POULTRY YARD

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1931, Page 24 (Supplement)

POULTRY YARD

BY iiiifji mi 11 ii it l

G. H. AMBLER

A QUESTION OF FAMILY. Tn the present day of any thing being possible, of old-established ideas being shattered, and wondrous new inventions almost revolutionary in principle being adopted, one is in a more favourable frame of mind to accept the thought of a 300-egg hen. She has ceased to be a seven-day wonder, but is not as easily obtained or as widely scattered as we are at times led to believe. ■When one visits a present day poultry show and notices the perfection in type, colour and size; the variation in breed characteristics that have been adopted; the fads that have been carried forward until finally fixed and transmitted; and sees the plastic w a Y In which a fowl submits to the whims of man, it can be more easily' understood how the present fowl can be accepted as a descendant of the Gallus Bankiva or Jungle Fowl of India, This was a small bird, about the size of a Leghorn, and greatly resembled the present day single comb Brown Leghorn. Through the wonders of the laws of breeding and adapting themselves to such laws it has been possible to. perfect the present hundreds of varieties that we have and to increase production from 15 or 20 eggs a year to the present 364 egg official record bird. DILIGENCE AND TENACITY. It was not through hit-or-miss methods, which are so commonly followed now with most farm flocks, but through diligent study of the individual and tenacity of purpose that such a thing was made possible. In spite of the hue and cry that goes up against .the present day fancier because of his attention to fine feathers, without regard to production, he is entitled to a vote of praise for the foundation he lias laid and the perfection he has attained.. If the modern breeders of production birds are equally successful, the future of poultry breeding is assured. Mendel has stated that “like begets like,” but a truer interpretation of that is “like tends to beget like.” When one mates the Barred Rock male to a Barred Rock female, it is reasonably certain that the progeny will be barredIf one mates two prize winners there is no assurance that the offspring will be as good as either of the parents. In heredity, or the transmission of characters to the offspring, there is no fixed rule. Although Leghorns and Brahmas may be hatched from eggs of equal size, the law of heredity will manifest itself when growth starts in the extreme difference in size.

There is a difference also in egg production, ■ for most hens will produce eggs, but there is a great variation in the number. One individual may produce 300 while another will lay only 50. Variation is the law that explains differences. No two will be exactly alike, and it is the success of the breeder in fixing these differences, either in type, colour or egg production that will determine his future White Wyandottes are “sports” from Silver Wya.iido.ttes and appear in flocks even at this time. The character was fixed and the present White Wyandotte resulted from the appearance of that “sport.”

IMPROVING THE AVERAGE.

It is the unusual bird that offers the greatest opportunity. Although the drag of the race will still persist, and tends to hold back the the mating of 200-egg males and females will improve the average and lower the number of poor producers. A purebred in poultry is one that conforms to the standard that has been set. If the fowl complies in colour, type, comb and other characteristics, he is accepted as a purebred regardless of what his ancestry may have been. A broader acceptance of the same law is that a purebred is one that transmits the desired characters to his offspring with reasonable certainty. This is the plan on which the dairy business is partially established, in that records are necessary for entrance into the register of merits. A similar plan for cow testing records was established, and the same was possible with poultry. Prepotency is the final test for the acceptance of a male. This is his ability to stamp the valuable characteristics on his offspring. In a purebred male this is possible to a greater degree than with grades. No two will be alike in that respect, but the chances of success are greater than with progeny from chance matings. In-breeding in poultry differs to some extent from other livestock. as only brother-sister matings are avoided. Vigour, the foundation of any successful breeding work, is so rapidly depleted that satisfactory progress cann«t be made in that way. The advisable method is the establishment of strains of a sire to daughters and dam to son mating, and the introduction of new blood, when needed, from the same strain 'but a different line. BREEDING ASSUMPTIONS. At one time the statement that egg production or fecundity was a sex limited character was accepted. In other words it was thought that a male transmitted this character to his daughter's, but that a hen could not. Low production was inherited from either parent. More recent work has not proved this statement and one must give proper consideration to both sides of the pedigree for best results. There are certain males that stand out as pre-eminent in their ability to transmit the desired character.

There is also a vast difference in the profit to be derived from a hen that is a consistently profitable producer, and one that is just a seven-day wonder. Even more emphasis should be placed on the second and third year records than on the first. The first year tells what a hen may <l°, but the following years demonstrate her breeding value. MASS SELECTION. - At about the same time that the question of inheritance of fecundity was under - consideration some work was also in progress along the line of improvement 'by mass or flock breed-

in<r. In this line it was decided that one could not make any progress by this system of breeding. Investigational work is proposed with the primary idea in mind of ascertaining the truth and blasting any preconceived ideas that may be held. As a result of this effort one can feel assured that pen breeding is worth while and that results will be obtained if the work is properly followed. At the same time one must remember that all of the poorer individuals will not be eliminated. Instead of breeding being a levelling process by which all are placed on a par, it is a series of improvements. Some work has proved that when the breeding started with a flock divided into two groups, one of which had a 60-egg average and the other 160, at the end of a stated time the poorest would be up to 160 while the best made 260. The difference in possible production still persisted, even though the average of each had been raised.