§ Colonel Carverasked the Minister of Agriculture whether there is any method of segregating the sexes of day-old chicks; whether any training is required to do this; and whether he will recommend the destruction of very young cockerels in view of the food situation?
Mr. HudsonIn the case of sex-linked crosses and of certain auto-sexing breeds of fowl such as the Cambar, the sex of day-old chicks may be determined through differences in the colour of down, legs, etc. In other cases, segregation can be effected by trained chick-sexers. The maximum prices fixed for table poultry do not encourage the production of roasting chicken, and poultry keepers have been warned that feeding-stuffs cannot be provided for such birds in war-time. Maximum prices have also recently been re-introduced for petit-poussins, that is, birds of about eight weeks old, at a level designed to encourage the sale of cockerels as soon as they can readily be identified.