POULTRY NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 3 December 1913, Page 6

POULTRY NOTES.

(By Utilitarian.) The strike lias caused an unprecedented shortage in pollard and bran,. ! and poultry-keepers need not be surI prised in.having to pay a little more | for their requirements in this respect. However, it will be a greater loss to ' reduce rations, as it will only mean a corresponding reduction in'the. supply of egga. ■ It may be taken fdbr granted, that the heavy breeds are,seldom as productive in eggs, in their second year, as the lighter birds. True it is that many.leghorns will not pay for their keep the second season, but this is much mora marked with such as pingtons. It is for this reason that a well-known breeder in the Lower Hutt has rejected Black Orpingtons, for the amount of food they consumed in their seco id season was outrageous, vand was by no meansi balanced with a corresponding egg yield. As pullets, * heavy breeds can h© selected which will be very profitable, but that is no criterion that they will repeat the performance. After the first adult moult, the heavy breeds almost invariably put on fat, too much, in fact, sometimes for pleasant eating. _ Now is the time when sentiment needs to be. strictly kept in hand. Sickly or deformed chicks must be (eliminated if profits and a strongoonstituted flock is looked for. , A chicken, merely as a chick, is no great value. Ita value lies in the. maturing, and it will cost something to feed those chicks, whether they are going to be profit makers or no*. Mr Wm. Jessen, late Egg Circle agent in Wellington, has been appointed head shoreman in the NewZealand Poultry Industries, Ltd., Blair Street. His last three or four years' experience will stand him-,,'u, good stead in handling large quantities of egga. The company is receding an excellent demand foir poultry and eggs. 'An extra, hand for testing eggs is also being instituted m the companyVpremises. A girl will proaably be appointed for this. worts, as it is recognised that girls are par- ) ticularly adapted, being more nimble (with- their, fingers" than the sterner sex. Though virtually a member of the newly-forced poultry society in this town, the wtiter is unable to give any details of the last meeting of members, owing,.tQ failing to see auy notice in the Age or receiving ficial intimation from the secretaiy; but from what can be gathered, the society ig making good progress As both Nelson and Motueka districts will be shortly supplying eggs and poultry to the above-mentioned company in Wellington, it is quite I likely egg circles will be organised over there, in order that poultrykeepers can effect a saving in cost of collecting and shipping their produce. Eepresentatives from both towns, have called on the Wellington secretary to obtain all necessary particulars. ~ . . Mr F. Gordon, a one-tune greut 1 advocate for egg testing of hens, and contestant in the great libel case' a few months ago, in defence of his system, is said to be- making gigintic headway in Australia. He lias, I un-, derstand, been appointed a lecturer to the Hawkesbury College. There 'is something of the cinematograpn about him; versatile, and decidedly moveable. It would take many thmsauls of feet of films to reproduce him in anvthirig like his entirety. One recalls to mmd,his characterise attitude during the second poultry co.'ifeience in Chris'tchurch two years atro, wh«n he verbally fought t#o well-known experts in their own domain. Ji argument, his eqml m the poultry world would be almost a homeless task to find. ' When weaner pigs are scarce atta difficult to obtain, it is "often wwth while feeding chickens, and layers on the otherwise lost milk: It helps to fatten the cotekerels, and: to some extent takes the place of 'neat. It is astonishing the amount they will sometimes consume.