LATE HATCHED PULLETS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 October 1940, Page 9

LATE HATCHED PULLETS

VALUE OF MILK IN RATION. Late-hatched pullets are notoriously slow growers, and on this account we are advised not to produce them, but many do, only to find themselves faced with the inevitable problem of how to bring them along. Assuming that, in spite of your good resolution, in a moment of weakness you were persuaded to have just one more hatch, the question arises as to what can be done to help them overcome the handicap with which they commence. There are factors responsible for the slow growth of the late chicks which are beyond our control, and since they have the greatest influence in determining growth rate we can do nothing that will entirely counteract them, but must content ourselves with the question of environment insofar as this influences growth. Late-hatched fowls will respond to good feeding and management, and though it will not succeed in removing the handicap the date of hatching places upon them, it is surely worth while giving them every chance. If not, why produe them at all?

If these chicks are kept by themselves. given plenty of room and fresh ground, they will naturally come along very much better than when in competition with older stock. The feeding should be good and abundant. Milk in some form is particularly beneficial, not only as a growth-promoting agenq but also as a factor in building up resistance against those diseases to which late-hatched fowls are particularly susceptible. Dry-mash feeders will find a supplementary feed of wet mash helpful as also will be soaked grain fed in troughs.

While every case must necessarily be considered individually, as a general rule the use of milk is advised for stock which are obviously in a rundown condition. It does not matter what form it takes liquid or dried, skimmed milk, goat’s milk, buttermilk powder, etc., but milk they should have. The addition of five per cent or 6 per cent to a standard growers’ rations of liquid skimmed milk to drink for a time will do much to improve the general condition of late-hatched stock.—“ Poultry.”