THE POULTRY KEEPER

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14770, 8 October 1921, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE POULTRY KEEPER

SELECTING THE BEST LAYERS. There are three classes of birds in most poultrykecpers’ yards! (1) Tiifi bird that converts tier food into eggs; (2) the specSmcnt that turns it into meat; and (3) the wastrel that gives nothing—neither meat not' eggs—for what she consumes. Ready use is found for the first two of these three classes, the high layer being sought after by the commercial egg producer; the second by poultry fatteners, but the third is the class which quickly reduces the profitableness of a flock and acts as some foundation for the oft-heard cry that poultry does not pay. Consequently, every - wide-awake poultryman—and he Is the only one that can succeed —is ever on the lookout. for the wastrel fowl. He will not keep her on the place any longer than he can help. Further than this the commercial egg farmer will cull out from his flock any birds which, instead of converting their food into eggs turn it into meat. These hens he fattens for a few days, and disposes of. The correct time for thoroughly culling the flock is at the end of the laying period—about February or March. However, if the maximum amount of profit is to be made from poultry a watchful eye should be kept right throughout the year for those members of the flock, which are laying poorly. It would require columns to detail all the points to be looked for in a high producer. The most common indications or a good layer are, however, the possession of a clean, smartlooking, rather smallish head, containing bright prominent eyes, and wearing a finely textured comb of good standard size. There should be entire absence of overhanging eyebrows, the whole head of the high producer giving an aiir of distinctive smartness as opposed to the sluggish air of the poor layer. By cxamining\ the carcase of a hen anyone can, after a little experience, form an opinion as to whether the bird 'is a good egg producer or not. In a good layer the breastbone is short, and the ample space, occasioned by this shortness, between the end of the breastbone and the point of the pelvic bones is occupied by a spacious abdomen which is full, and soft to the touch. A hard, leathery abdomen denotes that the bird is a poor producer. There are many simpler indications serving as guides for the selection of the profitable birds, amongst which may be mentioned the tendency to be first off the perch in the morning, and Inst on in the evening.. The desirable birds will invariable be found perching nearest the door. A hen, always busy, ever on the look-out for food, is the one to keep, and these characteristics, combined with docility and a singing habit, all go to make up the utility man’s perfect hen. THE POULTRY INDUSTRY. AS SEEN IN CALIFORNIA. To a large and Interested audience of poultry-keepers at Palmerston North last week, a well-known southern poultryman, described the conditions under which the egg-growers of America worked and the results they obtained. Last year, with the express object of studying the poultry industry of California, the speaker visited that district, which also carries the title of the World’s Egg Basket, and without doubt, he said, more eggs were produced in Petaluma, a district about 40 miles from San Francisco, surrounded by the beautiful Sonoma hills, than in any other part of the world. In an area of 25 miles square there were three limes as many hens (about 6,000,000, and nearly all White Leghorns) as there were in New Zealand. He had gone to America ready to discount a good deal of what he had heard about this wonderful poultry district, but he was agreeably surprised to find that the industry was more flourishing than had been represented to him. One farm he visited carried 35,000 layers.' There were seven men employed in looking after the birds, and Hie whole were fed in an hour and ten minutes. The owner was a wonderfully capable man, and on that point tile speaker mentioned that one of the things that struck him was the great proportion of very brainy men concentrated in that area. People thought that fowl farming was an “old woman’s” Job, but they were wrong in thinking that people who had failed at everything else could ever make a success of the egg business. To be a successful poultry farmer a man must be a born organiser, have a keen commercial instinct, have a knowledge of the chemistry of food values, of biology, mechanics and a dozen other subjects that the ordinary business man knew nothing about. The men of the type he met in Petaluma were capable of running any business successfully. They needed that type in New Zealand. For 20 years the poultry industry had been established in the Dominion, and there was not one man who could boast 2000 layers, or who could qualify for registration as a poultry farmer in California. There the eggs were marketed every morning—those laid to-day were sold to-morrow, being taken to the city in motor lorries, another respect in which the local farmer could lake a leaf out of Uncle Sam’s book. Mr Morrell said that he wondered how the Americans kept such a large number of poultry without the birds getting diseased. The reason was that the soil was suitable, being a light loamy surface which drained easily while retaining the moisture in the sub-soil, which was always kept fresh by Hie filtering action of the rain. Another reason was that abundant green fod was fed to the birds, lie found that by feeding large quantities of lucerne or kale, the food bill could be reduced 25 per cent. On the larger farms lons of lucerne were cut every day, and in the winter dried lucerne meal was utilised.

