POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 23384, 29 September 1939, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

By “UTILITY-FANCY”

THE EGG-A-DAY HEN. The egg-a-day hen has not yet been produced. The nearest to reach that point is reported to be the Barred Hock Canadian hen. Lady Victorine, which laid 35S eggs in one year (365 days). A New Zealand White Indian Runner duck put up a record of 365 eggs in otto year. This duck, however, sometimes laid two eggs in a day. Another American hen put up a record of 1,043 in five years. She was trap-nested. In her first year she laid 306, second year 197, third year 167, fourth year 200, and in the fifth year 173. STAMINA. Every poultrykeeper now fully realises that the number of eggs is not the “ he all and end all ” of the industry. There is something far more important, and that is stamina of the flock. Without stamina there can be ■no success. The heavy mortality that was evident both in large and small flocks brought the utilitarians to their senses. The rising death rate could only be checked by breeding from stock that possessed stamina. .... - Disease follows all stock depleted of its stamina. The breeding; stock must possess it, and they pass it on to the hatching eggs. Feeding must also take its place in this struggle of the poultry stocks. No matter how vigorous the breeding stock is, if they are not fed correctly they ■will ( produce weakly eggs and weakly eggs arc bound to give weakly chickens. Eggs must be good in hatchability and chickens in rearabSelecting the eggs for hatching should be carefully done. All thin-shelled or misshapen eggs should be discarded. The eggs should also be suitably stored, otherwise both the contents and the germs may be affected. A BALANCED RATION. A writer in a Home journal asks the question “What is; balance?” and says: “ A poultry ration is 1 balanced when it contains every necessary food element and the various ingredients are in correct proportions. Such a ration provides protein, carbohydrates, and fats, water, vitamins, and mineral substances in suitable quantities, so that when digested by the birds body waste is made good, health and disease resistance is maintained, and energy and bodv warmth produced. In short, egg production is kept at the highest possible level.” It will be noticed that included in the items forming a balanced ration are vitamins b I rancy that many poultry keepers will wom&r how vitamins are to ho served to the fowls otherwise than by the other items mentioned. DEAD IN SHELL. - Som.e experiments have been carried out with-iodine with' satisfactory results in relation to that, great problem “ dead in shell.” It has reduced the

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scourge in certain cases. It would appear that iodine assists growth. It must necessarily follow that it has good effect on egg production. It builds up and tones the system of the birds so that they have a great resistance to disease. The bird’s ability to absorb nitrogen, phosphorus, and calcium depends on the presence of iodine. The majority of the poultry foods on the market to-day do not contain a sufficiency of iodine. It is true that cod liver oil contains a very limited trace of it. It is present in good fish meal, in a better ratio, but still not enough to do the work that is expected of it.Minerals aro not yet fully understood. Good white fish mealandl good alfalfa meal contain practically all the minerals required by the birds, and meat and bone meal contains some, but not all. The fowls also draw a lot of mineral matter from fresh green food and a liberal supply of this should always be kept before the fowls. The elusive iodine must be supplied to get the most satisfactory results. It assists digestion, andl it gives the birds a great resistance to bacterial infection and toxins and disease. There is no doubt that every thinking poultryman must see that a sufficiency of iodine has been added to the mashes. It helps growth, development of the body, and reproductive organs, increases egg production and fertility,_ prevents to a certain extent dead in shell, and, at the same time prevents disease, as it enables the birds to resist it. It must not, however, be fed in large quantities, as the fowls can only deal with it in very- minute quantities. It should be introduced regularly if goodl results are to be obtained. There is an iodised ovster shell meal on the market, which will also assist in introducing iodine.— ‘ Scottish Weekly.’ . To the foregoing I would add that ordinary oyster shell contains a slight quantity of iodine, and this small quantity added to the amount which is contained in the other foods served should make it unnecessary to introduce any chemical form of iodine to the foods served in the mash. Still speaking of iodine as necessary to poultry, the writer in the ‘ Scottish Weekly ’ mentions the following mineral mixture as one giving good results, and which can be fed to the birds from the time they are a week old:—Steamed bone flour, 501 b j calcium carbonate, 201 b; sodium chloride (common salt), 201 b ; flowers of sulphur, slb; iron oxide, 51b; and potassium iodide, loz. Points to Remember: — ... Put sharp grit on the chickens’ feeding board every day. Do not let the soft food get trodden down. Stale bread should never be wasted where there are fowls or chickens. It is a fine breakfast for the latter, soaked in water, squeezed dry, and fed with milk. ' Give growing birds all the milk or buttermilk that can be spared. It is a really fine bone-maker.

Starting right:— Too much care cannot be taken by those who start poultry keeping in a small way to make sure of securing good layers. Buyers of fowls for laying should either purchase from those who have a reputation to maintain, or in buying from other poultry keepers they should make sure that the parent stock have been good layers., loose who go in for table poultry, too, cannot afford to disregard the laying qualities of their stock, for unless they get e-Tn's oarlv in the winter they will not bcTable to hatch the birds in time to get chickens for the spring market. In order to do this it is necessary to have birds which are good layers to produce the eggs for sitting. There are some who can afford to indulge in their fancy and have any breed or variety which happens to please them without bothering about their useful qualities, but these are only a very small minority compared with the numbers who can keep only fowls which will prove themselves to" be a source of profit. PRODUCING RICHER EGG YOLKS. Research workers at the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station have proved by chemical analyses the wide variations in the calcium and inorganic phosphorus content of the yolks of hens’ eggs; they have also shown, for the first.time in detail, how that content may be increased in commercial eggs. The value of egg yolk in the human diet is well known; for children it is almost indispensable. So reports W. S. Anderson, of the Kentucky Institution. In the experiment the control hens were confined in a laying house well lighted by ordinary window glass, were fed the best standard ration, and the calcium-phosphorus content of their egg yolks was taken as the standard for commercial eggs produced under like conditions. The second lot was handled just h.:o the control birds, except that they got unfiltered sunshine. These hens showed an actual egg-yolk increase of 27 per cent, calcium and 25 per cent, inorganic phosphorus. Lot three hens, fed like the controls, but allowed a grass range in sunlight, registered a calcium increase of 26 per cent, and a phosphorus increase of 21 per cent. For lot four, kept in a laying bouse with sunlight filtered through window glass, 2 per cent, of cod liver oil was added to the ration. The record for these hens was: 23 per cent, more calcium, 25 per cent, more phosphorus Everything else being equal, Mr Anderson points out, this extra mineral stored in eggs increases hatchability of eggs and gives a stronger day-old chick. The experiments described wore carried out along the lines of good poultry management. Lack of vitamin D means, of course, that eggs will be deficient in calcium and phosphorus, hence such eggs are not equal in value in the human diet to those from hens which do not get the vitamin supply. The answer is a matter of common practice. If sunshine is uncertain or insufficient, as in northern winters, fish-liver oil is fed.