POULTRY KEEPING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5368, 24 December 1928, Page 3

POULTRY KEEPING.

?• r s MANAGEMENT of young stock.

(By

, Chirf Poultry In-

F. C. Brown,

structor, ip ithe Journal of Agriculture).

Now that the season for, incubating is 'over and the bulk of the chickens ;.t '’Mftared. to an age when, they have passed thfe’ chief danger-period of their development, the poultry-keeper may look forward to a somewhat easier time than recently. There is. however, plenty of work to do it the plant is to be maintained at a high standard of efficiency. For. example, it r must not be concluded that because the young stock have passed the - brooder'stage special care and man-. f agement are no longer essential. ®spe- . ciailly does this apply to .the growing pullet. If it is to develop into a vigorous specimen (and it can be profitable only if it is vigorous) it must never receive a setback from the time of leaving the shell till reaching 'maturity. One cannot over-emphasise the im-. portance of classifying the young '• birds according to their, size and agp» e remembering that the more evenly the b.lr'Ja are; graded the better will they thrive. This applies to the younger members of the flock in particular. It is a common practice, but nevertheless a mistaken one, to feed both the growing ajid the adult stock on the same class of food. I have recently come across cases where the morning, mash contained a high prpportion of forcing material, such as f* meat or blood meal, which was being ' . supplied to all members of the flock, irrespective of age. Such food is specially demanded in t.he case of the heavy-laying bird, particularly when it is intended to cull hen out at the I termination of her laying season. With the growing bird, however,, such a « forcing diet is quite unnecessary. The & food supplied at this age should contain the elements needed to build up j frame and bone, rather than to develop the egg organs—in other words, < to encourage prematurity, a condir tion that the overfeeding of meat is sure to bring about. >■ It is not generally known that when a pullet commences to lay she ■ ceases to grow. Obviously, if a bird F commences to lay at an early age it will remain a diminutive specimen of its breed, and thereby fail to produce a good marketable egg. It is sound 1 practice to give chickens a good supply of animal food—say, up to eight weeks old I—but 1 —but between this period and until the pullets are) well devein oped and nearing a laying point, forcing food should be sparingly provided. Indeed, if it is observed that the pullets show ' signs of coming too « early to maturity, all forcing food, y such as meat or its substitutes, or, even milk, should be left out of the ration. Unfortunately, many poultry--55 keepers have been led to force their pultets owing to incorrect teaching L early maturity is an indication egg-laying power, and that premaJ ture laying is a sign of the desirable breeding bird. There is no greater , fallacy. ! ' Perhaps the most important fact - disrlosed relative to the grading °f Oggs for export during the past season (and on which more will be said in these notes at a later date) was - ’ the excessive number of undersized ?. eggs "which reached the depots, and which, were next to useless for the overseas’ trade. It should be the aim i" ot every utility poultry-keeper to correct this tendency, wijl ceir r '_ tainly never be corrected—on the contrary, it will be encouraged—if pullets are to be forced to commence laying before they*are thoroughly flt- | ted for the work. Of course, Tam E/ not speaking of the early laying of the well-developed bird, but of the r pullet which commences to lay when only a. liittle more than half the standard weight of its breed. t The importance of marking the young stock as a future guide to . separating the birds according to age is not appreciated as it should be. All binds hatched this season should be promptly marked without delay. Perhaps the simplest method is to punch a hole 1 in the web of the foot, reserving a particular section of the web of each bird for the particular season. A suitable punch for the purpose can be procured for about 2s.