POULTRY NOTES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20057, 14 March 1935, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES

(By Alex. Peat.) How to Cure Undesirable Traits The following extracts are from an article written by Dr A. L. Hagendoorn; Solsterberg, Holland. The well-known Dutch poultry geneticist for the “Feathered World.” One of the greatest difficulties poultry breeders have to contend with is the continual cropping up of undesirable traits in their birds. If we examine a number of these cases we almost always find that they are due to a genetic impurity in the breeding stock. This becomes clear when we take the trouble to keep the chicks separate from all the hens. If we do this we find that some matings give no chicks with the undesirable trait, whereas other matings will give approximately one faulty specimen in every four. One of the most marked cases, and one which I will for this reason use as an example is the recurrence of single combed birds in rose combed strains. Every breeder of Wyandottes knows how his strain is tree from aberrant specimens for a number of years, and how all at once they throw the unexpected single-combed chicks. As the Wyandotte is a commercial breed it often happens that a breeder will ask my help to get rid of this difficulty. Other examples are white in the plumage of dark coloured breeds, down on the shanks cross beaks etc. The problem for a large scaled breeder of Wyandottes can be stated in two different ways. He may want to rid his strain of birds of the undesirable trait once and for all. or he 1 can proceed in such a way that none of his customers will ever have singlecombed chicks from the eggs he sells. Why Singlecombs Occur The latter is comparatively easy. Once we realise that the trouble arises from the genetic impurity of the breeding stock we know the remedy. It means that some of the birds are heterozygous (impure) for a genetic factor, while rosecombed birds should have more than singlecombed ones. And singlecombed aberrant chicks can only be born from the mating of two birds which are both impure. This means that it is sufficient to see to it that we use only homozygous, pure males, because if we do we need not bother about the purity of the hens. Now the trouble is that whereas some males will give singlecombed chicks if they are impure, some will not do so. Everything depends upon the purity or impurity of the hens. Scrapping those males which have given singlecombed chicks (or chicks with down on the shanks or something similar) is insufficient. There is a very simple way of testing a male for purity—namely a test mating. When we breed a male to females that lack the factor for which we want to test the male, his purity or impurity will be apparent at once. Helping a Wyandotte Breeder A case in point will best illustrate my meaning. A breeder came to me with the problem that every once in a while his complained that some of the chickens hatched from his Wyandotte eggs were singlecombed. I asked him how many breeding males he needed in the coming season and he needed ten. The time was September (March N.Z.) I asked him if he owned fifteen good looking young males of good pedigree. He had many more. I now gave him the following advice: —He would have to mate each one of those males as soon as possible to a Leghorn or a Sussex or any other singlecombed hen and he would have to hatch her eggs. In about sixteen or twenty days he would have to open those eggs to note the shape of the comb in the embryos. When he did this he found that eleven out of the fifteen males tested gave nothing but rosecombed chicks. All he had to do was to scrsp those four males and use only the tested homzygous males to head his pens in the following spring. That season none of his customers had a singlecombed chick.

The late autumn is a good time to test young males for purity it is easy to get good fertility then, but there is no reason whatever why breeders should not give their male-: a preliminary test in Jan. of Feb. (Jupe or July) just before using them in their breeding operations. Ridding a strain of poultry once and for all of such undesirable faults is quite a difficult proposition because it generally means testing females as well as males. It can be done, but I have never recommended it to poetical breeders, as it entails a nenormous amount of work and organisation. How to Test a Male for Faults The most common use of testmating is the testing of males for purity in respect to one or two notable inherited faults. This method entails the use of hens to test the males with. In the case of such a difference as that between single and rasecomb, this can be done, because we have singlecombed breeds to use for this purpose. If, however we want to get rid of such faults as cross beaks or downy shanks, we would have to reserve a few hens especially for the purpose of testing our cockerels for purity. It can be done, but the breeder must think of it a season in advance.

A different method of testing, which has certain very great advantages is the testing of males by mating them to their daughters. This method is of the very greatest use especially for exhibitors. The principle underlying the method is this. If a male happens to be impure for a desirable factor half his daughter will also be impure. For this reason if we mate a cock to half a dozen daughters any hidden impurity will be shown by the offspring. This method was invented by my Norwegian colleague. Wried, to be used in horses and cattle. It can be adjusted to poultry, although it is not so well suited to them because of the relatively short life of the male fowl. A breeder who wants to try it should test a number of males by mating them to their own daughters. By the time those daughters have offspring old enough to be judged their grandfather may be past his prime, and useless for breeding purposes But this does not matter if we select his offspring for breeding purposes and reject even the good individuals from fathers who, by the use of this method, showed themselves to be impure in valuable points, we rapidly progress in the right direction. Waste motor oil is excellent to destroy tifcks and it naturally follows that it would be thoroughly effective when applied to dropping boards and perches for preventing lice infestation. Apply when putting up and at intervals afterwards as required. It is a general rule in poultry breeding that the son transmits the characteristics of the mother and the daughter that of the father. Use tho cockerel from the big-egg hen in preference to using a pullet from her. You will breed in the big egg quicker \n this way. Also rather breed from a cockerel and two or three year old hens than from a two or three year old cock bird and pullets.