38 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
ES a SE ES 
have oil there to make the best part of 
the egg. The fattest hens we killed were 
in the best laying condition, and the 
poorest hens we turned out by them— 
selves, and there was not the faintest 
chance of their laying for two or three 
months.’ 
There is no doubt but that the laying 
of eggs requires a great deal of ‘stored- 
up’ energy in the hen, and it is naturally 
to be presumed that a hen in ‘good con- 
dition would be more able to stand a 
drain on her system thana poor bird. The 
matter of fat in hens we believe is a great 
deal like high condition in breeding stock 
of any kind. 
Poor breeding or poor egg production 
is not caused so much by high condition 
as by the manner in which this state was 
brought about, and the subsequent care 
given. A good plump form, resulting 
from proper feeding of proper foods, fol- 
lowed by proper care, will not be con- 
ducive to bad results in the ‘pen. A hen 
needs lots of nourishing food if she 
will continue to lay eggs; a starved hen 
will not fill the egg case very soon. Too 
much fat, however, and too little exercise 
is a cause of hens not laying, 
need be little fear of a hon becoming too 
fat is she healthy, and has the proper 
amount of exercise. Herein lies the 
reason for feeding grain amongst a straw 
litter in the winter time. Do not feed a 
single grain, and that one extremely rich 
in fat-producing elements, but feed a 
mixture, the more kinds the better, and 
feed it in a good litter so that the hens 
will have to hunt for it. High condition 
caused in this way will not be the cause 
of non-egg production. 
‘Queensland Agricultural Journal.’ 
neni 
Selecting Laying Stock. 
H. V. Hawkins, Poultry Expert. 
There are a great many methods 
advertised in various pamphlets and 
papers stating that, if you will practise 
this or that method of selecting as laid 
down in the paper, you will be able to 
determine the drones from the workers. 
The writer has tried a few of these 
‘so-called certainties, and has come to the 
But there | 
June J, 1909 
conclusion the trap nest is the only 
accurate test. It is by selection and 
keeping records, that advancement is made 
along this line. 
Each hen has her own individuality, 
ie., certain hens lay eggs that are in nine 
cases out of ten hatchable. Some hens 
lay well, but, although their eggs are 
usually fertile, they will not hatch 
whether set under a hen or placedin the 
best incubator. The chicks develop to a 
certain size, in many cases being fully 
formed, but die in the shell Again, 
many hens lay eggs that are seldom 
fertile. 
In selecting birds one has several 
objects. The saying‘ that the hen that 
lays is the hen that pays’ is often heard. 
The majority of those engaged in the 
poultry business consider egg production 
the best end of the business. Itis often 
the surest. There is not the same amount 
of risk attached to it. At the same time 
if people are foolish enough to believe 
that Mr. So-and-So can supply eggs from 
hens, tested by the so-called new system, 
_ which have produced 300.eg¢s per annum 
they have more fai‘h in the advertiser and 
the hen than the writer has. 
There doubt that certain 
characteristics should be looked for in a 
good laying hen, She should be low set 
is no 
.and stand on a pair of shanks fairly wide 
The head should be nice and 
clean cut with a full bright eye. 
apart. 
In other 
words, hens should show feminine char- 
acter and not wrinkled and sunken 
Hens of the latter type. should 
be discarded; in short, masculinity in the 
hen isa bad sign. A hen with a large 
capacity for food, ie., has a large crop 
(craw), is usually a payable bird to 
feed. The smaller the sack of food she 
takes to roost at night the fewer eggs will 
she produce, Dairymen know that a cow 
must have plenty of room for food, in 
order to produce a large milk yield. 
The advertised systems serve one pur- 
features. 
pose, viz. by examining the lay bones the 
amateur knows which bird is about to 
lay, or is Jaying. Should the lay bones 
be relaxed to the extent of about three 
fingers (closed) the bird is laying; if they 
are almost in contact, that is the hen to 
market, but so much depends on the 
time of year one wishes to sell table 
fowls, 
—Victorian “ Journal of Agriculture.” 
Preserving Eggs. 
By a novel process of preserving, eggs 
six months old (says the ‘Daily Mail’) are 
able to retain their ‘ new-laid’ freshness. 
The process has been adopted by a firm 
of Hull importers, acting on the theory 
that an egg decomposes owing to the 
entrance of bacteria through the shell. 
The shells by the new process, are first: 
disinfected and then immersed in a vessel 
of hot paraffin wax in a vacuum. Theair 
in the shell is extracted by the vacuum, 
and atmospheric pressure is then allowed 
to enter the vessel, when the hot wax is. 
forced into the ‘ pores’ of the shell, which: 
thus hermetically seals it. Evaporation 
of the contents of the eggs, which has a 
harmful effect, is thereby prevented, and. 
the egg is practically sterile. Some ‘new- 
laid’ eggs treated in this manner six 
months ago (the date being guaranteed by 
Mr. Thomas A. Robinson, J.P., the head 
of the firm), have been submitted to 
chemical and microscopic examination by 
the ‘Daily Mail,’ and have been found 
equal to new-laid eggs in every respect. 
The yolk of pickled eggs and others 
artificially preserved will sometimes break 
on being poached, but the eggs examined: 
behave when poached exactly as new-laid 
The inside of the shell showed 
under careful examination, that the wax 
penetrates through the ‘ pores,’ the con- 
tents being thus quite immune from 
external influences. The advantage of 
the process is that the eggs will fetch 48 [ 
per 1,440 more than those preserved in 
lime-water or by water-glaas, and 32/ more 
kept in cold storage. 
Thousands of tons of eggs are preserved 
ones, 
than those 
every year in this country by various 
processes, but the quality of the six 
months old ‘ new-laid’ is such that the 
present amount may shortly be greatly 
increased. 
Deere eee cee] 
Poultry-raising is gotting to be of much 
more importance to the average farmer 
than it once was. Farmers are beginning 
to realise there is a big profit in chickens. | 
EE ee eee 
