POULTRY INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19676, 30 June 1927, Page 16

POULTRY INDUSTRY.

THE SIZE OF EGGS. SOME GOVERNING FACTORS. HIGH YIELDING BREEDS. 1!Y C..H. The most striking, and probably the jnost important development that has appeared simultaneously with the success secured in connection with highly fecund -ni-!s of poultry is the diminutive egg. In striving for quantity, bulk has been somew hat overlooked, and it is a feature ■which affects the market value of the egg, and has a fuhire significance of no small degree.

To the credit of the common barn-door fowl, be it said, its produce was always pleasing to the eye, and though she may have failed lamentably in numbers, she gained some of what she thereby lost in the market attractiveness of her eggs, •which were usually brown in colour and of goodly proportions. This, of course, was her one redeeming feature, because her efforts were made so intermittently that her labours were invariably of an unprofitable character.

The most popular of the highly fecund breeds of fowls at present in cultivation are, of course, white leghorns and black orpingtons, and these are the breeds that show most pronounced success, as a rule, in the competitions. They have, too, been so written up and .-advertised, and have proved so prolific when tested under all conditions, that farmers of all types, including those who keep fowls merely for the convenience of their milk and butter customers, are now employing them extensively, and the common oldfashioned speckled hen has been gradually displaced in the farmyard by its purebred sisters, the leghorn and orpington. The leghorn, in particular, may be seen in abundance in every country district, and it \s probably the most popular fowl in existence at the present moment. Some strains of prolific leghorns produce quite a saleable egg, and the breed generally is not a very pronounced defaulter in this respect-. • • Abmy of- the black orpington eggs are tiny, and breeders would be .wise, it' fl'iey wish to' maintain (lie popularity of the breed, in concentrating their efforts for a time in trying to remedy this feature. Numbers are certainly important, but a copper or two on every dozen new-laid eggs, which an attractive ahape and bulk mean, makes a difference in the balancing of accounts at the veur end. Egg-selling Methods. In the fact that eggs are sold by numbers instead of weight, egg-producers liave always laboured under a handicap. Every egg, whether great or small, is a day's effort, and the large egg, costing more in food as it must do, to produce, should not be sold at the same price as the smaller commodity. Obviously, sale bv •»weight is the fairest both to consumer and producer. I his subject has, of course, been discussed until it is almost threadbare; and we seem as far off effecting a change as ever. The present price of feeding-stuffs revives the idea, since it costs much more to feed stock than it did a few years ago. We select our foods with extreme care, or, at least, we ought to do, when feeding, to stimulate production, and recognising that practically the whole of the solid constituents of the egg are albuminous, we must supply food containing a goodly proportion of nitrogen or albumen oids if we are to have profitable results. As a rule, food rich in albuminoids is the roost expensive. Ihe big egg, then, means more food consumed by the individual hen, and, to be just to the producer, it should be worth a correspondingly higher price in the market This could be fairly or accurately adjusted only by the scales.

Until there is some change in our custom and method of marketing eggs, I fear, since we are human, and in common influenced by economic stimulus, those of us engaged upon the cultivation of higher fecund strains will not receive due encouragement to work so strenuously for posterity, and quantity rather than size will continue to guide us in out efforts Advantages of Shows.

When visiting shows it is a pleasure to meet r.ien who keep poultry because thev have a love for the feathered family, and are able to distinguish a good bird from an indifferent one. The poultry show is the place for fanciers to meet and compare notes, and much information may be obtained from one another. Many a young fancier can obtain valuable information by taking part and listening to the criticisms of the old hands. It is to the interest of the fancy, if thf judge and the older breeders co-operate with the beginner. The boys especially should be encouraged, because if they get started right they will make the "future exhibitors. I always like to sec the boy fancier in a show, because he is keen to learn all he can, and it is the duty of the older hands to answer the questions that bo may ask. ev.cn if they sometimes seem to be foolish, because that is the Way he will learn. Classes should be added at all shows for boys, and those that, fail to win should lie shown why they failed. A few words of advice will mean much to them, and perhaps start them on the right track. Very often boys are discouraged at the start because someone foolishly tells them their birds are no good, and that they should have their necks wrung. To one just starting, this is very disheartening, and the bov gives up in disgust. Poultry shows are. an education and have probably done more to build up the poultry industry than laying competitions. Dozens of poultry-keepers in New" Zealand owe their beginning to visiting a poultry show and going away with " hen fever." The show room is in reality a poultry school, and if so considered will do much to benefit the breeding of purebred poultry and assist the growing poultry I industry: Common Colds in Poultry. A fowl has but to sleep in a draught to get a common cold, and yet from the latter many serious ailments arise—roup, for instance. Shortage of perching room, or badly arranged perches, which cause some of the bens to roost on the drop-board up in the corner of the house, may start a cold. Boosting in the nestboxes will have an equally bad effect in the present kind of weather. A visit to the roost each evening is well worth the trouble, and then the birds in the nest boxes can be placed on the perches. If the perch room is short, be sure and remedy it. A common cold may fust show itself by a watery eve or nostril. Such a bird should be isolated at once.