POULTRY NOTES

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10595, 29 March 1912, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

(By Utilitarian.)

As many producers will f-oon bo eon., t(Milplating placing their preserved eggs on it ho market, it ir; a-: . o!I to remind' thorn that these should ai .\ ays be !":-stwell •washed. This is (n T v ant! quickly done toy placing the;n In a wire sieve or on traps with slats, or even iiu'iibntor trays, and pouring cold water over them. 'Some will still have tho mixture adhering to them, but this will easily nil) off after the pouring on of tho water. They should lie then- left to dry in a safe place, when they can ho stamped and created. The ' washing, of courso, is not for tho purpose of deceiving tho consuming public and causing-them to think they are new-laids, but simply to render them attractive for sale. Later news from abroad leads me to consider that thero is, in tho near future, a very -bright outlook for poultrymen, on account of tho tremendously increased consumption now taking place on the Continent and America, in both, poultry and eggs. In fact, thero seems every indication that Germany will monopolise, 'before long, tho bulk'of the Continental supplies, whi;:h means higher prices in England, unless they move a good "deal quicker in their organising of the poultry industry than thev have hitherto done. There is no , doubt that a tremendous amount of j organising has .been do no of late years j at Home, but when we'realise tho huge ( imports' of eggr; annually, somo j £9,000,000, wo can sec very clearly that years'must elapse before they can produce, a supply to.equal this, if ever thev do. Then, too, .there is, as 1 I have just atftfcwl, the increased consumption Of Other countries to bo taken into consideration. Poultrymen. aw no doubt, many of them, passing through somo stiffish times just now, but tlu>v will ho able to wear a broader ■smile very soon, and that time is going to ho ha stoned by co-operation. 11 * not that prices are tow tor egg? at present, by any means, but t k cost oi production is enormous, and he is a luckv man who has much margin to the - 4 alter paying his food .bill. I1»J goo. when the hens are last is tho . their moult, the ducks are going into -nd the pullets are, in just as had, a. -ust commencing to most cases, only ~ nr shelling out perform their duties l '«? ffuy huneggs; but the man with (._ ' dred -dozen eggs will be able to 'Me? tho next month or Wo without tro.

and by then the pullets should be hi full swing and the ducks also. In tlici March issue of the New Zealand Poultry Journal is a very good description of the continuous house for wintering pullets, just recently built at the. Poultry Institute, St. Albans, C'hristduireh. In that building are scone three- hundred and -fifty pullets in one flock, which would bo a sight -worth going a long way to seeThough this system of bousing birds in large flocks is novel in this country, it is by no means so in America. There, in the land of huge enterprises, is one plant where- there are several houses, accommodating as many as fifteen hundred together in each, .and «ven the breeders are'so treated, no less than nine hundred hens running together, with a suitable number of cockerels. Such a system would mean a groat saving in labour, but. it is questionable whether the egg average is so high as when, the birds are distributed into smaller mobs.

The following quotations for eggs. on the London market, in the .beginning of March, will -give a clear im- ; •predion where England's supplies come- from in this commodity. Home, 15s 6d; Dutch, 13s Gd to 15s 6d; Assyrian, 12s. to.lis; Moroccan-,- lis 6d.; French, 12s 6d to 13s Gd; Danish IBs ■to ]ss Gd; Italian, 13s Gd to 15s Gd; Egyptian, 9s 3d to 10s per 120. The poultry market for the same period shows'supplies hailing from Russia, , America, China, France and the Coniinent generally, ranging from gd to lid for "chickens per lb, and skl to Is j for ducklings. ' The Utility Circle .paid out to its members for the last consignment of j eggs at the rate of Is 7M, less three- , farthings per dozen for marketing, including one farthing per dozen for levy ! on crates. I Answers to Correspondents.— | & .Z.—es. wheatmeal makes a capital feed for the fowls, and can be cut. down with a quarter of the -quantity inbran and about half as much pollard as bran. It is considerably cheaper than pollard and contains the whole of the constituents of wheat ground into a eoarso meal. Anxious—Your birds are evidently in a bad way. Axe and cremation arc your most economical methods now the disease has run so far. Visit some up-to-date poultry farms before recommencing to build or obtain fresh stock.