POULTRY NOTES

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1926, Page 9

POULTRY NOTES

(By E J. TERRY.)

WHY DOES A FOWL LAY? I am going to admit at once that I cannot myself answer the question thoroughly as I would like to do. The more one goes into research work as regards egg production the more one is impressed with the wonderful provision of Nature, especially in the direction ! of that which sterns Nature's outstanding law —reproduction.

Man has improved upon Nature, oe apparently so, as, for instance, with the modern dairy but the improvement is as nothing to what has been done with the modern laying hen. Yet with all oar success and research work, one only realises how little we really know. Some time ago at a farmers' meeting who were at the time discussing the advisibility of paying for the distruction of certain wild birds' .eggs, a gentleman, mentioned that he had paid some attenI tion to the habits of these birds when nesting, and that a blackbird in the ordinary way laid five eggs and then sat upon the eggs, but if the eggs were removed the bird would lay a further number of eggs. By remvoing ■ the eggs, he had known a blackbird to lay 23 eggs before sitting. It is well known to those who keep game birds, such as pheasants, in captivity, 'that the number of eggs hi id is greatly increased above what would be the case if the bird were in its wild state and under natural conditions. A pheasant will seldom lay more than seventeen eggs in its Wild state, yet, if it is penned, apid the eggs removed daily, it will lay sixty or more. The same remarks apply to the so-called wild Mallard duck in Great (Britain, which in many eases are reared for the first few weeks of their lives on farms, and then liberated. i

A very striking illustration of this trait is the common mutton bird. Whilst I was an officer of the Tasmanian Government I was deputed to inquire into tho mutton bird industry and its, value to the natives on tho islands in the Bass Straits. The mutton bird makes a burrow of about 15 or 18 inches deep, and there is never more than one egg in a burrow. The bird during each season lays only one egg—that is, when she is allowed to sit and hatch it out —but if that egg is removed she will lay another one. Remove the second egg, and a third is laid. Now, just think of the wonderful provision of Nature. The bird lays an egg, and then it is twelve months before it lays another one, but by simply stealing that egg the bird is induced to produce another egg in a few days. Steal that one, and there is still another —say, three years' egg production is accomplished in two weeks.

• In the ease of the- mutton bird there are sufficient constituents for the formation of at least three "eggs stored in the tissue, blood and frame of her body. In the case of game which is domesticated, or farmed, the increased production is helped by increased feeding, or by feeding food of a richer and a more concentrated nature. But this fact also remains: that the dominating factor is the inclination to lay eggs. Either birds do not think to a certain extent, or they have a. sense which we do not possess, for the bird may be in its first season, and has never sat on a clutch of eggs. If we take the common mongrel farmyard fowl, as it is sometimes termed, and she lays astray; in other words, makes her own nest she seldom lays more than fifteen or seventeen eggs before sitting, but if one removes the eggs s' probably lays three times that number before becoming broody. The same remarks apply to a turkey hen. Remove her eggs, and she will invariably lay double tho number that appears to be natural. There is very little doubt that the removal of eggs and the breaking off of broodiness, together with heavy feeding, have been responsible for non-broodiness and increased egg production in certain breeds, amd it has now become a stamped habit. But we must remember that the trait can be continued only over an extended period by proper feeding. It is highly probable that every time we allow a bird to *sit, unless it has laid a very large number of eggs, in which case the sitting, together with feeding, does recuperate, we are checking the building up of heavy egg-laying strains.

SEXAPHONE. J A correspondent who lias been reading an American poultry paper asks if I think it advisable for him to procure a sexaphone, an instrument whieli will tell you whether the eggs are fertile or not, also if they will produce pullets or cockerels. My answer is "No." The instrument in question has been tested and found wanting. The principle is that a steel or other metal bullet or ball is suspended at the end of a very thin chain or cord. If it is held over load it is supposed to cither swing in circles or straight Tines to denote the sex of the embryo contained in the egg. Unfortunately for the instrument, I and others tested it somo few years back, and we found it would swing both ways for the one egg. If you take any- small heavy substance, put it on a few inches of threaTl or very fine chain, holding it lightly between the finger and thumb, and think it is going to move, you will get a similar result. At one time the vendors went so far as to claim that they could tell what was originally the sex of a piece of leather by this liistru-

incut. When we tested our instrument it certainly gave us some wonderful information. It gave us the sex of apples, oranges, cricket balls, and a piece of stono, in fact anything it was held over. If the least movement was given to the hand, it would either rotate or swing straight. Furthermore, it seems as if the vendors have not studied biology, as a chick, or rather an embryo chick, in the first six days of incubation is neither male nor female. So you will see it is an utter impossibility to determine the sex of an egg as it might be before it was placed in the incubator, or under a lien, at which period would be its commercial value. Evidently someone is reviving the boom. Don't waste your money. , Anyone who could pick out eggs which would hatch pullets should die a millionaire. Ho would draw any salary he would 'like to ask at the big egg plants in the United States. The most probable law governing sex is that when the conditions are hard, and what might bo termed to a certain extent dangerous, there will be more males. Make the conditions easy, pleasant and safe, and there will be more females. History has shown us that this has been so in .the past. Pioneers who had to suffer hardship and battle with natives or wild animals invariably had a higher percentage of male children born to them than with similar peoples situated in safer environment. Countries recover their balance in the same way with the reaction after a great war. If you mate up a pen of birds there will invariably be a larger percentage of males in the early hatching than in the later one, when the pen has settled down, as it migEt be, to quiet domestic conditions. POULTEY NOTES. (To the Editor.) Sir _May I inquire from your own or other poultry experts as to the feeding of .mash in the morning to a yard of a few hens. The mash is made of j pollard and bran —say, half of each—mixed with milk to make it damp] enough, also putting in a very small quantity of table scraps. I find that' the hens do not seem to relish the mash. They eat some at first, and peck at it during the day, but they do not clean up tho 'dish as ducks would, and I am wondering if there be anything wrong with the mash. Sometimes 1 put in a pinch of crushed raw lime and a pinch of sulphur. The feeding tin is kept sweet and clean. ,At evening the feed is wheat scattered in the straw bedding, and nearly every day a. bunch of watercress or thistles is given. The hens are healthy, and lay fairly well. —I am, etc., LEGHOEN. j