Right Feeding. The Americans were not so negligent in Uic class of foods used as we were in New Zealand, There food of the best quality was mixed by machinery, turned on to a trolley, and so carried on rails to the runs. In our so-called pollard and bran, staple foods for thi! New Zealand fowl, there vas none of the nutriment needed for 1 he production of eggs. The cjfg was fuil of the best food man had ever discovered. It was richer in vitamines than any food except milk. Vel they asked I hoi i* hens to do I ho job on a diet of offal. l?y feeding pure grain and meals (he American more than made up for (he extra outlay in his egg returns. Hugo Hatcheries. The question had been asked: How did Hie Petaluma farmer raise so many pullets yearly? To his surprise the speaker never saw an incubator on any of the large farms he visited. The chickens were all raised in huge hatcbcrica, of which the Manawatu A.

] and P. Association buildings might ! hold the necessary machinery. These j hatcheries were filled with incubators, | some of the latter holding up to half j a million eggs. • A farmer deposited j »n order for ten, twenty or fifty thou- ; sand chioka, and on fbo duo day he would carry them away on a lorry to his own colony house, where a gasolene stove brooder kept the temperatore even, and there they were raised. Women usually attended to that part of the business. The cockerels were culled very early, and were forced until they were lib of IJlbin weight, : when they wore fold by weight to the j fattening depots, which kept the birds on a special milk and meal diet for a fortnight before sending them to market. In America there was always r.n unsalable demand for young poultry for the table. In six or eight weeks there was thus sufficient return from the male birds to pay for the feeding of the whole consignment for that period. One man kept a stock of 40,000 young birds, and killed 3000 a day and sold them at a price of from 2s 6d to 8s each to the restaurateurs. Everything was done on a big scale in the United States, because they said that the hen was a great bird and a great money producer. It was of no use starting a poultry' business there with less than £OOOO, although it was a common opinion that £250 was sufficient to set up a man in the business here. He met dozens of men in the Sonoma Valley whose incomes ranged from £ISOO to £3OOO a year. There was not one of the poultry farmers who did not possess a motor car and a beautifully furnished bungalow, all because they were in the business in a proper way. By marketing every day, they were daily receiving cheques for £SO to £7O. (To be Continued.) JOTTINGS. All Dominion poultrymen should make egg production their main aim; table poultry should be but a side line. In the United States there is a continual demand, and abnormal prices are paid for young, specially-fattened chicks, but that demand does hQt exist in this country, and until it does!, poultry-keepers, by devoting their main attention to the production of the commercial egg, will be best repaid. Mr George H. Ambler has again (for the fourth successive year) received an invitation to judge the Rhode Island Red Club Show (fancy and utility classes) to be held in conjunction with the Palmerston North Show next June.

The poultry farmers of Petaluma, California, held more Liberty Bonds than any other district of the same area in the United States, declared a New - Zealander who has ..returned from a visit to America.

The egg market in Wanganui is now lower than it has been for some considerable time. Sfme retailers are still paying Is 6d to customers, but the general price is Is 4d. Many poultry breeders are not sending eggs to market at present, preferring to preserve them until the price firms.

Teach the chickens to roost when they are about three months old. Have the perches near the . floor—roosts made of battens about two inches wide, and set rather low off the floor. The largest and strongest chicks will first commence using the perch, while the feebler and weaker ones stay, around the brooder. That is .their chance to thrive. Fowls must not be overfed. They should only have what they will eat up clean. The dry feeding method, however, allows food to be constantly before the stock in hoppers. cates of this method claim that fowls will not overfeed when dry material is constantly before them, fqr they eat of it only by degrees, takirig with it draughts of water to wash down the food . This should be allowed only with dry mash, and not with whole grain. In the latter case the amount should bo limited to handful for each fowl in Hie pen—and scattered among the litter, so as to induce exercise.

Eggs are composed of lime (says an exchange), which goes to make the shell; albumen, which is the white; and fat and mineral salt, which are founded in the yolk. We can furnish Hie lime by giving our hens oyster shells,'ground bone, or even raw limestone, in the form of grit. For the albumen, we must look to oats, barley, oil meal, milk, meat and other substances. For material for Hie yolk, we will feed maize and other fattening foods. All feeds contain a portion of Hie material that goes lo make both white and yolk, but some are richer in one, some in another. Every grain contains some lime, but not enough lo furnish shell material for a large number of eggs.