POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 293, 8 December 1923, Page 20

POULTRY KEEPING.

(By tt. 1. TEB.RY.) TO CORRESPONDENTS. POULTRY (Te Awamutu) writes that sho has noticed that I have discredited tho change of sex in fowls. A friend of hers at Te Awamutu has a pure-bred White Leghorn hen, five years old. About three months back it commenced to crow, theu its ears, wattles, and comb got larger, and spurs and tall feathers are now like those of a rooster. It mates with tho hens, and calls them for fooil, ami iv every way behaves like a rooster. As no chickens are reared they do not know If the eggs are fertile.—l am very thankful to my correspondent for sending the information. If there is anything like an ordinary price on the bird I should he pleased to purchase the bfrd ami settle the question whether it was ever v properly developed hen which laid eggs. These freaks have heen known for some time, and It Is quite a different matter from Dr. Crew's claim —thut he had reversed the order of sex by operations. The freak must have been known to our grandmothers at least, if not earlier. There was a common saying in the Old Country: "A whistling maid and a crowing hen are not fit for God or men." j Although this subject is of great Interest to poultry-keepers. It Is a subject that one cannot deal fully with in this column. Suffice it to say that it is probable thut the female organs of the hen were never fully developed, and that the male organs were always present, hut undeveloped, nnd for some cause which we do not understand they eventually did develop, with the change of characteristics and disposition, but a post mortem examination will settle this question. WAIKINO seeks advice as to finishing off young drakes for market. The best time to market young drakes Is at about ten weeks old, or just before they reach the stubby stage In growing their first true feathers. If you let them arrive at this stage before marketing they lose condition, and have to be kept for some few weeks to again get them reaUy good In condition. One of tlie secrets of success in fattening young ducks is not to let them have access to unlimited water. You cannot fatten If they have water to swim In. They may be bedded on fern, straw, dried grass, and a little extra material can be added to the top as it gets soiled and trampled down. Let the drinking water he some little distance away from the feeding trough, so that ♦hey do not set into tbe habit of having a mouthful of food and two mouthfuls of water. Feed only soft food. Discontinue bran, the finer the sharps tho better, which may be mixed with boiled potatoes, skim milk, or maize meal, pollard, and milk. The last week or ten days of the fattening add some rough fat to the mixture. Even if you have to* buy rough fat it pays, as yon convert the mutton or beef fat Into ducsllng fat. 3.D.C. (Remuera) has a two-year-old White Leghorn, whose right foot Is double tho slxe of the left. The bird mopes round, frequently sitting down. Yon will probably find a round hard black substance on the sole of the foot. If so, remove It, and if this does not leave n big cavltv. lance the foot underneath. It is of no use lancing except underneath. Remove all pus, plug the hole with a piece of linen dipped In carbolic acid and oil,' or any good disinfectant. Remove this piece of rag, and pat fresh twice* a day. Wash the foot well; bind up to keep out dirt. The plugging is essential, otherwise it will heal too soon and gather up again. NOVICE (Otahuhu) wishes to know the cause of fowls having worms. A younrooster was killed, and tntesttaea were full of worms, like thick white threads, with pointed ends. Some were two inches long.—Worms obtain entrance Into the bowels when the fowl is feeding over tainted ground. The eggs are on the ground, having been voided by other fowls, and are picked up. and so the ' cycle continues. Starve the bird for thirty hours, then give one grain of Sutonin, rollowed two hours afterwards by a. teaspoonful of Castor oil to an ndult bird, and half a teaspoonful to chickens. The birds should be confined whilst under treatment, and the ground' or box thoroughly disinfected or lime washed. INTERESTED (Remnera) compliments mc on last week's article, and would like to see articles on similar lines, but ns before stated, this column's chief object is to help the small poultry-keeper and the suburban householder, rather than the large poultry plants. I do not think that anyone could bo successful on a large poultry plant by simply book learning Good wishes are reciprocated. L.C. (Remuera) left a fowl at my office in Queen Street, which was found dead I am sorry, but I must decline to receive dead birds at my office, especially during the hot weather, as I have no convenience, there to hold a post mortem. CAPONISING. A Henderson correspondent asks for instructions re caponising, and if the operation is not difficult or dangerous he wishes to grow them for the Auckland market. It may bethought that I am giving peculiar advice when I cay "Don't." The poultry-eating public have not been educated sufficiently in their taste to yet appreciate capon flesh. Very few of them have even a medium quality roasting fowl. For the next two or three years at least we can by slow step or stages improve table poultry, and after that we may come to the capon stage. The operation is not difficult or dangerous. Starving the bird for thirty hours is a considerable help to success in the operation, then given suitable instruments there would be no difficulty to a man of ordinary intelli-

