POULTRY NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 176, 26 June 1926, Page 11

POULTRY NOTES

(By “Brooder.”) “The question as to whether a hen, having laid for two years, has nearly exhausted her supply must be answered in the negative, as she has by no means done so. As improved methods of management and feeding take place, it is not a wild speculation to think that the useful eoonomic life of the hen may be doubled usually, and put at four years.” So says Will Hooley in the Poultry World. The big drain on every resources is the fact that each year half the stock must be replaced by pullets in order to maintain a vigorous flook of laying birds. It would mean a big difference in profit per bird realised if those birds’ period of profitable laying could be extended to four years. The same writer is quite right when he states that such birds would be particularly welcome to chicken rearers, who lose three chickens for every pullet they rear. Not a few poultrymen are waiting to know how to produce the bird with stamina enough to stand four seasons of continued excessiye laying, however, and unfortunately few have the means or time to test individual birds for so long a period. But scientific research continues to affirm that the potential eggs are there in the ovary of our present-day birds, and it only requires the right treatment to make on present values one bird equal to two so far as cost of rearing is concerned. A correspondent to a poultry journal some months ago argued in favour of retaining laying stock for a third season, and stated his case as follows: “A bird that lays 200 eggs in its first year will probablv lay 168 eggs in the second and 140 in the third year. A loss of 28 eggs at IJd each in the third year comes to 3s 6d. But as there is no 3s to take off for rearing, the three-vear-old only makes 6d less profit than the two-vear-old, and there is not the extra labour involved in having to replaco birds every two instead of three years. Then, again, a better price can always bo obtained for the three-year-qld for table purposes. At this age they put on fat more easily and bring a better price than the two-year-old.” It is quite evident, therefore, that there are many reasons why we should prolong The life of the laying fowl. Exception has been taken to remarks in last week’s notes regarding the White Leghorns exhibited at the show. It was not intended that they should mean that this particular class was inferior in any way. The winners, as the judges agreed, were fine specimens, and better birds would be hard to find anywhere in the North Island at the present time.