POULTRY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 276, 27 November 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

POULTRY NOTES.

When the chicks are all hatched leave them under the hen undisturbed for one day. They are tender and delicate and need the vitalising heat of the mother. Let them remain without food until the second day. When the hen is taken from the nest dust her thoroughly with fresh insect powder. Grease her legs lightly with melted lard and apply two or three drops to the back of her neck. Do not put any under her wings, as the chicks are apt to get it into their eyes, causing blindness. Lice pass from the hen to ttie chicks, so if there is one louse on the hen it is one too many. The first four ov five days feed stale bread or cracker crumbs moistened with sweet milk. Do not make it too sloppy. The principal food should be bread made of equal parts fine oatmeal,bran, shorts, and maize meal. Add enoug-h soda and salt to season, and three teaspoonfuls of ground bone. Mix with sweet milk and bake in the oven. Crumble the inside of the bread and feed it dry. Take the crust and moisten with a raw egg until the whole is a stiff dough. Young- chicks will keep healthy and grow fast on this food. Egg is the natural food for youngfowls, and should be given once or twice a daj^. Raw egg will prevent bowel trouble, while too much hardboiled egg will produce it.

Teed regularly every two hours until the chicks are a week old, then four times a clay will do. Give them all they will eat up clean, but do not leave any in the trough to soiir. As soon as chicks require food they require water. Milk may be given, but it should be sweet. If the weather is cold, have the water tepid. Construct the drinking dishes so that the chicks can drink without getting- wet. Never feed raw meal to chicks. Bran is better than sharps, as it contains more mineral matter and is one of the best bone-forming- foods that can be given to growing fowls; but it should always bescalded. As they grow older feed grain, either whole or cracked. Table scraps and garden g-reen s may also be given. Keep pulverised charcoal and fine gravel within their reach all the time. The young chicks must be kept warm and dry until they are six weeks old; a single night's exposure may bring on diarrhoea. When this appears it is generally attributed to the food, but the real cause is cold.

Do not keep the hen confined in a coop unless it is a large one, and then only in bad, wet weather. If she has her liberty she will dust daily and rid herself of the parasites, and the little chicks will learn at an early age to wallow in the dust. Let them roam over the fields and they will gather a large part of their food, and do good by eating many insects.