THE POULTRY RUN.

Waipa Post, Volume VII, Issue 336, 31 July 1914, Page 5

THE POULTRY RUN.

CHINA HENS AND THEIR 4-OTJNCE EGGS

China has long been known as a gi’eat egg producing country. Its liens seem to hold the world’s record for the great size of the eggs which they lay. It is nothing unusual for the hardy hens, which are common to southern Manchuria, to lay eggs that average from five to seven to the pound. In other parts of China, eggs weighing over four ounces each are produced at frequent intervals by an ordinary hen of no particular breed fed on corn and kept in a confined enclosure. This fowl is a black lien..

She lays an egg weighing four ounces or moro at least every third day for about a week or ten days, when there conies an interval of two or three days when no eggs are laid. On the days when four-ounce eggs are not laid she lays eggs averaging six to the pound. Their shells are brown with a circle of almost black spots near one end.

AVliat those Chinese liens could do if fed and cared for scientifically can only be guessed. The Chinese understand very little about the poultry business and give their hens no care and attention. They are left to forage for themselves, and no suitable houses are provided to protect them from the temperature, which frequently falls to zero and occasionally to ten or twenty degrees below. One Chinese farmer living near Autueng has begun giving his hens scientific attention and they are producing eggs which weigh in all cases nearly four ounces and quite frequently a trifle over that amount. It has been suggested that the size of European eggs might be greatly improved by the introduction and careful breeding of some of these Chinese fowls. Foreigners in China object to the flavour of the eggs found there, but this trouble is undoubtedly due solely to the fact that the hens are not given any care and have to eat whatever they can find.

THE MALE BIRD AND SIZE OF. EGG.

The question as to whether the presence of the cock bird with the hens affects the laying is frequently asked, and the reply given by most poultry papers is that the lions lay better with him cut of the pen.

The big scares that have been made in the egg laying competitions have been got by liens that had no cock bird with them, so that it may be regarded as proved that the hens do better without him.

The reason is not far to seek. It is that a gallant cock bird —if he isn’t gallant he has no right tc be with the hens—is always on the move, crowing and worrying tlie hens, and I think 1 am safe in saying that, as a general thing, the hens will lay 10 per cent, better when the male bird isn’t there to worry them.

Lately, however, another question has. been agitating my brainbox. It is this—Does the male, bird have any effect on the size of tlie eggs? I have a dozen hens of the same strain, six of which had a cook bird with them, and six were run by themselves. Those that had the rooster with them laid the biggest eggs. Why, I don’t know; wish I did. The facb that the hens were of the same straiin proves nothing, for breeding goes hack further than the parents. The birds can, and do, throw back to far off ancestors, and it may have been that I happened to get the six liens that laid the biggest eggs with the rooster, although I don’t think I did, because the odds, against such a thing happening abo greatly against it being done. It is an interesting subject. Perhaps sgiiie of the keen and observant poultrykeepers will be able to say something about the matter. /

THE RIJNNEJif DUCK.

7 In the duck woi-ld diet Indian runner is what tjjfc white 7Leghorn is in the lien world/ It is on i;op as a layer. This breed duck is vory adaptable, and can kept in small enclosures nithout/upsetting the general health and condition. The suburban backyarder could keep a dozen Runners, liayb fresh eggs every day, and make a/good thing out of the salo of surplus production, as a good strain of these ducks will lay a prodigious number of

eggs. The eggs are white shelled, and rather bigger than liens’ eggs. It is said that they are equal to hens’ eggs for cooking purposes; but I don’t think the pastrycooks will agree with this statement. The tremble with ducks in small backyards is the difficulty of keeping them clean.. ai\d free of sloppy ground and odours. Hut the Runners only require drinkinjr water., and if it is supplied in a ves; lei that only gives access to the head, a large amount of sloppy condition can he prevented. Frequent removal to fr< jsh ground , and the spading over of the old patch, likewise materially help in J die directioi l of preserving dry oondit ions, and the suburban man who has a fairly largo available space in his backyard could do well with a dozen Runners., For small premises, -they cannot he i'©commended, owing to the impossibil. i'.ty of preventing insanitary conditions from being set up.

Give the birds a generous meal l late in the afternoi on. They have t< > get through a long, night, and want £ >lenty of food to hoc - p up their system. This remark applie s especially to the cold, winter weathejr, when there is a 4 peat demand on tl ie food in order to m 'attain the bodi Jy beat and condition. 1 _