the brooder-house, wherein are 17 pens, with runs, accommodating over 2000 chickens up to two months old. Each run is separated from the next by wire netting, and transfers of chicks from one pen to another are regularly carried out, until they reach the last run, from which they gain access to a yard where older birds are kept. At one end. of this, building is a boiler heated by a coke oven, and from it a steam pipe runs through all the brooder pens, keeping them at an equable temperature. Three breeds are being raised —White leghorns, Black Orpingtons, and Light Sussex. The last-named are a utility breed which Mr Webb is handling for the third season and which have taken the place of White Rocks on his place; they are shapely birds, with white bodies, pencilled necks and wings, and black tail-feathers. At present the demand for them greatly exceeds the number available but a bigger flock will be built up and from time to time invigorated with imported 'blood. The incubators and brooders have been in constant use during the past winter, and over 6000 chickens have been sent away from the farm.

The laying birds, which number between 1200 and 1300, are housed in structures with a high stud, giving plenty of air, and flanked by commodious yards, where many of the birds were to be seen in the afternoon picking amongst the green fodder which is, chaffed for them. The principal por. tion of the pullets’ diet is plain wheat, verv little maize being used. Mash is also fed to the laying birds. In order to cope with the growth in numbers of the flock, Mr Webb will And it necessary to extend the laying houses by 70 feet in the approaching season. All the appointments in these buildings are excellent, as there are longitudinal troughs for water and mash, and shell-grit is always available in convenient receptacles. _ For this season’s egg-laying competitions at Auckland Mr Webb had not bred a special team, but picked out four birds more or less at random. These are now ninth on the list of competitors, and last week they laid 20 eggs out of the possible 28. The source of all this production, of

course, is the incubator house, where no fewer than 11 machines have been in operation this year. Hatching is on the decline now, but at the beginning of this week there were still over 4000 eggs on the trays, in various stages of incubation. Some of them in the process of breaking were seen by a Chronele reporter; and an electric torch revealed many damp little chickens with heads and necks out, evidently very tired and dazed after their struggles to escape from their tiny prisons. The plant consists of eight large incubators and three smaller ones, and when they were being used at their maximum capacity 5300 eggs had to be watched, turned and changed—no small task. Mr Webb’s business has grown very rapidly this year, so that he has been using four more incubators than ho did last season, and from July to the beginning of this week hc ; had sold about 7000 day-old chicks. The birds hatched are of the three breeds mentioned above, for which there is a constant demand. Hatchings occur almost every day, and therefore there is not an idle moment on the farm, as the new chicks have to be transferred to the brooders and the trays filled with fresh batches of selected eggs. Chickens have been despatched to many parts of the North Island, oven as far away as the Thames district, 300 miles distant, where a customer found the little birds to arrive in perfect condition, apparently as strong as Avhon they were consigned at Levin.