THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume VI, Issue 5, 15 May 1913, Page 537

THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.

F. C. BROWN.

June is a slack month in the poultry year. ‘ Pullets hatched at the right time should be now all at the top of their laying-form, but the second-year birds, though perhaps looking well and apparently in a laying-condition, will.not. in most cases commence their second laying season till July. As a natural consequence egg-values may . then be expected to decline. The fact that - the supply increases all over the country in the months of July and August is an indication either that the . bulk of the laying-birds are old stock, or that the pullets have not been hatched at the right time or to the best advantage. The threeand four-year-old bird will never prove a profitable layer, any more than will the late-hatched pullet. Both are unsatisfactory stock, not only from the viewpoint of egg-production, but from a disease-resisting standpoint. It. is unnecessary to here emphasize the'mistake, of keeping fowls beyond their second laying season ; that they will never lay sufficiently well in their third season to show a decent profit over cost of 'production has been emphasized times out of number. After the second season a bird will only produce her . eggs during the natural season, and thus not only provide a comparatively small number of eggs, ' but will give these when the cheapest markets rule. .

Late-hatched stock are unprofitable, because in the first place the needful robustness is seldom or never secured, and thus the percentage of birds which must be culled is unduly high. They are also more subject to adverse conditions than the bird bred at the right time. It stands to reason that, hatched in the warm weather and coming on to the colder months before maturity is reached, the highly organized eggtype of pullet is called upon to face conditions which. put too severe a strain on her, especially if she is not protected in every way from extremes of weather. I have of' late had many inquiries with regard to colds, roup, &c., .and in practically every case have been able to trace the cause to late hatching and absence of the special care demanded to enable such birds to combat those influences of nature antagonistic to satisfactory development they have been called upon to face. . ■ : . . . ■ c

I have repeatedly emphasized the fact that there is no satisfactory cure for well-developed disease in poultry stock. Prevention is the one thing to aim at; and the first. thing to -see to in this connection is that the bird'has the necessary constitution to ward off-disease should this unfortunately appear., In hatching stock late in the season disease is therefore openly invited.

Inbreeding. While no great advance has ever been made in the improvement of type in domestic stock without inbreeding of the selected foundation animals, there are serious dangers following on. the train of this method of fixing type, especially if the inbreeding is followed out without a definite method and aim. The danger is especially great with poultry, as there are very, very few breeders who know exactly the sire and darn of their breeding - pens. They may probably know the male parent, but seldom, or never know the mother. We have yet to . realize the . great importance of studying the individual,. be it . cock, or hen — having definite knowledge of pedigree of performance, knowing the exact relationship of the birds we mate, and thereby have some guarantee that the type we are aiming at will be secured. Unless we work on exact principles inbreeding will not only prove a delusion and a ■snare, but it will probably bring about a deterioration in the stock which- will prove disastrous. I have seen - birds which have been injudiciously inbred badly affected with vermin and a palpable prey to the first trouble that happens along, while in an adjoining pen were unrelated birds which were absolutely free of pests and as healthy , and vigorous as one could desire. Again, when disease makes its appearance, especially tuberculosis, it will be found that the weak bird—weak because too closely inbred—will be a highly susceptible. subject. To sum up ■ the inbreeding problem, it should only be practised by those working on correct principles, who know just what they are doing, and who realize the paramount importance of maintaining constitution. To inbreed in a haphazard manner, as too. many do, is simply to court failure and disappointment.

More than half the troubles being experienced are the' result .of inbreeding, not the inbreeding deliberately done with stock of which the true history .is known, but that regrettable inbreeding arising from a- want of - knowledge of the stock being handled. This, ignorance of the breeding-birds is too often not the fault of. the breeder, but more the result of many of the small army of specialist breeders who, either designedly or unknowingly, do not possess an accurate knowledge of the strains with which they are working. For instance, I often receive requests for cockerels of a certain breed “to mate with hens of Mr. B—’s strain.” As Mr. B——- has only Government stock, the inquirer is practically asking, in. all innocence, for a related bird: We cannot know too much about the pedigree of the birds we desire to breed from. . Unfortunately, the life of the domestic fowl is too short to * warrant the compilation of stud - books, and the ' purchaser must perforce , depend on a breeder’s ’word as to a. bird’s breeding. This naturally tends to loose breeding methods, and thereby renders it a most difficult matter to place poultry-breeding on that sound foundation

