Hints on buying Cockerels

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 21 July 1916, Page 3

Hints on buying Cockerels

BREEDING FOR UTILITY In purchasing cockerels for the breeding of utility fowls care should be taken that they emannate from stock equalling, or even surpassing in merit,the birds it is intended to mate to them. If one is in possession of females that have proved fairly good eggproducers, the cockerel bought to mate with them should be the son of a hen that has been an extra good egg-producor. Such a bird can easily be secured from anyone who specialises in pedigree-bred laying stock, and although he may cost double, or even treble, the amount of a chance bird picked up at a low price irrespective of his parentage or strain, he will prove far the cheapest in the end. THE MALE BIRD HALF THE BREEDING PEN. It has often been said that the male bird is half the breeding pen, and to a great extent this is ti-ue. He has a good or had influence upon the laying traits of his progeny, according to the good oxbad egg-producing qualities of the stock from which he emanates. Too many' novices imagine that because the hens alone are responsible for the production of eggs they alone are worthy of consideration, wlen selecting the breeders, and, therefore males of an inferior strain are secured at a low price and bred from. A more ridiculous course ooxxld not be followed. A few extra shillings expended in the purchase of a well-bred male from a tip-top laying strain will be recovered 10 times over by the extra number of eggs laid by the progeny. One need not necessarily pay a fabulous price for a good cockerel. Many people annually invest money in eggs for sitting fiom those who breed high-class laying stock, and they generally hatch oxxt more cockerels than they require for stock purposes, and they advertise the surplus birds as being of such-and-such a strain, and at prices within the reach of most poultry keepers. These are the bii-ds to negotiate for, but the same should b 8 seen before purchase is actually made to ascertain that they are strong and heal thy,and of a desirable type. The good stock cockei-el is medium in length of leg, his thighs are muscular and firm, his eye bold and bright., and his comb blood red, denoting that he has been reared on a good x-ange, and has emanated from sound stock. If he has been reax-ed in confinement he will, as likely as not, lack the good points indicated above, and he should therefore, be returned to his owner. Although it is quite possible to rear breeding males on ungrassed runs, their progeny naturally lacks that vitality so marked in the youngsters bred from a bird that has had full liberty on a good grass range during its rearing period. The latter class of cockerel should, if possible, be chosen.