POULTRY NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 30 June 1913, Page 7

POULTRY NOTES.

(By Utilitarian.)

Xot many days ago, asked t,o m an opinion csonwrins the morits of a pen of birds, thu writer did so I with the necessary, conventions, mod!- . fixations. What else can one oib these days? If you speak truth it is ant to hurt the owner s feelings, and if the truth is siilxlyed tlio owner gains nothing, and it he knows la-Iwsinr-ss at all may put you coun as an inefficient person. ! Pride of ownership needs controlling if knowledge is to be obtained, and we know of little bettor tor a. person who' 'has taith in his specimens than to exhibit them at some show. Viewed alongside othei and often better b:rds, none but the blindest will but learn a valuable lesson. , . - ■ Beginners frequently become pus zled in statements.. appearing m the poultry press. For instance or.e gentleman lately pointed out that. no,\ some writers are advocates that two year old hens are worth keeping to. profit whereas but two or three years ago the same authorities worla assert one year is long enough. liu 'trouble is simply that only r. pii'hpn of the truth has been g:ven. the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, should b? supplied. Irt th.s casp, if the writer had .states vhit two veal' old heri.s sometimes- nay to keep* and also that even when they do pa.V, tliey are rtot pvoiiiable as pullets mfitured in April and >la>, their first seascin, more light might have been radiated where required. To <nve an example. The writer was able"to show in one particular year s careful recording, exactly twice t.ve profit from his pullets pel" ht'rt.., than from the liens, afid yet the latter gave an excellent return _also. The position is, really, this—-if theie is ample housing room and ample opportunity for raising pullets each season, one is generally sale enough in keeping the best birds a second year in conjunction with the pilots, but if space is curtailed, and pullet? are available sacrifice the hens, except any required for mating, rather, than forego the pullets. The latter are the best winter layprs under modern conditions, and though their e<rcs may be small at first, they will command from halt to three-quarters the current market rates, while the hens, bar the extra wood ones, will lay scarcely onoiign to pav for their feed dur.ng April. May and June. Fair class_ pullets shoul. be yielding at least -50 per cent ot egas cfaily, on th? average, throne* June, and you will go a long way- before you will find second yonr liens doincr anything approaching this at the same period. However, P- C,1 ty of pullets will lav well over _•:;() per cent in June, sometimes giving that in May, and those who do obtain 50 per cent in June are on the right road to success. 1 Let this winter b? a timely note to hatch out in good time this coming season. Tt is the la't" r l .' that is so disheartening and dirhcult to rear, besides yielding but a modicum of nrofit. If unable to get eailA broodv liens, and failing possession ot an incubator, it is worth trying to get someone else possessing the at>oliancesi to hatch for you. Jul?" kens, though on the early side a little are worth two or three November specimens. On (rare occasions one will come across a well developed | chicken hatched in November, but they are exceptionable, and not to be depended on.