so essential to the best results. Of course, judicious inbreeding is one of the chief secrets of • success in advancing type, but it is a pitfail to the inexperienced, and even to the keen enthusiast is fraught with danger in the absence of the exact knowledge necessary to its successful application. Some Difficulties. ' . In asking for information in regard to several details of management, a subscriber raises some points of such general interest that it may prove instructive if I deal with them in this column. Is it better to keep fowls in small flocks shut up in small runs, or large flocks on free range ? is an old problem. Confinement too restricted is not good for any bird, and having a free range a small flock will do much better than in confinement, provided, of course, that where winter eggs are desired the birds have comfortable quarters and good scratching-accommodation in which they can shelter in cold and unfavourable weather. Of course, a small flock will always give a relatively better profit than a large one —indeed, it will generally be found that the greater the number of birds run together the lower will be the average return. The , use of a male bird is unnecessary unless the eggs are required for hatching purposes.

As to the desirability of providing grit as well as oyster-shells, some breeds will certainly do well on sea-shells alone. As a preventive of liver-troubles, however, sharp gravel grit is always advisable, and in the case of some of the heavier breeds it is essential.

There, is no best-balanced ration. The most satisfactory results are obtained where a hen is allowed to balance its own ration, especially where the birds arc of varying laying-capacity. Green stuff cannot be oversupplied, providing, of course, the birds are fed a sufficiency of other materialsa good warm mash in the morning (two parts pollard to one of bran) mixed with skim-milk or meat soup, boiled meat at midday (as much as the birds will readily eat up), and grain at night.

Providing the birds are of a heavy-laying strain, give them as much food as they can consume at each meal. No definite amount can be stipulated as to the daily supply for a flock of birds, as their appetities vary much according to the season, the weather, and the laying-con-dition of the birds.

To secure winter eggs the object should be to breed birds at such a time and manage them in such a way that they will not go into a moult during the pullet stage. To get winter layers to commence in the month of April, light birds should be hatched at the end of September, • and the heavier birds a month earlier. Of course, some strains . mature earlier than others, and this should be allowed for.

As a general rule, a White Leghorn commences to lay at six months old, and the heavier breeds at from seven to eight months. To force to maturity is always a mistake. . ■ The Breeding-pen. Another correspondent wants to know if it would be a safe course to put three roosters with forty hens in a breeding-pen. This method would be productive of satisfactory results if, providing a good range were provided and the management were sound, all the hens were of the one type. Then, nature’s .selection being at work, good vigorous stock would probably result. If, however, there be any variation in the type of the hens the results would be very uneven, and only a percentage of the - progeny would be up to the desired standard. Mating birds demands great care on the part of the breeder. It is not always possible to bring birds together which will nick with each other, but the breeder can certainly bring about some improvement in type in the process of mating by using a female which is strong where the male is weak, or vice versa.' Such safe methods of eliminating weaknesses and strengthening desired characters cannot be left to nature. They can be controlled by human will; and, indeed, the remarkable development of all our races of domestic stock is mainly due to man’s interference with nature to the extent of selecting the animals he mates to secure a given ideal. Say you have a cock bird which is built just after your conception of what you require, but he is a little on the leggy side. He may be the best bird you ever owned but for this weakness. Would you not select hens to mate with him which are all low set, rather than putting leggy birds to him and • thereby exaggerating what should be minimized ? Few of the types which will have any influence in raising the standard are to be found even in the best flock in the country, and therefore the very greatest care should be taken in selecting the breeding-pens. It is a much safer policy to have too few birds in the breeding-pens than too many. *■. ‘ \ This Year’s Stock of the Poultry Plants. It is gratifying to be able to report, that the young stock of this season on the poultry plants of the Department is of a very good standard. The progeny of the utility birds imported from Australia last year are particularly attractive. Certainly all the birds are not everything that could be desired, but it is never possible to secure the ideal aifhed at all at once. For instance, the Black Orpingtons, of capital utility build and correct specimens of the breed, are a little more open in the feather than I would like. By next season, however, it is hoped this defect will be eliminated from the second generation by corrective matings. The White Orpingtons, while of a greatly improved

