POULTRY NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 132, 6 March 1940, Page 2

POULTRY NOTES

POULTRY KEEPING AS A SIDELINE There is no doubt that in certain localities, where land is available ami a suitable person has the time and a liking J'or such work, sideline poultry keeping can be made a very profitable activity. The primary essentials to the success of such a venture are suitable •Housing and the right class of stock. Housing need not be elaborate, but it must provide ample room, dryness, lTcsh-air and sunlight.. As egg production is the most prolitnble branch of the business, a good method of trying out such, a venture is to purchase a certain number of perching pullets. The, cost of good eight to 10 weeks' old pullets would be from 3s to te each. Good August-hatched birds of tho heavy breeds and September-hatch-ed birds of the light breeds should give the- best results.

Anyone desiring to try such a ven ture is advised to start in a small way and gradually build up as their experience warrants, for if 50 such puilets cannot be made to show a profit it is not likely that success will be achieved with a larger number . A Mating Fallacy. There is a fairly widespread belief that once a hen is mated that mating will have some effect on subsequent matings, that is to say, if a bird is mated with a White Wyandotte cockerel, for example, and later to a Rhode, the Wyandotte will have some influence on the chicks produced by the Rhode mating. This so-called telegony or influence of previous mating has no foun dation in fact. -Experiments have .shown that when a male bird is replaced by another the sperms of ihe latter compete success! u'uy with those of the former. The effect of the previous mating rapidly disappears, so much so that as car'.v as the second day after the new male is introduced egg* ierl.ilised by him arc produced. Actually there is no overlapping. The egg is not fertilised by the sperms of two different males, but in practice it is advisable to allow a few days to elapse after changing the male so as to make reasonably certain that he has mated with the entire pen. When a male is removed Irom a flock and not replaced by another, good fertility is maintained ior about seven days. By the tenth or twelfth day only about 60 per cent of the eggs are fertile, while by the nineteenth or twentieth day fertility falls to about 15 per cent.

NEW BLOOD

CHICKS FROM IMPORTED htiGS Owing to restrictions on the importation of live poultry many breeders in the past few years imported eggs from Australia for hatching purposes in order to obtain new blood. Reports indicate that the number of chicks hatched from imported sittings have ranged from two or three up to fourteen out of sixteen eggs,. In the 1939 hatching season, Mr Alex. Peat, the well known Invercargill breeder, reared 39 chicks from five sittings imported from Victoria. The eggs were obtained from breeders of the highest repute whose birds have won fame in egglaying competitions. The two sittings of White Leghorn eggs were purchased from Mr H. C. Lancaster (6 hens, 1599 eggs, 4 hens average 320 eggs, Bendigo competition). One of the Australorp sittings was from the pen which produced Mr J. J Herbert's team which laid 1734 first grade eggs at the Burnley competition, the individual scores being 957 295, 297, 277 300 and 308. ~ The sitting of Bhode Island Reds from Lancaster's team vrtrtch laid 1545 eggs at the Bendigo competition at which the same owner s Red in the single bird test laid -96 eggs. This sitting produced 2 cockerels and i> pullets.

FREAKS

A correspondent writes: Mr J. Flaus, Inveveargill, was-- -surprised to find amongst a batch of newly hatched White Leghorn chicks an exceptionally large one with four legs. The extra legs were joined to (Continued foot next colamn).

the body adjacent to the wings. These legs were carried in' extraordinary positions. Normally they hung down, but when the chick was walking or running the two extra legs were held above the body., The chick appeared to be quite healthy but died a week old. Another freak came to light on the premises ol Mr Andrews, Otara, Southland., -in the form of twin goslings. two complete birds, joined ai t\he tail and abdomen, so that they were facing in opposite directions. Differences of opinion in regard to moving about were settled by the fact that one was somewhat larger and stronger than the other. The latter soon gave pp the unequal struggle and passed out, with the inevitable result that the stronger one shortly afterwards did likewise.