EGG PRODUCTION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21244, 14 January 1939, Page 13

EGG PRODUCTION

MOST PROFITABLE BRANCH OF POULTRY KEEPING THE GROWING PULLETS Egg production is the most profitable branch of poultry keeping. The object of the poultry-farmer should be to get most of his pullets into production in early April. With that in mind, he should be looking over his growing pullets frequently. On the most of the good poultry farms the pullets are developing well. They are picking up health' and strength and an abundance of other good things. Tire something that the pullet gets when she is foraging on free range, or among a patch of greenstuff, does her the world of good. It is under these conditions that she gets something that the pullet in confined quarters cannot and does not get. The pullet that has a good run round the free range area or a well-grassed run for several months will always be the better-conditioned layer than the one that has been confined in bare yards for a similar period. Pullets should be so hatched, so reared, and so cared for that they will be in full production during the high-priced period of the year—April to July, inclusive—really the Winter months of the year. With that thought always being considered, now is the first good culling time for the pullets. When they are running on free range their good and bad points are more easily noticed than is the case when they are running on restricted areas; further, there is little or no necessity to handle them. The pullet that does not come up to a good standard of apparent productive ability while she is maturing should be discarded early because she will not reach that eventual stage of profit-earning ability. Every poultry-keeper will be well advised to stand among his maturing and growing pullets fairly frequently, and make a careful study of their movements. Look for the pullet of good smart, active appearance—one that moves about quickly with a sprightly walk; in other words, the pullet that is constantly on the move and eager to pick up that extra bit of something that will assist her in building up her body, and will provide the possibilities for fast and regular egg production. She will be the worker. She is so vastly different from the sluggard type of pullet, the overgrown, heavy class of bird, slow in movement, coarse In body, legs, and head, and invariably idle. She, as well as the undersized, lagging, fine-headed, and fine-boned pullet, should be culled. A percentage of these undesirables is in every flock, and they should be culled early—they never pay. Proper sanitation does wonders in disease control with poultry. Sanitary measures, however, represent but half the battle tactics. Inherited constitutional vigour in the birds, plus the right kind of feed, is Just as important. A practical poultry-keeper .and nutrition authority is responsible for saying that if each farm flock-owner would keep a bale of leafy lucerne hay in each farm hen-house the increased stamina of the poultry would eliminate most of the diseases prevalent to-day among poultry. . This is a startling statement, showing one of the things the poultrykeeper can do to keep his poultry flock in a vigorous condition so that the birds may more readily overcome disease infestations.