Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1933, Page 8

Farming Column

POULRTY AND EGGS

HATCHING OPERATIONS

By Utility

It is ;a common complaint that hatching with hens cnta'-’ls a great deal of trouble for small results, and this is what occasionally induces a farmer to try a small incu hater, or else to give up hatching altogether. If a farmer can make a success of the incubator with less trouble than broody hens en t a',’ I, he w 111 be wishing. for a 1 a.rger incubator before long, as it, is almost as much trouble to look after a small machine as it is to attend to one with twice or four times the capacity. To those who are inclined to give broody liens another trial, it may be suggested that there is a practical way to overcome the disappointment of having to look a Per a separate hen for every eight of ten chicks, of which one or two will probably tie, leaving about three pullets as the average return from each brood. A common suggestion is to set two hens at once, and give both broods to one of these, immediately giving a fresh setting to the .other in the hope that she 1 will sit fer another three weeks. This method of economising is very tempting, for the chicks are so small that any lien seems well able to cover the two broods, at any rate for the first week or fortnight. Trouble beams when the chicks have grown so •l/g that the lien cannot cover them all, and this usually occurs when they tire .fust losing their downy coats and have not yet grown anything more substantial. They struggle for half, the night in vain attempts 1 to find the warmest place. Some always find them selves left out in the cold. They take a ch.'ll, and death soon reduces the •number to £o.r below what the hen

: can cover. Experience suggests that a , hen cannoi probably cover a greater number of chicks than the number of eggs that she can cover, and although ,a larger number may lie poSsibly.be safer in the case of those hatched in November, there is too great a risk during the early part of the season. Especially :s this the case with those breeds that arc slow in feathering, and have to suffer a gap: of about a fortnight with barely any feathers, just at a time when they are growing fast and should be thriving, without any break. However, 'it is a fairly easy proposition to increase the size of the broods .and yet avoid having a larger number of chicks than the number or eggs that the hen can cover. The scheme involves exploiting the facts that in nearly every sitting of eggs a few- areinfertile. After being under-a' lien-‘for •a week it 'is fairly easy to detect the infertile eggs, but at nine days even a novice would not be deceived; The scheme is to set No. 2, then with the usual number of eggs, adding a- few more to No. 1 hen at the same time, to take the place of the infertile eggs. .After. another similar period all the second lot of eggs may be tested, and all that are found fertile are to be put under No. 2 hen. Most likely there is still room for a few more, and after add'ng the fertile eggs from No. 1 lien, so a third hen may he set on all she can cover, wliile at the same time adding to No. 2 hen as many more .as she can cover. This process may be repeated all through the season, not merely in one series of hens that are to bo set every eight or nine days, but in as many series as a -farmer cares to keep going during the very limited period into which he : usually cares to concentrate the hatching. The net result is that during the latter part cf a hen’s hatching peried, instead of sitting on only the fertile eggs of one setting, say ten or twelve out of the original setting, she is also giving a start to trhee of four eggs that will be removed ho the next hen when they are tested. By working th.s scheme it will be found that the average of about nine or ten chicks can be raised to thirteen or fourteen. Having regard to the usual instruc-

lions that an incubator temperature of 102 degrees during the first week has to be raised to 123 degrees for the second week, with also a longer period of cooling, it night be thought thak the process just , described, would not work, as it is taking liberties under both headings. However,, it will be found that no ill-effect-s follow, and that the supplementary eggs put under the lien that is already a week on the jjourney toward hatching time will give ■just as.good an average as the main lc*i put under the new hen. This is not altogether a . surprise when cue considers how stiongly the embryo develops under a hen. There are very few experineed breeders who have not noticed instances when ,a hen has been off the nest for six or eight hours, and yet rip.harm has resulted. The propagation of the species-’is a wonderful provision of nature, and when eggs receive the natural heat of the mother hen they.can stand a lob of little irregularities without harm resulting. On the other hand, whether eggs are in an incubator or under a hen, St is unwise to.try to lielpl in any way when once the eggs begin to chip.

