HOW TO KEEP POULTRY WITH PROFIT.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 801, 30 June 1865, Page 4

HOW TO KEEP POULTRY WITH PROFIT.

(From the Australasian.)

Calculations are easily made to show a large profit on the keeping of hens; but, however correct in figures and promising on paper, these are seldom realised. The hens will only lay when everybody's hens are laying, and eggs are scarcely worth carryingto market; or, from overcrowding or want of cleanliness they die, and thus, in the most effectual manner, disappoint the owner's expectations. A certain small percentage is always allowed for casualties, but when fowls once begin to die from the effects of overcrowding, they are likely to continue to do so until one-tenth of the original number is left. Such attempts to make money by keeping poultry are usually the result of very good returns having been obtained from a very few hens, but it never follows that a multiplication of these by, say ten, eventuates in ten times as many eggs being laid, even though ten times the quantity of food is given them each day. In fact, it niav be set down as a rule, that as the hens are"increased beyond a very limited number, the proportion of eggs from each will fall off. Housekeepers, on the other hand, who have not had experience of this fact, often wonder how it is that they get as many eggs from twenty hens as they did before from forty, if they accidentally make this reduction; but the reason is, that over a certain range there is only insect food or grass, or whatever the indispensable article may be, to keep the smaller number up to their full laying powers, and a subdivision of this amongst a greater number will give

no more eggs. If it were easy to get hundreds of hens to do in this way what tens will do in a limited space, eggs would not be half-a-crown a dozen in the winter time; but it is not, and until we can discover some easier mode than is at present known of controverting the laws of nature bearing on this subject, there must be abundance at one season of the year and scarcity at another.

This has been done most effectually in the large establishments near Paris, planned and built expressly for this purpose, where we are told that the hens lay on an average 300 eggs each in the year. And very possibly they may, for they are converted into mere egg-producing machines, getting little besides animal food in one form, to be converted into another, as the cows in some of the large town dairies are fed principally on grains and brewers-wash, and even the broth of dead animals, mixed with bran enough to induce them to take it. In both cases the object is the same —namely, to tax the system as little as possible in the production of the article intended for sale. Now, the milk of towns does not differ greatly in its component parts from a mixture of weak broth and brewers' wash, therefore, the cows so fed produce largely of it, as hens fed principally on meat do of eggs. In thsse French establishments the flesh of horses alone is used, because this can be had for absolutely less than nothing. So complete is the system, that the cost of killing the horses and preparing the flesh is more than covered by the sale of the skins and bones and such other parts as can be converted into marketable commodities. The flesh is chopped, and seasoned with salt and pepper, as if for sausages, and the hens are given as much of this as they can eat with an appetite, but only just enough grain and vegetable matter to keep them from becoming actually diseased. Thus the egg-making apparatus in each is always kept going at high pressure, converting the juices of the horseflesh into eggs; and the system is so saturated and surcharged, as it were, with animal matter, that there is enough to spare for new feathers at moulting time, with little or no stoppage, and the hens, being constantly on the verge of fever, are seldom inclined to sit. Such large numbers can only be kept in a confined area by the greatest attention to cleanliness, and the yards and houses are swept every day, the manure alone forming a considerable item in the returns. Then in regard to the insect pests, which suck so much of the life blood of most fowls, these are absolutely excluded ! both from the fowls and the buildings, for the former are all reared from chickens hatched by steam, and steam mothers do not breed either pidieuli or acari. Taking all parts of this French system into consideration, it is no wonder that similar, or by any means proportionate, results are not to be otherwise obtained. In the first place the vast difference in the nature of the food supplied would prevent thia. Meat and the juices of meat are easily converted into eggs, with, of course, the addition of lime and grain enough to supply the constituents not to be found in meat alone; while the constitution .of a hen is seriously taxed'to convert grain and vegetable matter into eggs. Then, in the former case the meat is given in full quantity, enough, or more than enough, every clay for one egg ; while a hen could not eat enough grain and vegetable matter in two, or perhaps three days, to furnish materials for the animal matter in each egg she lays. Thus it happens, that except in spring aud summer, when insects of every kind are abundant, a hen fed in the ordinary way can only lay more frequently at the expense of her own strength, and cannot continue to do so for many weeks together. And at moulting time it takes all the animal matter she can extract from her food to supply a steady growth of new feathers; so grain-fed fowls have none at this time to spare for eg»s. And if not well fed too, as long as the moulting lasts, their constitutions will be so weakened as to have nothing to spare for this purpose for some months afterwards, while flesh-fed fowls have at all times enough animcal matter to meet the demand for either feathers or eggs, or even both together, without any drain on their constitutions. We sometimes hear of fowls, either scantily fed or allowed to forage entirely for themselves, which lay an extraordinary number of eggs, but it is simply impossible that this can be done without a proportionate consumption of food, for alien's stomach is ouly a natural laboratory for converting one sort of food into another, and cannot make eggs out of nothing. It is the same with all animals, the only difference between those which are well and those which are badly bred being, that the former convert their food principally into delicate flesh, or whatever we prize most highly in each, while coarse-bred animals waste too much of this on bone and offal. Some fowls are better layers than others, merely because they have a greater tendency to convert their food into eggs than into fat or flesh; but no breed of fowls can make or put an atom of either without a due proportion of food, over and above what is required to keep them warm. In the large French establishments all the fancy breeds most noted as layers have been tried, but ordinary fowls, of medium size and no particular breed, are found to give the greatest number of eggs in proportion to the food they eat, and therefore to be the most profitable as egg producing machines under the high pressure system. They are the hardiest and- can stand it the best; but the eggs so obtained are as inferior to those ,of a country-fed fowl, as is the milk of a swill-fed cow to that of an animal kept in a rich meadow. As to the returns to be expected under ordinary circumstances, these will, of course, vary widely, but they are usually over estimated. It is an exceedingly good hen that will lay 200 eggs in the year, and if the truth must be told, not a bad one that lays 100. A lot of hardy Hamburghs, with a good range, may average 150 eggs each, but no other pure breed will do this, except as an exceptional case. The Polands are good layers while the weather is warm, and so are the Spanish for three or four months of the year, but neither is to be depended on for a large average. The Cochins and Brahma Poutras lay best of all in winter, if well fed, but they are great eaters in proportion to the weight of eggs they lay, and are so often broody that the number laid in the year is seldom large. The Dorking and Game are

about equal in this respect, and do not lay so many as the non-sitters, excepting perhaps the Spanish; and the eggs of the last variety are mostly bo large that the hens are exhausted early in the season, unless grasshoppers are very plentiful, or they have otherwise an unusual proportion of animal food. Such things will, of course, always affect the results; but we believe that the average of eggs from poultry yards, either in town or country, is oftener under than over 100 in the year. The kind of grain given makes some difference; and maize, which is so commonly used here, is not favorable to an increase in this way, causing the production of fat rather than of eggs. Wheat is the best, but is now too dear, and the screenings sold as such generally contain so much drake as to be actually injurious. Barley is the next best, weight for weight, and those who have to purchase ought to give it the preference at present rates. Very dainty fowls will, perhaps, refuse it at first, unless boiled, but not for more than a day or two; and this grain will cause them to lay sooner than either maize or oats. Eice is of little value for this purpose—scarcely worth purchasing, unless very cheap, for it contains little nutriment in proportion to its weight. Fowls are, however, omnivorous, and in confinement should have a frequent change of food to keep them in health ; but those who expect many eggs must remember that these are not to be had except in exchange for a liberal supply of egg-making material, wherever this comes from, any more than fire is to be had without a proportionate amount of fuel. __^_____