Largest Poultry Farm In the World,

Manawatu Herald, 23 April 1903, Page 2

Largest Poultry Farm In the World,

(Continued.) Until they are half way round the “ horse-shoe, ”--60 days old—-the chicks are never allowed to roost, so that they rest on' the ground and gain in fulness of breast. When 60 days old they weigh |lb, and many of them are then sold to the fashionable hotels as “squabs,” never bring less than £1 a dozen. At pen Ho, 70 cement floors begin, and the diet, hitherto designed to give only health and strength, is changed from ground com to mash in order give weight and bulk. At the end they are 90' days-lold, and average l£lb in weight. There has been no disease; they are tender, plump, and delicate, the finest broilers on the market, and worth from 20s to 24s and more a dozen.

They move on to the killing room 75 in a coop A man strings them up by the feet, runs a lance into a blood vessel in the roof of the mouth, which causes copious bleeding add them kills them by piercing the brain, The latter is an ingenious device for it relaxes the whole system so that the feathers come easily from the exqisitely tender skin without breaking it. After being “ roughed,” the bird is “ pinned ” of its smaller , feathers; head, feet, and insides are left, .-.and the whole remains in running Water through' the day, in order to remove the animal heat “ by degrees.” After spending the night in ice water the broiler is ready for -shipment., .

The “ egg house ” is a' separate building, ,537 feet long, with 60 pens,'each containing 50 brown, buft Or Leghorn bens, selected for health strength, and laying qualities, not for breeding. From these 300 hens come 200 dozen unfertile eggs ■ a day. The production of unfertile egg is peculiar to this one plant, where was first made the experiment of producing eggs from hens that had never been exposed to a rooster. Of course, an unfertile egg will not hatch, but it is far superior for market purposes, having a delicate flavour, and unusual keeping qualities. The yolk is a light yellow. Here, as in the “hatchery,” the most exact system is in force, and the same methods of preventing brooding are followed.: Of course, the food problem is extremely important. Here, as everywhere, so absolute a system prevails that even the size of an* egg can be determined by feeding lime (shell) elements at a certain time. Finally, cracked corn, mash and green bone dust are used iff both lines of business. In the yards is scattered charcoal to prevent “Sour stomach,” to which the proprietor attributes all disease of chickens.

The mash is made by placing on a 4-inch layer of dry clover a 2-iffch layer of unbulled oats and turnips, made mushy and at the boiling point from steam; on this is placed *a ,2inch layer of bran, with a dash of hot salt water ; then 4 inches of dry clover, then oats and turnips, as stated, and lastly 2 inches of middlings By the time this has cooled the moisture has been taken up by the dry clover and the whole is thoroughly mixed. An important point is that the clover must be sweated and the oats steamed, not boiled, so that none of the ingredients are steeped out of them. Roughly speaking, the food plan is that the corn and oats make the meat of the egg and give strength to the chick; the bone is for the egg film, the brand and clover for the lime of the shells, and the turnip and potato for a relish The total feed bill amounts to £240 a year, from which the plant raises oyer 100,000 broilers and produces 675,000 unfertile eggs.