SCRATCHINGS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8331, 17 January 1913, Page 2

SCRATCHINGS

At the auction sale of guaranteed eg„s in Christchurch on January 7th the prices realised were as follows: i'arstgrade lion eggs, Is to Is idj eccondgradc hen eggs, to Is j duck eggs. Is to Is id; all at per dozen. You can take good stock and raise it, oven under bad conditions, but you can t take bad stock, and raise it, under good conditions. The fact is, you. can't do anything with bad stock anywhere.

■When a lion begins. to drop soft-shells it is usually a sign that she is too fat; that is. if she has plenty of shell-form-ing material available.- tlho can J t make eggs without tho material, but if that is in full supply, and sof(shells are laid, the reason usually is that the hen. is too fat.

Egg circles are economic reforms jnet in their infancy. Time will show many improvements, improvements wo can but dimly foresee as yet; but would you wait for the millennium before you participated in present benefits, great or small as the case may be? Half a. loaf is better than no loaf, and we need all to crawl before wo can walk. Messrs Don Stewart, of iNonnanby, and W. C. Davis, of Napier, are extending their poultry plants this year by tho addition of commodious covered runs for the accommodation of next year’s layers. The Sydney "Daily Telegraph” publishes what is claimed to ba a world's egg-laying record. Sis Indian llunner ducks engaged in the current Hawkesbury competition laid 1202 eggs for the eight and a half months expiring on December 16th of last year. The paper adds that the first egg was laid on April 12th and the total eggs laid during the 218 days that the compotilion had been in progress shows the classic average ot over 200 eggs per duck, a performance that has never been equalled by fowls or ducks in a public test in any part of the world.