POULTRY SCARCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 26 October 1937, Page 9

POULTRY SCARCE

CHRISTMAS SUPPLIES HIGH PRICES INDICATED Poultry for Christmas will be so, scarce this year that already dealers are refusing to accept orders, anci high prices will bo commanded by the comparatively few birds that will be available, states the Auckland Herald. Cockerels and turkeys require to be killed and chilled months in advance for the Christmas market, at a time when they are carrying bloom condition, and suitable birds are difficult to obtain. High wheat prices have made poul-try-keeping an unprofitable business for the small producer, on whom the market depends for stocks. Increased overhead costs, apart from feeding birds, are said to have been responsible for causing such producers to turn to other means of livelihood, with serious results on poultry supplies. Large breeders concentrate on egg production for export. Destruction of Chickens The general adoption in Auckland, as well as in Christchurch and Dunedin, of the Japanese science of determining the sex of chicks at a day old, is another theory for the shortage, as advanced by Mr. A. E. Knowles, president of the New Zealand Poultry Board. He explained that, whereas previously breeders had to raise chicks for some time before the sex could be discovered, practically all the cockerels that used to be marketed after this period were now destroyed within a few hours of their birth. One breeder who set 20,000 eggs this year destroyed half that number when they proved to be cockerels. Previously, they would have been delivered for sale after some months. Extent of Increase Hens are obtainable in satisfactory numbers, but for chilling purposes they are not regarded as being as suitable as cockerels. One of the largest Auckland poultry retailers said on Friday that he was not aware where he could obtain sufficient supplies of cockerels at present, and he would be willing to buy unlimited numbers at anything up to 10s each weighing around 51b to 61b. The average bird now available weighed about 41b and only exceptional ones were above that weight. Poultry prices last Christmas averaged 2s per lb, and the present rate is 2s 3d, which means that birds birds weighing up to 61b sell to 13s 6d. However, indications point to higher prices for Christmas stocks. Turkeys realised to about 35s each last year, and the present shortage will increase their value to about £2. Even boiling fowls to-day are selling up to 7s each, twice the price obtained a year ago.