THE FARM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 253, 23 October 1907, Page 9

THE FARM.

POULTRY KEEPING IN MOVABLE

HOUSES.

. The. system of poultry-keeping, which best lends itself to adoption on farms in this country is -undoubtedly that under which small flocks of fowls are kept in movable houses scattered thinly over the land. This method has many advantages which combine to make it the most profitable that can be undertaken, at any rate; where egg production is the abject. The old-iashi6ned plan of keeping fowls-on farms was to house them all together in a large flock in a fixed structure near the homestead. This meant that they spent most of their time in the yaTd or about the buildings scratching over dunghills ana waiting for scraps of foofl outside the kitchen door. Under these circumstances only a small area of ground is constantly run over by the birds, whilst the rest of the farm is wasted, as far as poultry is concerned. Thus the ground is certain to become tainted, and when this happens tbe fowls cannot thrive and remain healthy. Tainted ground, in fact, is the greatest enemy to successful poultry-keeping, and has been the cause of many failures.

Movable houses, on the other hand, may be placed all over the farm, so that the whole of the ground is used equally, and is not heavily enough stocked to become tainted. Moreover the houses can be-moved-from field to field as the crops are removed, and in this way the birds obtain a change of ground that is most, beneficial. If they are housed in small flocks of twenty-five or fewer to the acre, the amount of natural food they will pick up for themselves will be enormous, and will effect a great saving in the bill for bought-in foods. This natural food, too, is better than any other for the birds, and combined with the clean run, will keep them in health and promote laying , . Some farmers imagine that harm may be done to grazing and other land br the This is not the ease, however, if the birds are not run too thickly, and they will then not make the grazing distasteful to farm stock. On the contrary, their droppings are of the utmost value, especially on grass land, and re,cent experiments have proved that this manure more than pays for the fowls' i share of the rent. When the houses are ' properly moved about these droppings are evenly distributed over the land and fertilise it to a valuable extent. The fowls also do useful work in destroying insects, many of -which form part of their natural food. During a day they devour countless insects, and in this way clear the land of many destructive pests. This is found to be the 'case. in fruit plantations as well as on arable and pasture land, and is a point which must on no account be lost sight of. Poultry-houses may be roughly divided into two forms—those with and those without floors. At one time floorless houses were generally recommended for farm use, the idea being that the droppings, by falling directly on the ground manured it, and did away with the trou"ble of cleaning. The plan is, however, wasteful. Unless the houses are moved very regularly the land cannot be evenly manured, and even then it quickly bocomes tainted. Moreover, the sides of the house must in this case rest on the ground, whore they are liable to rot; whereas floored houses are mounted on wheels or Tunners, so that the woodwork is r kept 'dry and off ■ the ground;; The wheels or runners, too, enable the houses to be moved from place to place much more easily, and, the fl'po.r protects the birds from draughts. Floored houses hare the additional advantage that they can be left in one position for any length of time, when necessary, as the droppings can bo periodically removed and used on ploughed land. Preference should be given to houses with plenty of ventilation, those with open wired fronts being much in favour. Sizes to hold from a dozen to twenty fowls will be found most useful. It must be admitted that a certain amount of trouble has to be taken to move the' housea and attend to the birds, but this is quite justified by the returns. CHICKEN JOTTINGS. A critical period in the lives of the young chickens is when they are gettin" their feathers. Numbers of chickens pear to do well until they get their feathers, and then they pine ahd die. This has been traced to one of several different causes in most of the cases which have come under our notice. Some poultry-keepers feed their young birds on food which contains fur too much husk, and this clogs the intestines, particularly where the supply of grit is deficient in quantity or in sharpness. Where middlings and barley meal are £iven to chickens they should be carefully sifted, so that all the husks are removed; then there can be no danger of a stoppage from this cause. During the time the chickens arc with the hen or in the foster mother they require careful feeding, as they are more subject to stoppage at this period than any other. Hard-boiled eggs should not 'be given to chickens at all, as they cause constipation, and are liable to give the birds' digestive organs too much to do. Split groats and fine biscuit meal (scalded) is all they* need for the first few days, unless one of the specially prepared chicken meals is given in change for the biscuit meal. An attack of diarrhoea should be treated at once by giving some warmed castor oil. which removes anything which may have collected internally, and if followed by extra good feeding, the birds do not lose strength as might be supposed, but speedily gain it. A splendid food for young chickens is wliole meal. This is ground wheat, the whole of the flour being in the meal. This is only a little more expensive than middlings,, and is most beneficial to them, as it is full of nutriment, and the chickens thrive wonderfully on it. We find this an excellent food to use in change with biscuit meal and ground oats. Both are nourishing, and tne young birds do remarkably well on them. It is important that chickens should be kept growing, no matter whether they are required for laying or table purposes, or for stock, as a lack of progress denotes that something is wrong.

Where birds are required for slock only they should have a liberal supply of bone meal of the dry crushed bone class, ■with flint dust, added to their soft food each day. This system of supplying bone forming material prevents leg weakness. When oiie breeds from healthy unrelated birds, leg -weakness is practically unknown when the young ones have a liberal supply of bone meal and flint dust in their soft food.

When chickens leave ihe hens they should be put into small houses, in which there is plenty of ventilation. There are different kinds of houses used for this purpose, and these vary according to the Circumstances of the o-wners.

Sbm'e poor 'poultry-keepers use large cases, "bbtkinable from grocers, etc., for their biriisj covering the top -with roofing

felt, and making a doer in ehe side for the front, and providing- ventilation, by boring holes all round.- - ■ '

When one can afford them, it is a good plan to have a few small "houses on wheels, so that the chickens at different ages can be separated and the houses can be moved every few days. Bottoms are provided to these, and they are covered with peat moss to the depth of three inches.

We have, frequently advised our readers not to keep their chickens of different ages together. If they do so, the young ones will , suffer, . and chickens which are dwarfed in size are a nuisance to their owners, and therefore' this unfortunate condition of things should be avoided by keeping them separated.

For summer use the houses should have wire fronts, using one inch mesh netting boarded up to the height of 18 inches in the front. It is always we'll to avoid overcrowding, and to provide less heat than is required rather than too much.

We do not think it is necessary for us to refer at any length to the importance of a constant supply of really sharp flint grit. Without this birds cannot thrive.

Then a careful oversight should be kept for vermin, arid any which appear should be disposed of at once by dustj. ing the birds well with pyrethrum powder. If birds are not doing well, examine their tongues, and see if the ends are perfectly free from scale. If not, just remove the scale, and the birds will thrive. ,