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Show Poultrymen Warned Against Forcing Pullets It is not uncommon at this season sea-son of the year to see the combs on some pullets in the flock shrivel up, the birds stop laying and even go through a complete body molt before resuming production. This is an expensive experience, because it is the period of high prices for eggs and the older birds normally molt and are out of production during the late fall and early winter months of the year, Carl Frischknecht, Utah extension poultryman points out. Just why some pullets should stop laying and start to molt while others in the flock continue in production is not too well known. Usually it is the pullets that start to lay first or those handicaped in some way by parasites that go out of production while the rest of the flock continue to lay. . Frequently this condition has been observed in pullets that were forced into heavy production soon after they commenced laying, says Mr. Frischknecht. Very little study has been made of this problem to date, but poultrymen poul-trymen are inclined to believe that it is due largely to the condition and body weight of the bird. It is a mistake to force young pullets into in-to heavy production when they first start to lay because all the nutrients they consume are required for egg production and the bird may actually actu-ally lose body weight. Pullets that have been cared for properly should Weigh about 3M pounds when they come into production and continue to gain in size and Weight until they average about 4 pounds at one year of age. Every poultryman should invest a little money in a good pair of scales with which to weigh his chickens. Pullets should be weighed when they first start to lay and it is a good plan to make regular weighings of a certain number of designated layers lay-ers in each pen selected at random, six to ten, as a guide to correct feeding feed-ing practices. It is often difficult to keep January Janu-ary ' and early February-hatched pullets from molting at this time of the year, but with proper feed and care those hatched later, during the months of March and April, should now be increasing not only in size and weight but in their egg production produc-tion . |