-DAIRY IMPORTS. NEW ZEALAND’S SHARE. Butter to the value of £41,500,000 entered the United Kingdom in 1932, and of that amount New Zealar-d contributed mere .-thru u quarter accord*

rag to he .report just issued by the Empire Marketing Board on “Daily Produce 'Supplies.’! New Zealand’s share of the United Kingdom market marked ,r.n increase of. 14 per cent., and helped to establish a record for butter coming from Empire 'sources. Details of her shipments of butter are given in a special- section of the report. New Zealand also increased her share of. the. cheese market,, supplying 62 per cent, of the total import, s. The imports of Canadian cheese, which had 'been on the decline, once more increased, as did the quantities received, from Australia and South .AVrica. Together Empire supplies amounted to 90 per cent, of the total imports, and were greater lhan in the previous year. .An encouraging feature of the report above quoted is the increasing proportion of imports coming from Empire sources. This wfls especi Uv striking as regards butter, the Empire supplying 52 per cent, of the total imports. .Half the Empire .but'er and •move than a quarter of all the huttei imported, was from New Zeacand (making an increase of 14 per cent.) and 22 per cent, of the total came from Australia,.

• Denmark maintained her place a,s chief butter purveyor, to the Untied ■Kingdom with 31 per- cent., the Argentine being ranked fourth. The. advance of Empire supplies would appear -to have been made , at the expense of foreign supplies, particularly from Russia, ..whose . share dropped by 20 per cent., and also Dom the Baltic countries.

The world production of butter is 'thought, to have fallen off as a consequence of the continued depression in, prices. There was . cert ail) ly l® sS entering world trade, but of th t increasing share, estimated at threequarters of the total. This, together wit-11 the estimated amount of home produced butter, provided 21-8 foi ea-eh person in the country, <"s against 20.9 lb., in 1931. ■ The fall in prices v'sconsiderable, Australian ar.d New Zealand finest salted butters alorc being 10 per c e Q t. cheaper than last year. , .i Britain’s imports of milk powder fell --.way in 1932 from their record of the previous year, although Hie proportion of ‘Empire supplies comrdembly larger. New Zealand increased her supply by 3 per cent., but notwithstanding this fact she lost bet place as chief source of supply to the. Netherlands. The decline in total imports is due in great measure to smaller imports from ■ the United States.

In contrast .with the larger butter ar.d bacon imports, eggs showed a decrease of 60,000,000 dozen, as oompcived with 1931. New Zealand supplies, however, were heavier, than in the- two preceding years, and Australian entries were substantially heavier. Despite this fact Empire imports as a whole were less, principally-because of reduced supplies from the Irish Tree State, South Africa and Canada. There was also a marked decline in import® from European countries.

-The importance of butte,, in international trade has led ■ the Empire Marketing Board to devote a section of the report to the state ,of the butter market in various European countries, which have become alarmed -by .the incursion of a commodity ,chu lily supplied by home industry. There are also sections which deal with shipments of cheese from New Zealand, with the production and trade of cheese in Canada, as well as with other topics.

British duties on foreign dairy products are: Milk end cream, 10 per cent. ; cheese, 15 per cent.-; butter, 15s per cwt. ; condensed milk, 6 S per c.vt,. unsweetened and 5s per cwt. sweetened ; eggs, Is per long hundred (120 eggs.)

RIVAL OF WHEAT

Tn an address to the Royal Society of Queensland recently on the subject of biological problems in West Queensland, Dr E. Birschfield said if They should succeed in increasing the size o' the kernel, Mitchell gras s would become , n ot the equal of grass, but its superior, for m Mitchell grass was a perennial. It required to bfe sown but, once, and its deep mat of roots made it- les s dependent on the rainfall than an annual .cereal such as wlva-. I hen would the western plains of Qiuensimd come into their own. He gave -particulars of experiments carried out by his sou, Mr iR. Birschfield, and himself in the growth of 'Mitchell grass on Bybora grazing selection in the Goondgwindi district. 'Ho added th't on the western plains of Queensland and New .South Wales, Mitchell grass grew with its yellow wheat-like cars studded with grains ; animals grazed on it,, and aboriginals were reported to have used it for, food. They mu s t- try to develop the grain on Mitchell grass to something approaching the size of wheat grain. He suggested research in this direction bv selection, crossing and breeding. The addition of phosphates to supply tire deficiency of phosphorus in til soil should have an effect on the size of the Mitchell grass kernel.