FERTILITY OF EGGS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1726, 29 March 1905, Page 68 (Supplement)

FERTILITY OF EGGS

Infertility and lack of vitality in the egg germ, especially the latter, is the greatest of present-day poultry problems. The West Virginia Experimental Station has been investigat ng this matter. In the spring of 1300 about 5 per cent, of the eggs produced by the fowls of the station wore infertile; of the fertile eggs onlj r about 65 per cent, would hatch, and the chickens produced from them wore not strong and vigorous. The eggs w ere laid principally by pullets that had been used during the winter in var.ous experiments concerning egg-production. The fowls had been kept in flocks of 20 in laying houses, and had been fed quite heavily on a well-balanced ration. Whole grain was scattered in the litter in the houses at night, and in addition to the exercise of scratching for their grain, each flock was allowod a run of 15ft wide by 100 ft long. The hens and cocks were apparently vigorous, and numerous eggs were obtained, but they would not hatch, well. The experiments began on March 11th, when a flock of white Leghorn fowls was selected by means of which to study the influence of unrestricted range upon the hatching power of eggs. One-half of the flock was allowed to remain undisturbed in the house and yard to which it as accustomed, while the remainder of the flock was permitted to run at large. Both lots of fowls were fed the same grain ration; but it w r as observed that the fow r ls running at large did not consume so much food as did those confined, which was probably due to the larger number of bugs and worms they w r ere able to find. Both lots of fowls received ground fresh meat and bone, and those confined had an abundance of green food. About six weeks after the experiment began, eggs were collected from each lot of fowls, marked, placed in the same incubator, and hatched side by side. Note the result:—Of the eggs laid by hens that had free range. 8.5 per cent, were taken out on the seventh day, leaving 91.5 per cent, fertile eggs. Of these 83 per cent, hatched. Of the eggs laid by the hens in confinement. 24.4 per cent, were thrown ont on the seventh day on account of being infertile, leaving 75.6 per cent, of the eggs. Of these 67.5 per cent, hatched. The tests, therefore, showed that about three times as many of the eggs laid by the confined hens were infertile as of the hens that had free range, and that the ferule eggs from the confined hens did not hatch so well as in the case of the eggs from fowls, having free range. Of the eggs first placed in incubators, 76 per cent, laid by hens having free range hatched, and only 51 per cent, of the eggs laid by confined liens hatched.