BREEDING PROBLEMS

Shannon News, 6 January 1925, Page 1

BREEDING PROBLEMS

CONDITIONS. OF MATING Best Breeding Age. A question constantly asked is what is the best age to breed from, and nine poultry advisers out of ten say, : “Use an eariy cockerel and two-year-old hens.” This has been said so often that few have the temerity to say anything else. Of course, that is an excellent mating-—no better, but. it is not the only good one. Very few people rear the pullets well-; enough for them to be-fit to breed from at 11 months’ old, and when.the saying that pullets were not fit to 1 breed from became a commonplace, , practically none was. Providing birds are healthy, which is almost equivalent to saying.“have been properly . fed," they can be bred from up - to five years old. For early hatchings, one is .almost obliged to depend on first-year cockerels,, although by February, a good vigorous two-year-old cock should leave his eggs as fertile.

An egg might be fertilised six days after the male was introduced to the pen, but it is far better to‘mate the pen for weeks oefore you want to set the eggs. The bird has time to settle down and get used to his mat£S*fr If the hens are clean, practically'! all will lay fertile eggs to the sire in 14 days. But if the hens have been running with the sire of another breed, no one can say how Icing it will be before the eggs are pure. Most of them would be a fortnight, but one might lay eggs fertilised by the first sire for many weeks.

Over-feeding is detrimental’ to breeding in any kind of stock. It is erroneously supposed that. a hen or pullet which has laid well all winter will not produce fertile eggs in spring. If she has Deen properly fed with a due proportion of animal proteins, she will be leaner internally for her great laying, and be in ,a more recetpive condition than the hen which, on the same feeds has grown fat in-' stead of laying. In single breeding pens we often have infertility because the cock has taken dislike to one or more of the hens. Abnormally large eggs are not, as a, rule, as fertile as medium-sized ones, and, if fertile, do not breed as strong chicks. This seems to be rather following the rule that extremely large sires do not leave as good stock as the compact-medium-sized ones. A newly-bought cock should be closely watched when introduced into a breeding pen. He may be too polite and call the hens instead of feeding himself, •< or tfie change may upset his nervous system but it is a, fact that many sink in condition and even pine away and die.