POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2308, 26 May 1898, Page 35

POULTRY NOTES.

By Tebhob.

An exchange gives the following hints as to how to tell an old fowl from .young lien :'• In lifting vp 1 the wings, -and pushing aside the feathers of t he sides,, you will find in the case of a young hen a long down, light and close, arranged regularly between the ather feathers which cover these parts of the body.' Through the sldn, which is of a delicate and rosy tissue, the very small blue veins -will be R.pparent. In a hen more than a year old, the down and the veins will have disappeared, the skin is of a dull white, and dry, less smooth, and somewhat farinaceous - looking. The smooth leg, with fine bright scales, is also one of the best indications. A .hen that has laid has the anus very large, one that has not laid has it very straight, and this organ commences to stretch when the pullet begins to lay.

Hens Without Males.— Eggs are only affected favourably by the absence of corks. A fertilised egg is a living thing, requiring only warmth to start a process of change in it by which its use for culinary purposes is injuriously affected. Moreover, the hens really lay more eggs when free from the attentions of the cock. I tested this some years ago when in New Jersey, near the city of New York, and selling fresh (dated) eggs to private purchasers, and found I had more eggs and better ones, which kept in good condition in the summer, than from the mated breeding flock. A few days' exposure to summer heat will spoil a fertilised egg, while a, sterile one is not injured in the least by souie weeks' keeping. —H. Stewart, in The Cultivator.

Oats as Food for Fowls. — If any ono. £.•>>,' with a dozen liens at the present time woi Tel make two pens of them, 'with six in eacli,~ie'erl one on the usual -mixtures and the other entirely on oats, information would be obtained that would be .most beneficial. As a. grain I wotild 'back the oats to give more eggs than any oilier grain or mixture of grains that could be offered them. But there is one mistake made in oats for fowls. If the grain is" not good enough for seed, or given to horses and stock, it is at once concluded that it will do for the fowls, and' it is thrown to them. Such corn has generally a great deal of husk to it, and is very light and thin ; it vouWt bring the lowest price in the market, and is next to useless for feeding purposes. It may be a black " oat, which is lighter tlian the white oiie, and even the little intelligence possossed by a fowl enables it to understand uL'afc there is little nourishment in such grain. If other kinds of stock were fed on it, no good result would be be expected, aiid why it should be thought g-ood enough for fowls it is difficult to say. The proper oats for them is a sound white one, that will weigh SSlh to' the bushel at least, or more if possible. On such oats -very little would be heax'd or experienced of disease amongst fowla, and the egg supply would be greatly increased.