THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 18927, 28 April 1923, Page 11

THE POULTRY RUN

Poultrymen cannot but be interested in distinguishing between such eggs as may be expected to become female or male chicks when hatched. All the pretensions to distinguish such eggs made by persons known to the writer have proved false, but we now have a statement on the authority of a great French savant that selection can be made. If the breeds are pure, and, of course, well nourished, the eggs will be regular as to weight. He cites two wellknown breeds as .to this point, namely the Houdan and Le Bresse, 55 grams for the former, and 60 grams for the latter. “The sexes can be separated by the simple process 'of weighing. The heavy eggs are males, and the lig|it ones females.” In the mixed breeds the method is not so reliable according to this authority quoted. Most of us select a good all-round shaped egg, not too pointed or long, but do we not as a rule choose them on the large side, while avoiding what we think may be a doubleyoked one.

After the young pullets have commenced to lay, and if they have already been confined to their winter scratching shed, they should have special feeding and enough to satisfy them. lam often, asked (says “Moorfowl” in the Waikato Times) what quantities of soft food and hard grain should be given to laying pullets, but so much depends upon the breed and size of the birds, that it is impossible to give a hard-and-fast rule. It is not a difficult matter to keep observation for a day or two, and it can soon be found out about how much soft food to mix. When the pullets first commence to lay, they should have all the food that they can eat readily, but as soon as they begin to pick it over they have had enough.

There is a difference of opinion among poultry-keepers as to whether the 4oft feed should be given in the morning or evening. I have always advocated giving the soft feed in the morning, but this necessitates either getting up very early or keeping the birds waiting while the food is being prepared. I cannnt certainly agree with some writers that soft food is preferable to hard grain as a last feed before going to roost. I have always found that the birds do better on the grain; neither have I found that they need water during the night to help digest it, although they should always have a supply of water, as early as possible in the morning. By giving the soft food at midday during the time the birds are in full lay and a small feed of grain both morning and at night, they will always be satisfied, and have sufficient nourishment on which to draw for the making of eggs. An ounce of wheat or oats per bird as early as possible in the morning will keep the birds busy and satisfied until they get their soft food a little later in the day. This food should be well prepared, and should consist of 4 parts good middlings, 1 part bean, 1 part maize meal and 1} part fish or meat meal. This is a good sound economical feed, and with it should be mixed a good quantity of cooked vegetables although potatoes, if given at all, shou’d be given sparingly. Do not forget, also the fresh green stuff, the flint grit, and oyster shell, all of which are essntial to the production of eggs. The evening meal of corn will be similar to that of the morning, with the addition of a little cracked ma ; ze in the cold weather.

A question that often puzzles the experienced man —let alone the beginner —to answer is how to manage the full-grown cockerels that are at this time of the year shooting up all over the poultry yard. Most people know that if you take away a strapping young bird from his brethren, even for 24 hours, there is likely to be trouble when he is returned to the run. One cannot afford to risk torn wattles or a damaged foot in the show birds, and so, when a bird goes away to show or for any other purpose, the question must be decided on his return as to where he is to go. I confess it is one that has often puzzled me, and, of course, the larger the farm and the stock, the more complicated the matter becomes. One way of solving it is by providing a large number of cockerel boxes, one for each male; another is to have divisions of corrugated iron or match-boarding running along between each pen if the cockerels are housed in small runs in the open; while, if there is no other way out, and he must be put back in the same run, the following rather drastic treatment is very often successful. Should ; the cockerel you are returning to his forI mer companions show fight, take a light I switch cut from the hedge and run him j about for two or three minutes, giving him repeated gentle cuts (not very hard, of I course) across the stern with the switch ; whenever you can get one in; he will soon cry “peccavi,” and will have settled down | peacefully again in his old quarters by the ! time he has got his “cockiness” aback; there • is no need for any cruelty or disfigurement ; in this process. i UTILITY GAINS GROUND IN U.S.A. i At a recent meeting of the American j Poultry Association, 40 members were api pointed as a sub-committee to consider the ’standards with regard to their bearing on | utility. Some of these men are commercial I egg-farmers, who require that their hens be i efficient animated egg-machines, and it j should be the business of breeders to design ; and produce such machines, says the Ain- : erican Poultry Journal. The breedin.; of our improved breeds is not merely a booby or pastime, like breeding canaries or rabb’U, : or growing flowers. Poultry raising is a ! great industry. It is an industry that is sound in every way. Poultry breeds occupy ' the same position to the industry as nurserymen do to the fruit industry. The business of the breeder is to supply seed I stock of improved types that will strengthen’ , and reinforce the flocks of the industry. In ! the past standards have been written round 1 the opinions of breeders and judges at the j top of the fancy. The time has come in the i utility breeds, such as White Leghorns, I when the people who use the birds for the I production of eggs for human consumption . should have a voice in dictating the design I of the machine. As these men at the botI tom of the fancy begin to specify their requirements definitely, and give good and i sufficient reasons for their demands, they j can confidently expect that types will be I modified, so that the highest type of stand- ‘ ard-bred birds will be what they want, and what will meet their needs. There is almost an unlimited field for business in the breeding of efficient animals. And a very limited field for faddists. NEW BLOOD WANTED. The following, written by Mr George A. Palmer, appeared in a recent issue of The Farmer and Stockbreeder:—“Most of our purebred poultry in this country are interallied, and an infusion of new blood of the same breeds and from other countries would do good. We also have to consider the law of race decay; indeed, it seems as if the law of birth, maturity, decay and death were as true of worlds and nations as it is of individuals. With slow-breeding stock, such as cows which only produce one calf a year, the amount of crossing must always be limited, or there would not be enough females for pure breeding. This is not so with poultry. One can have, say, a pen of ten White leghorns for pure breedI ing, a house of fifty White Leghorns with | three males for crossing, and easily 500 pullets a year for laying. Adi mitting that nature inbreeds considerably, although it makes wonderful efforts to | avoid it, yet there is no argument that close j breeding is correct in domesticated stock. In a wild state, hardships kill off the weak- ; lings, males fight, and only the fittest sur--1 vivo. In domesticated stock, our selection is neither so rigid nor so accurate. Few human beings are absolutely sound and flawless. More of one family or strain are likely to have a common defect. If so, in-ter-breeding intensifies that defect. With unrelated stock the weaknesses would not in all probability be the same and the evil not so apparent. It is open for some to say that the progeny would have two weaknesses instead of one. Yes, but they would be two that could be borne and not one that would kill. Nature is doing her best all the time to extirpate bodily weakness. In close breeding we give her no chance. If we could be sure

that our poultry were perfect in every organ, and had, moreover, that mysterious resisting power to disease which we express by the word “vitality”—then to breed between highly fecund related birds would be the surest way to increase fertility. There are many strains of vigorous purebred birds in this country, but there are also many that are not, and the numbers of the latter seem to increase. 1 have received many letters in my time from those who have bought eggs for setting or dayold chicks, and have found in these a heavy mortality, whilst on the same foods and management their own tsock all reared. They buve been unlucky enough to drop across weakly strains. I breed pure fowls, and always shall so long as I can continue to rear 98 per cent, of those over a week old. There is, however, a great deal to be said in favour of first crosses, and those who find much difficulty in rearing—which is the surest test of vitality—will do well to give crosses a trial.”