OCR Text |
Show Poultrymen Advised To Retain fill Pullets Culling Hens Is Means Of Increasing Returns To , assure top poultry profits during dur-ing the winter season, keep an all-pullet all-pullet flock. Pullets lay in the fall and winter when egg prices are high. At the same time, old hens are going through their fall molt and consuming 25 to 30 pounds of feed while producing no eggs. In the spring, when old hens resume re-sume laying, egg prices are down, thus necessitating a very heavy layer f"""w " to pay the $1.50 "x feed bill which was 'J amassed during the ' (v winter months. " Old hens may be . , i'1 sold at once or they j may be culled indi- ' S vidually as they go - out of production. f"""".wi A weekly check of the old hen flock will enable ' the poultryman to cull out the loafers. If an old hen flock is maintained over the winter months, separate housing for pullets and old hens should be provided for best management man-agement and disease control. As another step in culling the poultry flock, old roosters also should be eliminated. They serve no useful purpose and eat lots of feed. Some pullets also may have to be culled if the flock is to be maintained main-tained at the desired size for profitable profit-able operation throughout the win- icr. in iriis case, oniy me Dest potential po-tential layers should be retained. A good ready-to-lay pullet is one that is smoothly feathered, plump in body and carries richly pigmented shanks. Pullets so developed can be brought into 50 per cent egg production produc-tion without crowding by the time they are six months old. Pullets, however, never should be forced into high production during their first two months of laying. |