HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2163, 11 April 1908, Page 4

HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER.

“Sydney Morning Herald.”) Despite the high prices or poultry foods there is money in egg production at iho high current r;itea per dozen, and tlio still higher prices which will obtain during March, April ami May. It may first bo stated that i hen is capable of producing a contain number of eggs during her lifetime, and although with certain management and feeding some of these can bo prompted earlier than would otherwise occur, this lias its limits. With very few exceptions the first year of a fowl’s laying is her best ono. She commences, say, at six months of age, her year’s production being approximately 150 eggs. This brings her to the ago of eighteen months. The fewest number of eggs aro laid in April and May, which is tlio cause of eggs being dearest in thoso months. The following year tho production will deereaso by 20 or 30 per cent, tho greatest reduction being in April and May. Tho third year is further reduced, which brings her to three and a half years, at which age she, rarely lays an egg in March, April or May. Each year her totals become smaller, and at five or six years of age the few eggs laid are in the spring months of September and October. All hens, no matter what age, then lay. At -tlio present time there is in tho Sydney suburb tlio first Jubilee Orpington hen which arrived in Australia. Slio is now over ten years old, her actual production for tho past twelve months being eleven eggs, which wero laid in October.

Poultry literature of 100 years ago tells ns tho above facts were tliofi known, and they liavo been conclusively proved by numerous recent experiments made at a number of tho United States experiment stations; consquently the first consideration in the matter of how to get eggs in winter is to have young hens of from six to ten months of age. Tho larger tho number of hens in a flock over this ago the smaller will be the percentage of eggs laid in the dear months, and it is in this respect that so many poultry-keepers have occasion to complain, tho bulk of them having but small knowledge of tho individual' ages of their flock. The next consideration is housing, which in England and America owing to the severe winter, is of no small importance, and involves a good deal of capital. Here in Australia, whero our most severe winter is milder than an English spring, housing is of very small importance, an ordinary le into structure with open front being sufficient for all practical purposes. The suburban backyard-breeder will always find some corner where a few sheets of iron can be fixed, and is all that is necessary for housing, while the larger breeder has, or cm cheaply construct, all the required covering. Best results can always be had when the fowls are divided into small numbers, flocks of from a dozen to twen-ty-five best. In , these numbers every ailing ono can be at once detected during feeding time, -whereas when the flock reaches a hundred or more there may be cases of sickness unobserved until the disease has spread and perhaps deaths result. Feeding is tho next consideration. The majority of correspondents who complain of getting few eggs usually make mention of how their fowls are fed, thinking that the ration may be at fault, and inquiring as to the constituents of a suitable one. Most frequently the feeding is exactly that suited for the best results, the fault being, as already indicated, that the flock may be of mixed ages. Many of them, no matter how fed, have several unproductive months Before them. In connection with- winter feeding, the usual cereal offals cannot be beaten. Pollard, bran, and at least five per cent of meat in some form should be the morning meal, while extended experiments have shown that the addition of ten per cent of meat in winter time has given still better results. If the birds are in sm ill yards where green stuff is not available, the waste household vegetables of whatever sort can be boiled and mixed with the above, and when the flock numbers, say, up to twenty, the waste meat scraps from a moderate-sized family usually suffice. At midday a few handfuls of any sort of grain may be scattered in the litter, or raked into the earth, which gives the hens scratching exercise; wheat for the evening meal three or four times a week; whole or cracked maize the other evenings. Regularity of feeding hours, clean water, grit, and a dust-batli of ashes, complete the simple formula for getting eggs in winter. Some one may say that strain has a good deal to do in the matter. This is correct as to a hen’s yearly laying, but it frequently happens that the best performers for tivelve months make but a poor show la the winter period.