POULTRY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1061, 30 June 1892, Page 7

POULTRY.

DOES THE HEN LAY OR NOTP W. Cook, the English poultry expert, writes : —On the occasion of a visit to Garstang a short time ago, I said iu the course of my lectures thero, that 1 would give particulars about the laying qualities of bens, and if any of tlis audience would bring me a bird I would tell him whether it was or was not a good layer. During a later visit rather an amusing incident occurred. One young fellow fetched in a hen to the audience and ask d me to say whether it wa-i a good or bad layer. It happened to be a black Plymouth Rock, about tw > years or more old. I took the hen in my hands and told the young man it was neither a good nor bad layer. He said I was wrong, for the hen bad never laid an egg. I appealed to the audience and said I would not believe it, unless he allowed the bird to be killed for post-mortem examination. He consented, and when I opened the hen she was full of eggs. I took one out of her having a full-sized yolk, and there were many more in her, and at the time she was in full lay. This can usually be seen

by' examining the oviducL The next morning I heard a peculiar Story about this hen. It appears that she used to run with the neighbour’s fowls and lav her egg 3, and she had been seen to do this for two years.