Aprils, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 293 



out after the first three weeks. The plan advocated here allows of the first 

 batches of chickens being pushed forward out of the way of the progressive 

 hatchings, and a smaller' brooder capacity can handle them with more 

 facility than would be the case where too many were hatched at one time, 

 even were eggs available— and they geiierally are not until some of the 

 raoist valuable weeks are lost. Ihis advice will probably bo regarded as 

 " out-of-date " by people perhaps not wholly disinterested, but the tragedy 

 of failure, and the abnormal wastage of chicken life tliat toolc place during 

 the past rearing season (the result of " get chickens-quick " methods) is 

 cause for sounding a note of warning. If the loss of chickens was the only 

 result the case would be less serious, but, unfortunately, it is not. The 

 conditions that cause such great mortality result also in loss of physique and 

 stamina in the survivors. 



The moral is that poultry farmers should aim at rearing only the number 

 of chickens that can be safely put through their equipment, and should 

 extend the hatching over a sufficient length of time (within the season, of 

 course) to enable them to rear thrifty stock, which alone will pay, particularly 

 in these times of high cost of feeding. 



This is the season of the year when all these considerations should come 

 into focus, and when complete plans can be made that may prevent much cf 

 the loss referred to above. 



Some Causes of Premature Staleness in Eggs. 



ExERACTS from a correspondent's letter, with the opinion expressed by the 

 Poultry Expert on the issue raised : — 



" My surplus of eggs is sold every Saturday to a grocer. No egg is more 

 than seven days old when it reaches him, yet he complains that some of 

 them are bad. . . . The nests are on the ground and in wet weather 

 the eggs are very often muddy when gathered, and have to be soaked in 

 cold water and the mud rubbed off when it is soft enough. . . . The 

 eggs are placed each night in a butter box with a lid on — without packing, 

 just piled on top of one another. While waiting to be sold at the grocer's 

 they are kept in an open butter box under the counter." 



" Eggs kept for seven days after being washed would be most likely to go 

 bad — they would certainly be stale. Again, when eggs are being washed, 

 especially if large numbers are put into a quantity of water, many are likely 

 to become fractured, and would deteriorate rapidly. Washing removes the 

 natui'al protection from the egg and gives access to bacteria. Soiled eggs 

 are better left unwashed until the day on which they are to be packed ; 

 in the meantime they should be kept quite drj'. 



" C(mcerning the method of storing mentioned, it must be pointed out 

 that if the butter boxes used were in the slightest degree tainted the odour 

 would be conveyed to the eggs. Seven days is rather a long time to keep 

 eggs before marketing — particularly in summer time. Ii is conceivable that 

 the grocer to whom those in question were sold might have kept them 

 another week exposed to the air and perhaps draughts. In such event 

 they would certainly not be fresh." 

 c 



