SELECTING BIRDS LIKELY TO BE GOOD LAYERS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2314, 5 December 1925, Page 13

SELECTING BIRDS LIKELY TO BE GOOD LAYERS

Pullets from which selection Is to be made should not he less than six months old. According to Mr. Hadlington, the New South Wales poultry expert, the head of a bird gives the best visible indication of its laying capacity. It should indicate activity and alertness. Any coarseness In race and comb, particularly if accompanied by a thick skull and heavy, eye? brows, is a sure indication of an in" different layer. It would be of immense value to poultry-keepers to possess a knowledge of selection, which would enable them to weed out the unprofitable 'actors in their business and thus reduce their feed bills without materially reducing the egg yield. Shell Grit For Poultry. Shell grit is one of the absolute essentials in fowl feed, for hens cannot keep up egg production and continue to make shell from their rood and chance pickings. The poultry should have the grit daily without Intermission, for without it the hens soon slacken off in their laying.. The best way is to keep a dish filled with grit always in the yard. Then the kind of grit is important. Some breeders give crushed up quartz or ironstone, which is no value to the bird at all, and it is a mistake to give them burnt lime. The grit Is needed for the purpose of supplying sliellmaking material. Either sea shell or oyster shell, crushed to a suitable size, will answer the purpose, and the nest formula is one-third of oyster shell to two-thirds of sea shell.