OCR Text |
Show serving. members. Report Shows Chicken Population Of Utah Less Than a Year Ago The summary of the Utah poultry record keeping project issued recently, by the extension service of the Utah State Agricultural college indicates j that the poultry population of thej state has been considerably reduced during the past year. In October, 1931, j the size of the average flock in the state, as reflected by the 192 reports j that were received, was 920.9 birds, ' compared with an average of 772.9 birds in 208 flocks in October, 1932.! This is a decrease on the average of-: 254 birds per flock, or 15.9 per cent, j The decrease in number of chickens in the state is further shown by the change that has taken place in the car lot shipments of eggs from Utah during dur-ing the period from October, 1931, to September 1932, compared with the same period a year earlier. Only 777 carloads of eggs have been shipped out of Utah during the past poultry year beginning October, 1931, and ending in September, 1932, compared with a total of 1127 carloads of eggs shipped during the same months a year earlier. This represents a decrease de-crease of 350 carloads; or 210,000 j cases, or 6,300,000 dozens, or 75,600,-! 75,600,-! 000 eggs. The summary also shows that the average egg production in October, 1931, was 8.1 eggs per hen, while in ! October, 1932, it was only 7.8 eggs per hen. Inasmuch as the weather in i October was ideal for egg produc-i produc-i tion in Utah, the decrease this year is due, no doubt, to the fact that fewer j pullets were raised and a greater per- centage of old hens, that usually molt at this time of the year, are being carried over in the laying pens. Additional items that show "a decrease de-crease in October, 1932, compared with the same month a year ago, are the per cent of the birds that died from prolapsus and accident and the per cent of the cooperators that were weighing marked birds. The average egg production from the pullet flocks in October, compared with that received from the hen flocks, is also interesting. Thirty-four flocks containing an average of 394 hens, produced an average of only six eggs per hen, as compared With an average aver-age of 11 eggs produced per pullet in 22 flocks containing an average of 5G3.2 pullets. Copies of the October poultry record rec-ord keeping summary, which contain additional information, may be secured secur-ed by writing to the Extension Service, Ser-vice, Utah State Agricultural College, Logan, Utah. |