POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 239, 6 October 1923, Page 20

POULTRY KEEPING.

(By B. J. TEMIY.)

TO CORRESPONDENTS. W.E.T. (Devonport) asks if I could give the reason why some eggs from White Leghorn pullets after being preserved for a ehort time in a well-known egg preservative become bitter to the taste. The feeding of the fowls is quite normal.— I can only suppose that some foreign substance has found its way into the preservative. It might be that tlie bottle In which the preservative was bought had previously been used for some other purpose. The preservative mentioned is silicate of soda, and in combination with the lime of an eggshell could not form a bitter compound. Something may have been dropped or spilt into the vessel containing the eggs and preservative. BEGINNER (Grey Lynn) asks if I could tell how to cure a hen which is enffering from the "pip."—ln our grandmothers' time, when fowls were suffering from what is known as the "pip," they caught the fowl and pinched off the tip of the tongue, a useless and foolish proceeding. The tongue became dry and brown, because the bird was constantly breathing through its mouth, owing to the nostrils beliiK blocked up -with dry mucous from a cold. Cleanse the nostrils and you remove the cause, and the ■tongue eventually becomes normal. When a fowl goes about making a catching noise in the throat It may be due to two causes, bronchltie, in which case the fowl will probably recover of Its own accord when the weather improves; but it is more probable, if the throat is inspected, that a small cheesy growth will be found near the entrance to the bronchial tube. If this is removed, or the growth touched with a caustic pencil, the cure will be effected. E.L.H. (Mornlhgside) asks If duck eggs can be preserved In water glass.—Duck eggs do not preserve with the same reliability that hen eggs do, but this is due in a great measure to the eggs not being thoroughly washed, and especially rinsed in quite clean water after the washing. ANXIOUS INQUIRER (Parnell) asks why hens get egg-bound, and If there is any cure.—There are two chief causes of the trouble. At or near the time for a hpn to lay a developed egg, if she is seriously frightened, the bearing-down contractions may cease, and the egg be retained indefinitely. This may take place even where a hen persists In using one particular nest, and if that nest is occupied, or she cannot get at it, the period of contractions may pass and the egg be. retained. The remedy is quietness and plenty of nests. When a fowr is eggbound ihe walks about with the abdomen nearly touching the ground. If the bird is held vent downwards over a jug of Bteaming water the egg may be passed. Inserting the finger well oiled or vaselined into the egg passage will often bring about the desired result. If the bird is a valuable one and the egg be retained say, for a couple of days, well oil or vaseline the finger, insert into egg passage, and when the egg can be felt slip a small tacking needle along the linger, taking care not to perforate the walla of the oviduct or passage. Now scratch the end of the egg with the needle, and endeavour to pierce the shell. Be patient and take your time. The shell once pricked the strength of the arch is lost, and it will most probably collapse in a few hours and be passed. Various correspondents have •written re the export of eggs. Ido not think it advisable to comment on tho export of eggs at this stage. The eggs will arrive in England at the season of the year when eggs are getting, scarce and dear, not at their dearest, I will admit. I sec no reason why the export should not be a success and grow year by year. The market for them is in England; we have opposite seasons from the Old Country, an asset which will always remain with us. If the shipment is not a success, it will simply be due to some error which can be rectified and overcome in subsequent shipments, so that there is no cause for poultry breeders to worry. Even if the export were not a success, there is no cause to worry, as I could increase the local consumption of eggs by 25 or 30 per cent if I seriously got to work. FAKING. The Press is really taking tho poultry industry seriously. For long it has been the Cinderella of the farm, but there is a tendency of late to give it the prominence which it merits. Hence we have a cabled message a week ago that a Black Orpington at the Melbourne Royal Show had white feathers in its tail, and that the exhibitor admitted disguising them with blacklead. Well, the exhibitor must have been a beginner, or he would

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i not have used such crude methods; further, it is very uncommon nowadays for a purebred Black Orpington to show white in the tail, although white flight feathers, or, rather, partly white, are fairly common. In fact, the white showing in the wings of well-bred Orpington chicks often causes consternation to the purchaser of high-priced eggs, when the chicks hatch out and it is found that they not only have distinct creamy fluff in places, but when starting to feather, white tips to the wings. This is due to the Black Orpington being evolved originally from three breeds, one of which was not a black. But those birds which show white are invariably a good colour when adults, and are very seldom a brownish-black, as is often the case when the chicks are a dead black in their early stages. I suppose faking will always be ■ more or less prevalent in exhibition birds, although my past experience has shown mc that in nearly all cases the exhibitors were extremely foolish, quite apart from their dishonesty, and also were committing the greatest error of modern times of " being found out." In so many cases the birds would have won had they been left alone, but when faking is found, the exhibitor must be penalised by his exhibit being passed. I have had partly white car-lobes in Buff Orpingtons painted red, and it was evident that the exhibitors were not artists; and White Leghorns' legs coloured yellow with butter or cheese colouring when being shown in dairying districts. It was a* common practice when Hamburgs were the rage to pluck a certain number of feathers from the breasts, etc., to give more prominence to the spangling. The same has often been done to enhance the lacing of Gold and Silver Wyandottcs. I found one case where the sickle feathers of a Hamburg rooster had evidently been faulty. They had been removed about an inch and a half from the body, the quills being left in. Two sickle feathers from another bird were cemented on to the quills, and they certainly had a very natural appearance, but it was the end of the reputation of that breeder. Now, it is not often that I touch on show matters, and this is in the past, in Australia, but I might point out that we have a certain amount of what may be termed " faking" here in New Zealand which is really serious, and does a certain amount of harm to the industry, disheartening quite a number of beginners. I have a letter before mc now, where a farmer's wife complains that she purchased from a breeder what purported to be one-year-old hens, but which were afterwards proved to be three-year-olds. Another letter complains that in purchasing chicks from a day to a week old the percentage of cockerels is out of all proportion. Admitted that this dishonesty is confined to a few, but I am afraid that it is not always the smallest breeders. There is only one consolation, and that is, like the show faker, their time comes. Their reputation is then. gone. Another correspondent has so far failed to secure the eggs, for which she has paid, from a suburban specialist. SITTINGS OF EGGS. The hatching season, by all accounts, seems to be somewhat erratic. Some districts report very poor hatches, while a few are the reverse. Breeders and beginners should bear in mind that if they want a given number of pullets, and they put down eggs from a really good egg-laying strain, then they must make arrangements to put down a larger number of eggs than would be the case if they were hatching from ordinary layers or birds for table purposes. The fact remains, despite what some would have us believe, you do not get the percentage of chicks from the heavy layer that you will from the ordinary barnyard layer. The reason is very simple. The barnyard fowl, the poor layer, has so many off days in which she stores up in her own body constituents of eurplus food consumed, that she has abundance of all the constituents required for the formation and growth of a chick, whereas the heavy layer may be short of just some fraction of a mineral salt; but although it is only a trace required in the egg to bring about a continual growth of life, yet that trace must be there, otherwise nature calls a stop.