type to the old stockfrom both utility and ; breed viewpoints not that desired, ; but . difficult to attain, brilliancy ,of white in the colour of the male -birds. The stock of the White Rocks is the best of the progeny from the imported blood, b -In utility points, breed characters, and trueness of colour they are excellent; They have the absolutely true build of a Rock, not the close resemblance to the Wyandotte form which characterizes so many White Rocks in this country. The. Rock form. is absolutely distinct from that of the Wyandotte, or even the Orpington, having the oblong tapering body with the main development where it should be, quite distinct from the more blocky low-set type of the latter breeds. The White Leghorns have thrown very satisfactory stock, exhibiting splendid - utility qualities combined with good breed points, and fair size of body. It was unfortunate that the male bird of the Redfern trio failed to become properly acclimatized, which, affected fertility and limited the number of stock produced. The Minorca stock is the type of the breed I have long desired to see established on the plantsthe original utility bird, having the necessary breed characters without extreme fancy points. It resembles very much the noted strain of utility Minorcas being bred at the Ruakura Farm of Instruction.. While only females of the White Wyandotte breed were imported, these have nicked well with the Department’s strain, and the progeny is of a satisfactory standard. Unfortunately, fully 75 per cent, of the progeny of the imported birds are males.

A decided change is noticeable in the requirements of patrons of the poultry plants. Formerly birds displaying utility characters. alone were asked for ; now a bird combining both breed and utility points is desired. No doubt this gratifying view has been . largely brought about by the wise decision, of poultry-show societies to include classes for utility, stock in their exhibitions. While the Department, aims at producing stock which possesses utility characters as the first essential, it takes every care to maintain desirable breed points. Unfortunately, many people expect the ideal breed and utility types in the one animal —almost a freak in nature. The Department cannot undertake to meet this demand. Its object is to provide profitable purebred stock for the producer, and, as the highest price charged for a bird is 10s., it cannot undertake to furnish exceptional animals suitable for the show-pen.

. Owing to the greatly increased demand for sittings last year many orders could not be executed with the desired promptitude, while a good number of orders could not be fulfilled at all. In view of this fact, and in anticipation of a still greater demand this season, breedingpen's have been largely extended, and all the best forward pullets are being retained to strengthen the breeding-stock. Under the circumstances only a very, limited number of pullets will be available for. sale until the breeding-pens are finally made up. Cockerels of all breeds

can be supplied at 55., 7s. 6d., and 10s. per head, according -to selection, coops being —one, two, or three birds, 25.; every additional bird, 6d. Early application for both birds and sittings is necessary, in order to avoid delay and possible disappointment. Owing to difficulty of collecting small accounts it has been decided that the cost must accompany all orders. Line Breeding. i The value of inbreeding and the necessity %f only doing 'this on definite principles suggests the necessity of providing for readers of these notes a definite method of procedure. I cannot do better than quote Lewer Wright’s exposition of the method of line breeding devised by the. American authority J. K. Felch. This is as follows: —

Suppose the strain to originate from two individuals only, though in the case of fowls, of course, several hens or pullets might be used as one of the units. In that case, however, all should be of the same breeding.* The two original units must,, of course, be perfectly vigorous and healthy, and either unrelated or only distantly related in blood. They should always be from different yards, for it is- found that even change of ground has some effect in producing that “ different blood ” which has so much to do with avoiding constitutional disease. Taking our two original units, then, Mr. Felch’s chart shows how they may be bred so as to maintain health and vigour.

In reading this chart every dotted line means, a female i.e., a hen or pulletand every unbroken line a male. Wherever two such lines meet at a point, the circle at that point denotes the produce of the mating, bearing a number distinguishing it as a group or product; while the fraction outside the circle denotes the mixture or proportion in that product of the blood of the two original units from which is bred the strain. The first year, for instance, the original pair, produce group 2, whose blood is half-and-half of each. The second year the original female, or one of them, is bred to a cockerel from group 2, and the original male to a pullet from group 2. Thus are produced groups 3 and 4, each of which possesses three-fourths of the blood of the unit on its own side of the diagram. Here begins the real work of the breeder, since these mates now taken from group 2 must be most carefully selected to type, according to that “ course of selection ” which we have already discussed. From the very first all depends upon this, and, of course, the two original units have been chosen with equal care, so far as money and opportunity allowed. The third year a cockerel from group 3is mated with the original hen to produce group 5, and pullets from group 4 to the original male to produce group 7, all of which possess seven-eighths of the blood on their own side, and are to be rigorously selected true to type as before.

