POULTRY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 114, 11 February 1928, Page 28

POULTRY NOTES.

(By

“New Laid.”)

Breeding For Egg Production. The majority of poultry-breeders are primarily interested in increasing the egg production of tlieir flocks. Probably less progress lias been made in the art ol breeding poultry than in methods of proper feeding, housing, and culling (writes 11. G. Wlieeldon, Assistant Poultry Expert, Department of Agriculture, Southern Rhodesia). To produce high layers, only the best individual producers should be used as breeders. This suggests the necessity for having a special breeding flock. On some farms, where eggs for setting are saved from the entire flock, selection is usually based only on the size and shape of the eggs. With tin’s system, the breeder stands a good chance of setting many eggs from the lowest producers. The method of mass selection of incubator eggs is likely to lead to disappointing results, and the selection, in this way, may lx; compared with the selection of seed maize from the sheller, and is likely to bring just as poor results. There are several fundamental principles which should be studied by every beginner. A clearly delined plan should be mapped out as to what the ultimate object is going to be, and all energy should be directed towards that encl. Commence in a small way, whether yon intend to supply market eggs, eggs for hatching, breeding stock, or all three of these. If egg production is to be the main object, devote some attention Io noting which hens in vour flock lay the most eggs. Use these for breeding stock, and mate them with males from hens which are known to have a good iecord for laying. The first step in improving egg production is establishing a special breeding flock, remembering always that it is not abnormal individual egg records, gained at the expense of stamina, but high flock averages, combined with beauty, breed-type and vigour, which constitute true utility. Tile great secret in breeding for improved flock averages is to identify and breed from hens that “throw” pullets which are uniform in production. It is a comparatively easy matter to find a bird or a pen of birds which will produce a few extra good layers, with the majority just ordinary performers, but only careful testing with single pens or trap-nests will show which birds can be relied upon to breed almost all heavy producers. This is a feature upon which established breeders will do well to concentrate. In securing better physique and making better and more reliable selections for breeding lies the promise of immediate improvement in individual records and general averages of commercial egg-laying flocks throughout the country. It must be realised from the outset that there is no safe short cut, no mystery or sleight-of-Itand work, to real success in the production of a reliable high-laying egg strain. It means patient work with trap-nest or single pens, ami selection, with possibly disappointing experiences before even a solid base to work on can be secured, especially if the ancestry of the birds is unknown. It must be admitted that some of the most brilliant advances have been accidental, for more than once the mingling of different bloods or strains has proved wonderfully successful. More often it has proved disastrous. As long as a breeder knows the mating of the parents, and can produce good chicks from that mating, his success will be continued. If it is unknown, then he is groping in the dark. For this 'reason, new breeders come to the fore annually, stay one or two years, then cease to exist. The underlying principles have not been understood by them. Many of these short-lived successes, however, are not due to accidental matings, but are the result of stock readymated to produce layers being purchased from some of the best of the methodical breeders. One thing, that probably has much to do with the disappointments and inconsistencies, that have front time to time developed in efforts to breed for increased egg production, is the failure to recognise the fact that prolificacy, while transmissible, is not influenced by one single factor, but by a combination of several, and is highly intricate. It is not even clear just how much of the improvement in any given strain should be credited to breeding or inheritance, and how much to the effect of better care, feeding, housing, and management generally; or even to more accurate records. Although it is possible to develop and more or less establish a strain of high egg producers, this makes it extremely difficult to be anything but conservative regarding the “laws of breeding.” There is no complete uniformity or definite set method of procedure, and there are apparently more ways than one of arriving at a similar result. Generally speaking, if vigour and selection be kept up there is nothing to defeat the ultimate object. Increase will not, however, come by mathematical formula. The record of the parents will not always indicate what the daughters will do, but on an average, in a number of matings, there will be a certain increase. No subject pertaining to the poultry industry has received so much universal attention in the past fifteen years as that of breeding; for increased egg production. Starting with no more definite clue to solving the problem than that presented by the phrase, “like begets like,” both breeders and scientists have proved the fact that not only the different degrees of productiveness are transmissible and inherited, but that the capacity of increased egg production can be developed year by year; and high records may be made for which no precedent exists in the known history of the strain.