EGG AND POULTRY INDUSTRY 



Last year (1903) the value of eggs exported from Denmark was 

 £1,500,000 sterling, and the trade is an increasing one. This frOm a 

 country with an area less than the half of Scotland must be noted 

 as a remarkable fact, even though the smallness of the town popula- 

 tion in comparison with the country population is taken into account. 

 In driving through the country districts we had ample opportunity 

 of seeing the number of hens kept on the farms, and of ascertaining 

 the general methods of housing and feeding. The number of hens 

 varied from about 15 to 300, according to the size of the 

 farm, and the individual taste of the farmer or his wife. On 

 every farm, however, there were some, and also in the gardens 

 of a great many cottagers. It is the great number of flocks spread 

 all over the country that provides the enormous surplus for 

 export, and not the large poultry farms, of which there are very 

 few, and these mostly for breeding pure birds for exhibition or 

 stock purposes. 



The housing of the birds was much on the same general plan 

 all over. The hen-house was part of the farm buildings, often 

 with cement floor, the perches only about two feet high and all on 

 the same level, the nest boxes clean, and the whole interior 

 generally well kept. Round the outside a wired run of from 

 5 to 20 or 30 yards square kept the birds from straying, and 

 allowed every egg to be gathered. The birds seemed to be 

 confined all the year round, and no doubt the small size of the 

 holdings accounted for this, and prevented the use of movable 

 houses on the stubbles in the autumn. The birds had a uniformly 

 healthy appearance, which showed that the extra attention 

 entailed by this system of confinement was freely given. The 

 feeding was principally on oats, rye and barley, with sometimes a 

 little maize, and very often a condensed food made from dried 

 blood and flesh. This was got at the slaughter-houses and bacon 

 factories at a very moderate price — 15s. a cwt. Incubators seemed 

 very little used unless on the larger farms, turkeys and hens doing 

 the hatching and rearing. Neither turkeys nor ducks were very 

 much in evidence, but a good many geese were seen. Of these 

 the Toulouse was considered the better layer, and the Embden the 

 more valuable on account of its white feathers. The general run 

 was a cross between these two breeds. 



The trade in feeding and selling fat poultry is not large. On 

 one farm where 1000 breeding hens were kept a fair amount of 

 trade was done in cramming birds for export to Germany, and the 

 prices for these averaged lOd. to Is. per lb. dressed, but this 



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