POULTRY KEEPING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5001, 16 July 1926, Page 1

POULTRY KEEPING.

COST OF RAISING PULLET®.

A TROUBLESOME. QUESTION.

“New Laid,” the contributor df poultry notes to a Wellington contemporary, has been endeavouring to answer a question that has troubled many poultry raisers. M.P. asked whether it would pay to 'rear pullets to sell at three, four, or five months old., a,nd how much they should bring at' these ages. The reply is of interest. “New Laid” save he answered a similar query several months ago, in the course of which was given a copy of the report furnished by the chief poultry instructor of the Department df Agriculture on the cost of raising pullets to the age of six months. This showed the. cost to be an average net cost of 7s ll%d per bird for cost of food onlv. It must be hated, however, that the cost of feeding is much higher to-day tha.n when the trial was conducted, and the cost d£ the finished article will be, proportionately higher. At that time wheat was used at a cost of 6s 8d per bushel, bran was £7 5s per ton, and pollard £9 5s per ton. To quote from the article ; “The costs given, as will be seen, relate to the period from the placing of the live chicks in the brooder up till the time they are six months oldIn order to get .the total cost of production, it will be necessary to add on the cost of eggs placed in the incubator and of the kerosene used during the hatch. On top of that must be reckoned the cost of kerosene oi other fuel use'd for heating the brooder, unless, of course,, a fireless brooder is used. Further .than that, allowance should be made for labour, interest on capital invested in the plant used, and general expenses, if the question is, to be pursued to its fullest conclusion.” The costs given above are 'for a trial extending to a period of six months ; those for the periods mentioned by the correspondent will be proportionately less, and the prices to be charged will also vary accordingly. An important point, which is apt to be either overlooked or ignored by the would-be buyer, is that at the ages mentioned the pullets have, got past the perils and dangers of their ,chicke,nhood, and are within fairly easy distance of coming into profit. It is quite impossible to give any hard apd fast rule as to what the birds should be worth,, so much depends oh breed, strain, time' of hatching, etc., and it must be remembered that even the poultryman is worthy c.f his ‘hire,. In any case, it is not good policy to sell pullets in advance as the old saying about counting your chickens before they are hatched still holds good, and it might easily happen that in having to fulfil orders the correspondents might run the flock required at home very short in numbers.