Mar. 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 217 



Poultry Notes* 



March. 



JAMES HADLINGTON, Poultry Expert. 



Notwithstanding the cloud under which the poultry industry is temporarily 

 labouring, and the severe testing time to which the poultry farmer is being 

 subjected, we must still make plans for the immediate future. Stock may 

 have to be reduced to a very low level, and many pullets and hens that 

 might have been prospective paying units with feed at a medium or low 

 price, may now become unprofitable. This will make severe thinning 

 down an absolute necessity. Therefore, the main work of the poultry 

 farmer for the present will be rigid culling of the non-producers. Unfor- 

 tunately we have reached the time of the year when many potentially good 

 producers will not be laying, but unless under stress of absolute necessity, 

 these should not be sacriticed. This, of course, refers to hens that have 

 completed, or are completing their first yeai-'s laying. In regard to those 

 completing their second year's laying, that is, birds thirty months old, it is 

 questionable if 10 per cent, of these will pay for their keep from this time 

 onward. 



In regard to the disposal of such hens, it is fortunate that a good many 

 appear to be going into cold storage. Should this continue it will assist in 

 staving off the slump that would otherwise occur for this class on the 

 marker. Light weight sorts must, however, be expected to suffer in price. 

 It is only the heavier sorts that can make satisfactory prices, weight being a 

 prime factor in hens to be stored. 



Culling Pullets. 



This is one of the most difficult problems for even the experienced poultry 

 farmer, because, notwithstanding all the rule-of-thumb systems that have 

 from time to time been promulgated, experience proves that no uniform 

 success in culling pullets can be attained until they have come well into 

 lay. This fact accentuates the difficulty in regard to culling late-hatched 

 pullets. Almost every poultry farmer of any standing has his own 

 experience in respect to how his latest hatched pullets come on to lay, but 

 the almost general experience is that the great bulk of pullets hatched and 

 reared under ordinary poultry farm conditions after the middle of September 

 do not lay many eggs before the following July. There are, of course, 

 exceptions to this rule, but where that is so it will mostly be found due to 

 having secured development that is above the average for this class. 



Another fact the poultry farmer will do well to keep in mind is that these 

 pullets are generally 25 per cent, worse laj^ers during the whole of their lives 

 than earlier hatched birds, even from the same parent stock. Here, then, 

 is where culling is fairly safe at the present time. 

 c 



