Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 360

B. Poultry. 1. The first Jewish settlers did not regard poultry breeding to be a paying concern, and they paid no special attention to the few fowls which they had on their farms. The number of eggs laid was very few : 50-60 eggs per head per annum. The poultry coops were not sufficiently well ventilated, and this branch could therefore not become an important economic factor in the Jewish settlements. 2. The first settlements established by the Keren Hayesod at first maintained the same attitude to poultry breeding. The first stimulus, however, for poultry breeding on a larger scale resulted from experiments in poultry breeding made by the Agricultural Experimental Station in Ben Shemen as far back as 1913. Modern coops were erected, new breeds introduced, such as the White Leghorn, the Orpington, etc. Experiments were also made in the selection of local breeds and cross-breeding, and in 1914, ninety eggs per head were laid in the course of ten months, in 1915, 120 eggs per head per annum, and in 1916, ninety-seven eggs per head per eleven months. Owing to the War the experiments ceased in 1916 and were resumed by the Station after the War, when new poultry coops and yards were erected and 300 thoroughbred fowls of various breeds such as Leghorn, Orpington, etc., were introduced. In 1926 the Experimental Station published the results of its experiments in Ben Shemen, which proved that by proper attention and suitable feeding a minimum of 100 eggs per head per annum can be reached. These results encourage the settlements to develop poultry breeding in a more intensive way. In 1927 the Tenuva marketed over 70,000 eggs, while in 5694 the sale of eggs by Tenuva amounted to 4,500,000. The average number of eggs per settlement amounted to 100,000. About 500,000 eggs were incubated, and the settlements acquired incubators with a capacity of 170,000 eggs. 3. Poultry breeding in the smallholding settlements. The range of poultry breeding is not the same in all the settlements. Some settlers aim at supplying their own needs alone, but the majority of the settlers produce surpluses for marketing. There is no farm which keeps less than 40-50 laying hens, but many keep more than 150, the average being 100 head of fowls per farm. The number of chickens per family amounts to 250-400. The conditions in the smallholding settlements are favourable for poultry breeding. The fowls feed on the remains of the farmyard, and the farmer thus utilises the food which would otherwise go to waste. The poultry coop is usually near the house and it is therefore convenient for supervision. As a rule, the poultry coops are managed by the farmer's wife, and this work is included in the daily household duties. For this reason poultry breeding is a better paying concern in the individual farms than in the Kvutzoth. 360