POULTRY NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 778, 24 October 1922, Page 5

POULTRY NOTES.

LOW EGG PRODUCTION. Egg production is of a mystery and! the pjroblem of keeping the hen on the job is constantly in the minds qf both students and experts in poultry culture. Individuality seems to be the outafandiyng characteristic of the barynard bird. In a flock, all of one breed and ail fed alike there' will be good layers and poor ones, fat birds and skinny ones ; healthy *hens and sickly ones ; vigorous birds and droopy ones. Much qf this cannot be accounted for by external conditions nor by rules qf heredity. Why do some hens lay well in the winder while others loaf? Why do some lay well in summer while their sisters molt, go broody and generally prove unprofitable, being finally consigned to the soup kettle ? There are general reasons but individuality furnishes many problems. There are three well known causes for decreased egg production dur.ny the summer season, First, the hens become broody and therefore stop laying; secondly, the poultry keeper, especially the farmer who has hens on range, assumes that they will get abundant feed, which is not true; thirdly, it is true that the»e are many poor hens that lack capacity for egg production* which can lay but djuring a short season. On the whole, howevel', the drop in egg production is a condition over which the poultry keeper has come control and might be maintained much better than it is to the financial advantage of those owning the flocks. Break up the Broodies. To this end, first broody hens shouldl be broken up. (This can be done quickly and easily if' the hen !is taken from the nest the very first night she shows a disposition to sit. Thrre are a Iqt of devices and methods used! to accomplish this object which shouldl be eliminated because they are not only cruel but detrimental to the health of the hen and therefore to the welfare of the owner. As soon as a hen shows a disposition to rtemain on a nest over night she should be removed! and p-.aced on a koost in a pen which has been stripped of everything except roosts, dropping boards, feed hoppers and water cans. Ne^ T -s and floor litter should have been removed. In such a pen as this* if well fed and cared for, a hen will lose her inclination to sit in perhaps four c<r five dyas —certainly in a week or ten days, On the average, if the best methods age used, hens will be laying in ten days after they show the inclination to sit and will lqay for some considerable period thereafter. When catching them, dust for the body lice. Do the same when returning them to the pen. Feeding Criticised. The feeding practice, too of the average poultryman iii summer is open to criticism. Very often the egg mash or the beaf scraps is omitted altogether because of the impression that poultry, if outdoors, get plenty of insects tp make up ‘ for the deficiency in protein which animal food alone furnishes in sufficient proportions. It is true there are times when they get enough in. sects, hut there are iongeq periods when they djo not. Some breeders even go as far as to omit both the mash and the grain feed or, at the most feed grain but once a day. Under such conditions a hen has a prptty hal'd time hustling for a living, let! alone finding a living for her keeper, because the keeper is not rea'lly her keeper. Remember that the hen would Irather, pick up a little outdoors than indoors and if she eats the mash or beef scraps you furnish, it is because there is a shortage in the outdoor supply. Where there isa shortage in the supply of feeds there is always a shortage in th e supply of eggs. ! When one breaks up the sitting hens, has the house comfortable, keeps down the lice and mites, feeds skillfully and tiberally, and* then does not get eggs, it is about time to market the hens- But make sure that i't is the hen’s fault and not Nine times out qf ten, it is as much the keeper’s fault as the hens if the hens fall to produce eggs during *the early summer months.