But the most noteworthy mating this year, to which would call is that of a pullet or pullets from group 3,’ with a cockerel from group 4, producing group 6. It will be seen that all the members of group 6 possess equal or half-and-half blood from the original parents, as much so as group 2. We also mate a pullet from group 5 and a cockerel from group 7, each of these owning seven-eighths of the blood of one ancestor, and we again produce in group 10 a progeny whose blood is half-and-half. ' Now, suppose we had mated brothers and sisters from group 2 to produce the half-and-half blood and age of group 6,- and brothers and sisters from these to produce similar equality of blood at the age of group 10, the result of such incestuous inbreeding would have been swift degeneracy., As it is, we have made our matings from lines characterized mainly by the original male and female, and yet preserved the same mathematically exact equality of blood in our group 10. A generation further on we can produce group 15 as shown, from groups 9 and 11 ; or we might have mated groups 8 and 12 ; or the produce of the former may be mated with that of the latter. We have thus seen how it is possible to keep up the half-and-half blood of a cross intact and exact without any loss of size, fertility, or vigour.

■ We also see plainly from this chart that by the time we have reached the stage even of group 10 we have got in our hands practically three strains ; for while group 10 possesses equal blood of both sides, group 8 has thirteen-sixteenths of the blood of the hen,' or practically represents the female line ; while group 12, in like proportion, possesses- the blood of the male line. Yet all are related sufficiently to prevent evil; and all have' gone through the same “ course of selection ” towards our own fixed type. From this point we have ample material to go on with indefinitely, and need not pursue that matter further. The bottom row of groups simply shows some of the

results in the next generation. But one point more may be illustrated. Suppose that -for some reason for special cockerel or"pullet breeding—-we want to establish also a line of sires in which predominates the blood of the original female. The chart shows a cockerel from group 5 mated with a pullet from group 3, and a cockerel from the produce in group 8 mated with a pullet from group 10. The result in group 13 gives us the same proportions of blood, but derived through a cockerel line of breeding. ;

Whenever a cross is necessary in a strain, such a chart also shows the procedure -that should be followed. The cross is treated as a new unit, and its produce remated

back to the home strain in the same way, carefully selecting for the desired type as before. This is what breeders and fanciers term “ breeding back ”, to a strain, and the philosophy of it can be clearly understood from such a diagram as that before us. Every cross thus involves more or less breeding back to the “line ” afterwards ; but this need not be carried to the extent of incestuous matings, or interfere with vigour in any degree. The out-cross is not used as immediate material, but to provide either pullets or cockerels for really breeding into the strain the following year. ’ . THINGS TO REMEMBER. Strong, healthy birds are the most difficult to catch in the run. Maize-meal, pea-meal, or maize and peas’ fed whole may be used with advantage in cold weather. The moulting bird should have an abundant supply of nourishing food. It is poor policy to neglect the heavy layer when temporarily out of action. • Get rid of all surplus cockerels. They will give a better return if marketed at five months old than at a later age. Study the cost of production. . -If the winter-egg yield has been unsatisfactory this season, now is the time to arrange matters so that winter eggs will be in abundant supply next year. Hatch good stock at the right time. One , breed is enough for most people to deal with, if the flock is to be bred and managed to the best advantage. One breed may be studied successfully, whereas two may be studied but indifferently. . Don’t adopt. new and untried methods. There are no get-rich-quick systems of poultry-keeping. Common-sense and hard work are the mainsprings of success. . -■ . ■

*lt need hardly be pointed out' that in this case the scheme may be carried out with less inbreeding at the first stages, as a cockerel might be bred back to an aunt instead of to the mother. But unless the hens dr pullets are full sisters the result will not be the same or have the same certainty.