Farming Weekend YOUNG ‘GIRLS’ RITE OF PASSAGE TO HENHOOD

By Manny Pinol

For young farm boys, the rite of passage to manhood is circumcision and this is usually done during the summer months when schools are closed.

For young girls, the rite of passage to womanhood is their first monthly period.

Farm animals also have their passage to a phase where they start becoming productive.

For chickens, when the young stags start chasing pullets in the range, it is time for the farmer or the breeder to confine him or tie him up, lest he gets into a fight to the death with the other stags. Or he gets clobbered and beaten up by bigger stags.

For the pullets, or young female chicken, their passage to hen-hood is the reddening of the crown, wattle and face.

This is when she would allow the stags to go on top of her and in a few weeks she will start laying eggs.

This happens usually at age 5 months to 6 months.

Breeders like me keep a keen eye on these physical manifestations on our chicken to make sure that they are bred properly.

We also make sure that the pullets and the stags have the right body conformation without physical defects before they are placed in the breeding pens.

A stag and a pullet with thin and long body will almost always produce off-spring with thing and long body.

A stag and pullet which are not healthy will also throw chicks which are sickly.

So, before the start of the mating for the new stags and pullets, breeders like me make sure that they are caught and physically examined for deformities and abnormalities.

Those that do not meet the physical standards are eliminated and culled.

Those which qualify are properly tagged or leg-banded to make sure that the grouping of the breeding materials is properly done. This is to avoid the breeding of closely related fowls as it could result in genetic deterioration.

The stags and pullets are also dewormed, given a bath to make sure that they have no mites or lice and given shots of Vitamin B12 to make sure that they are healthy going into the breeding pen.

Yesterday, I and the boys in the farm spent the whole day preparing over 200 pullets for the breeding season.

They were given a bath with soap and anti-mite solution, dewormed, injected with B12 and banded in the legs with colored plastic strips for easy identification.

This is their rite of passage to the stage where they become hens producing fertilized brown eggs which will then be incubated and hatched to produce the Manok PiNoy for the meat market.

Two months from now, these pullets will be ready to produce.

With proper care, they are expected to give us healthy and vigorous chicks which could survive the elements in the free range.

(Photos left shows the boys giving the pullets a bath in tubs with soap and anti-mite solution; the pullets are then given shots of B12 and a pop of Volatex dewormer and then leg-banded with colored plastic strips for easy identification.)