POULTRY KEEPING.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 604, 1 February 1921, Page 2

POULTRY KEEPING.

BUILDING UP A STRAIN. One of the best ways in which the production of eggs for market can be made profitable is by building up a strian of super layers. So long as we continue breeding carelessly from the flock we cannot do this, for many eggs from poor layers will be hatched, and the pullets from them will probably be as poor producers as their mothers were. The hen which lays one hundred eggs in a year may be put down as an average producer, and she barely pays her way, for the chances are that she lays the bulk of these at a time when eggs are selling at 1/6 to 2/per dozen. Hens laying considerably less than one hundred eggs per annum of which there are some in nearly every farm flock, may be considered a source of loss rather than of profit to thenowners, and they detract appreciably from the profits of the flock as a whole. It is only the hens which lay 150 eggs and upwards in the course of a y ear, and produce a fair proportion of them in winter, that will pay the poultrykeeper well to breed from the very best of these and to weed out all the poor layers according as their shortcomings are discovered. In order to do this effectively there are two things to be borne in mind : (1) To cull out the drones ; (2) the eggs of pullets must not be hatched. The keeping of records of eggs production with the help of the trap nest involves a considerable amount of extra labour. A much simpler way to cull out the poor layers is to carefully note the early moulters and discard them placing them apart till required for the pot, or for market. Only breed the very late moulters.