Poultry Yards.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 April 1910, Page 4

Poultry Yards.

EFFECTS OF CROSSING

When buying a cockerel to mate with your own birds, especially for .show purposes, it is necessary to bo very careful. Your own birds may be line specimens, and the cockerel may have been bred from good stock; but when two unrelated strains are bred from, 'broeders often get a surprise. The cause of this is the throwing back to former generations, caused by the crossing. So long as birds are bred with birds which are related to them this will not happen, but breeding from unrelated stock will frequently cause a throw-back, and sometimes cause a lot of grumbling, and some breeders who do not understand will perhaps blame th« breeder from whom they have bought the male bird. This is not fair to the latter, and often causes ill-feeling between two breeders. This would not happen if the breeder understood breeding better. The best plan when reriuiring new blood is to mate a cockerel with one of your own hens, and then select the best cockerel to mate hack to yoitc own pen. Some breeders prefer to buy a new hen, mate her to a cockerel of their own, then, if the stock turns out well, pick a good cockerel from her, and mate it with their own birds. One ol the best local breeders reckons twice in and once out is about what: is needed to keep up the stamina of a flock. Where a. number of birds ■are kept, ol course, new blood is' seldom required as different pens can tie kept, and, although nil related , are quite distant enough in relationship to breed with. Pullets and cockerels can be bred with if they are well matured, but breeding continually from such is not good. The best results are obtained from hens two years old and a cockerel about ten months old. When mated the birds should be in the best of health and not too fat. Birds breed better and stronger chicks if they are on the thin §id«. and have plenty of exercise and free range. FEEDING FOR EGGS. An Important quest-ion at the present time is that of feeding loj winter eggs. There is no product of the soil which offers such a handsome return at the present time as eggs. It is obvious that the high value obtainable is due to a shortage of supply, and it is also obvious that there .are sufficient laving fowls in the country to meet the demand. Something therefore is out of joint, or the supply would bo nearer the demand. One reason that suggests itself is that too many birds art* late-hatched, and. therefore, do not come on to lay till near the spring, the bird's natural laying season. Again, there are eases where the birds have been hatched too early and consequently go into a moult justywheii they are most required. Those hatched at the right time, however, are in many cases out of laying I'orm at present owing to a false moult, induced by improper or careless management, such, for instance, as suddenly changing the diet, irregularity in the constitution of the diet, or change of quarters, ft is surprising bow pullets, and especially ducks, coining to lay will unexepeetcdly go into a moult on being changed from one part of a property to another, even to the ■other side of a fence. In regard to the diet, it often happens that pullets are fed bulky food, devoid of nitrogenous matter (meat), until they actually commence to lay, when the animal food is suddenly stuffed into them. The rapid change of diet naturally upsets the bird's system for the time being, and nature's remedy, in the shape of moult, immediately intervenes. This is a common experience with laying competitions. The birds are not fed to lay, in the hope of retarding production till the competition is reached, and,suddenly being fed the forcing food represented in the test ration, go into a. moult. Animal food is necessary to high egg production, but the system should be trained to assimilate it. The right principle of supplying it is to introduce it gradually to the young developing pullet and increasing the nitrogenous ratio till the maximum is not fed t-iil the time is reached •at which the bid is calculated to kittain her productive season. Then, given the high-type layer, it largely depends on the amount of meat food fed whether a high or a low record is made, providing, of course, that the. management of the bird has been sound in other respects. Of course, •animal food can be overfed, and when this takes place the fact, is disclosed by the appearance of ovarion troubles', rupture, etc. The observant man will readily detect the symptoms indicative of this overforced condition. Where, however, tiie flock is of a high egg producing standard, and eggs are dear, the policy of reducing the amount of meat supplied for the sake ol _ one or two hens could hardly bo advised. Poultry-keeping is, after all, a matter of pounds, shillings, aud_ pence, and one egg ill the basket is worth two in the lieu.