POULTRY POINTERS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3248, 19 January 1926, Page 5

POULTRY POINTERS

THE CAUSE OF STRONG FLAVOURS. AND HOW TO AVOID THEM. I have often purchased eggs, both from shops and private individuals, for edible purposes, and upon breaking open the top portion of the shell my nostrils have been assailed with peculiar odours. Upon thinking of this aroma one naturally asks “What is the cause?” Well, there a»e several causes which I will try and point out. The foods given to hens which are laying naturally affect the flavour of the eggs, and, this being so, We ought to see that the feeding stuffs they consume ore of such a nature as to ensure the egg being pure. First of all we should consider that eggs arc an article of food for human beings, and. being very light, strengthening. and easy of digestion, they are regularly recommended by doctorts to their patients. If a sick person happens to secure an egg which is of strong flavour, he or she is sure to revolt, and as a result eggs are ‘scorned for a time, and it taxes the nursing staff's ingenuity to discover a substitute.

I have been told by consumers of duck’s eggs that as a general rule they taste strong, and if such were not the case they would eat more of them. I find that eggs are s influenced by their surroundings, a good deal of of this strong flavour has been acquired by this means. Personally, I observe that duck’s eggs are as sweet as a fowl’s egg when the ducks are kept in a clean, healthy manner. Ducks eggs eat or taste strong because of the neglect or ignorance of the owners of the birds, and our farmers are the greatest offenders in this respect

Ducks are kept in stables and barns and sleep there. Not being fitted by nature to grasp a perch, they very naturally require bedding very quickly. They do not like hens; they rarely lay in a nest but drop their eggs where they lie, and what is result?

The eggs are covered with filth, and the shells, being porous, absorb it Hence the strong odour of the contents.

To obviate this, collect all duck’s eggs daily and wash them. •- . Oftimes the housewife, in preparing the household food, has to use onions as a means of flavouring certain dishes. She generally chops up the waste portion for the poultry stock and theerby utilises it for the fowls daily menu. Onions being of a very strong odour, should not be given to laying birds, except in very minute quantities. Onions have a strong and decided influence in imparting their odours to the egg, and nothing is more nauseous than an egg with an onion flavour. Eggs that are placed in wire frames in shop windows next to onions or any other goods that are of strong smell, have the faculty of absorbing the odour of the said goods.