CHOICE EXTRACTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 260, 21 February 1877, Page 2

CHOICE EXTRACTS.

WHY FOWLS DON'T PAT.

Of still more importance than a wise selection of breeds is the proper age of the birds themselves. Considered merely as a produce of stock, no hen should be allowed to see more than her third autumn. With valuable fowls the case is, of course, different, as apart even from prize-winning, a dozen fertile eggs from a proved first-class bird may be well worth the keep of a year, but as regards the mere production of eatable produced, the rule must be rigidly enforced of killing every hen at the age of two and a half years at the first appearance of moult. In very many breeds, Rralimas particularly, the second season's eggs are more numerous than the first, but after that all fowls show a great falling off, whilst they also become too tough to be eaten. On the other hand, by killing at the age stated, they may be either eaten or sold at a fair price, while the best part of their lives only is any expense to the com-bin. No rule is so imperative to profitable poultry-keeping, and none is so constantly nsgiected by all except the skilled breeders, who know it too well ever to neglect it. We have repeatedly been shown hens of very uncertain age, except that they were certainly over seven years, running in a narrow but ornamental gaol at the bottom of a garden, and their fair owners wondered they did not lay. Their laying was done, except for a stray egg once a month or just so, just to keep up the sweet memories of the past, and awaken-hopes never to be realised. Fo r fowls to be profitable they must be regularly killed at moulting time, when two and a half years old. Of course, if they are pets, it is hard to kill them, and the female members of the family especially will protest. That is another matter. A hen may be kept to be petted just as a canary, but the the object then in view should be borne in mind, and nothing more in the shape of profit expected from one than from the other.