gence, and who is not afraid of making a email incision in a living animal. The birds will eat food greedily immediately after the operation* There ie all the difference in the meat that there ie between bull beef and prime ox, but let it be distinctly understood that there is a slight check for the first couple of weeks; in other words, if you were marketing young cockerels at from four to five months old, but not over five months, and they were chut up by themselves and fed on similar food to the capons,, they would probably be equal to the capons up to five months old, but after that the capons would grow away from the others, and the percentage of prime edible meat in proportion to frame and offal would vastly increase. Further, any number of capons may be kept together, and there would not be as much fighting as among the' same number of pullets. In Tasmania ohce, for experimental purposes, I grew halfbred Indian game capons that weighed 18 pounds each, when fully fattened* and they were a feast for a king, but as before stated the industry here to-day ie about where the dairying industry was twenty-five years or more ago. It is quite sufficient iT yon keep the young cockerels by themselves and fatten them off three weeks before killing. We may wake the public up in the next two or three years to pass the chop or steak stage. BE CUBAN. Last week, when passing through Newmarket, I was stopped by a> gentleman who*.was a stranger, with the remark: '"You write the poultry notes for the "Star" 7 I admitted the fact. He went on to inform mc that he had a young friend who was in great distress, having lost a number of chicks from some unaccountable cause. Well, eventually* he aroused my sympathy that I consented to go out at once. Upon arrival at the little farmlet everything at firet glance appeared new and clean, but the smell in the brooder house was very distinc* tive. Diarrhoea from bad milk. I have had experience of the trouble with young pigs in Australia even on State farms. Few untrained persons seem to grasp the great necessity for absolute cleanliness as regards milk and all utensils in connection therewith. The tins in which separated milk had been fed were old discarded vessels never intended for holding , milk. There were lap seams, and under these seame putrefactive bacteria rested in millions, and would quickly contaminate each fresh supply of milk. The milk before being poured into the shallow tine was kept in a larger vessel, in which, when the milk coagulated, the curd floated on the top—always a bad sign. The curd floats because gas is being formed. Properly soured milk is a very different article from milk coagulated, by dirt or bacteria. I want my readers to recognise that this young man and his surroundings were rather cleaner,than the , ordinary small farm poultry plant. It was just a want of trained knowledge. If separated milk is a. waste product on ' the farm feed it to your poultry by all means, but do not have it in front of the chickens for practically the twenty-four hours. If you feed it fresh, throw away what they do not consume in a few hours. They will soon get to know it is only there for a short time, and be certain that it cannot be contaminated by the feet of the birds. Use seamless tine if possible. If not, have some old lime wash, and after you have rinsed out the tins with cold water, brush the whole of the inside over with the old lime wash and you will not have any trouble. Lime is an anti-acid. If there is any doubt about the keeping of the vessels clean or you have a large quantity of milk, it would be better to make the milk sour. In the first place procure a small quantity of buttermilk from the butter factory or from someone who makes good butter, which keeps i well, pour this into the warm separated milk; it will soon sour; and if you save a cupful of this fresh soured milk to pour into the next lot of fresh separated milk you will sour that. The soured milk will not cause bowel trouble, but is a corrective; in fact, it might bo termed a natural disinfectant of the bowels, tho i lactic bacteria contained in the soured i milk feeding on and destroying the ! putrefactive bacteria found in the bowel. By souring the milk a certain amount of the whey can be strained off. If the I quantity of milk is very large the soured milk can be heated aid the bulk of the whey strained away, leaving a fairly firm curd, which is of great benefit to the laying hen. Fortunately in this case I was able to check the trouble almost at once, in fact, I understand there were no deaths after thirty hours. I stated that I would probably mention this as a warning to others. Preven- | tion is better than «ure. There comes I a time I'll admit when one naturally' does the right thing, but most buy their experience. i