POULTRY NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1933, Page 20 (Supplement)

POULTRY NOTES

PRODUCTION OF AN EGG.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS. (By Geo. H. Ambler.) ' The completed egg is a marvellous production. When you have been preparing, a fowl for cooking you will have noticed there is, in the abdominal cavity of the hen, or pullet, and attached firmly to the region of the backbone, a curious bunch of glandular bodies, varying in size from a mere speck to the full size of an egg’s yolk; these you have called eggs, and perhaps regretted the killing of the bird before their production. As a matter of fact, they would be more correctly described as primitive eggs, and consist only of a thin skin, enclosing the yolk substance and the germinative dot. If, instead of “drawing” the fowl, you had more carefully dissected it you would have found that one of the internal “pipes” (the oviduct, which is nearly 2 feet in length) terminates internally just below this bunch of immature eggs in a sort of funnel-shaped opening; the other end opening externally, and being that from which the finished egg is expelled or “laid.” What happens is this.As each primitive egg reaches maturity (which happens slowly, or quickly, chiefly according to your management in feeding), the little thread connecting it with the ’ bunch snaps and it drops , into the funnel-shaped opening. It has then commenced its independent career along the /curious passage towards the outer world. During this wonderful journey it is like the rolling snowball, gathering while it goes, and increasing in bulk and importance. It acquires layers of albumen (the “white ),

some denser and some more fluid; it receives and is enclosed in additional skins or membranes; it provides a cavity between these skins at its broad end, which becomes apparent as the “air space,” when the egg condenses upon cooling; and finally it takes to itself the shell, which is composed of two layers, the inner thicker than the outer. You see, therefore, how intricate an affair is an egg and its manufacture, and you will perhaps the better realise how easily mishaps may occur during the process of production. ' The delicate machinery of the hen’s productive organs need not trouble you, provided you keep her in health arid condition; but you must remember she depends on you for the raw material used, and it must be your care to supply only such as will meet her requirements. The food must be such as will nourish her body and renew its waste, arid also give that surplus material from which yolk, albumen, shell, etc., may be evolved; avoiding on the one hand that which will “race” the mechanism, and, on the other, whatever renders the working sluggish. ADVANTAGES OF LIMITED RUNS. When egg production is the sole object in view, fowls undoubtedly do better in limited runs than when allowed the use of a free run, and especially does this apply to birds kept for the production of winter eggs. The birds that make such wonderful egg-producing records in the laying competitions are confined to limited 'runs. Wherein lies the secret of the success achieved with, laying stock kept under confined conditions? Well, the birds are under better control. They can be exercised sufficiently among scratching litter during periods of wet and cold weather to keep up bodily heat and to prevent internal fatness. The • food becomes more evenly distributed among the flock, the latter generally being smaller than that kept on free range. The conditions under which the birds are kept render work among them more comfortable for the attendant, and so less negligence in any part of the management is likely to occur. Fowls, kept on limited runs are under coritrol as they can be-fed. on properly balanced rations, or rations sufficiently balanced to ensure physical stamina, and a profitable output of eggs. The birds waste no energy in digesting a. lot of unconcentrated foods such as fowls at liberty devour. Fowls running on free range” fill their crops with a lot of useless bulk at times when drought toughens the pasture and renders the existence of insect life impossible. During hot weather, the attendant, if he studies his fowls’ comfort, supplies the birds with fresh, cool water during the day. Kept on free range, the fowls stray far afield, and rather than return to the drinking vessel when thirsty, they prefer to drink the contents of a puddle hole to the endangerment of their health. Fowls kept on limited runs are generally on better terins with the attendant than are those kept on free range. _ _ _ _ . A quiet and contented disposition in a fowl plays an important part in the production of a good number of eggs. The good layer may be the liveliest bird imaginable when working among litter, but if she has been rightly reared, she will allow herself to be handled and will run to, rather than away from her owner when called. PROFITABLE AGE FOR HENS. The age to which a hen may be kept, and still be profitable as an egg-producer, is determined by the bird. I have owned hens that were not more than three or four years old that were by no means profitable egg-producers, while others were good layers at five or six years of age. 1 especially noted a White Leghorn

hen, which laid eggs from early spring till late autumn, when she was five years old. She. did not stop laying more than a week at a time durinng that period, and much of the time she laid every day. When considering the age to which a hen is to be kept, the cost of rearing a hen up to the time she begins to lay should be considered. This cost is distributed over as many years as the hen is kept, and it is evident that with a hen kept three years the first cost will be only one-third of the hen kept only one year. Hens cannot be expected to produce eggs a whole year,without popping, and they eat the whole year round, but a grown hen does not require the careful 'attention when not laying that a young chicken does. VALUE OF WATER. Fowls should have an abundance of water, rain water will do if free from impurities. The drinking vessels must be placed out of the sun, and where the

water would be the least likely to become soiled. For fowls it is advisable to place the water vessel upon a platform about two feet from the ground, to prevent them casting dirt in to the water when scratching, or otherwise polluting it The water vessel should have upright sides, so that every part of it can be seen, and it should be large enough for the hand to pass into it with a brush, a piece of cloth, or a wisp of straw to clean it Earthenware vessels or enamelled ones are best to use. A liberal use of whitewash and lima will work wonders, but even these will prove ineffective if the droppings are allowed to accumulate for weeks. Clean the poultry-house twice a week, and give plenty of sunshine and fresh air.