POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 20

POULTRY KEEPING.

(By K. J. TERRY)

TO CORRESPONDENTS

BLACK OnPINGTON (Tc Rapn) lias two hens sitting on pssrs. Are they too early? One hon has scaly logs. If she wore treated with kerosene would it affoct the e?SB? My coripspondent statrs that he has a bad habit of pulllns off bits of shell and helping the chirks out o£ the shell, with the rqsult that they often bleed freely and sometimes die. Is he in tlic Should be put worm water on the egjis? If so, at what time? If your lilack Orplnstons arc of a prood laying strain they will be hatched father early. They may ;*o into a half moult when e.uss are dear. Dip the scaly less and feet In kerosene, wiping off the surplus and the pjjjjs will not he nffcctort. Do not interfere with the chicks when hatching, that is why the shell sticks to the chick. When interfering you let dry air in under the hen and the albumen immediately dries an.l sticks the fenthers. You may sprinkle the egjjs with warm water on the eighteenth or nineteenth rtay. then leave them severely alone till the fluff ou the chicks is quite dry. NOVICE (F.llerslie) writes that after following the advice In this column there was soon noticed a difference in his birds, and they ore now doing splendidly. AVould it be advisable to mate Orplnctnn pullets with a Minorca rooster? —The cross should be a good one if the Minorca is of a good laying strain. The eggs will he larger and the birds of tighter feather, crosses in a general way are very hardy. KOHE lias n White Leghorn, which seems healthy except for a large swelling in the ball of the foot. The hard surface was cut away, and a bread poultice was put on. but the swelling does not go down. The swelling would continue and would probably eventually kill the bird unless you make a fairly deep incision at the bottom of the foot to allow the pus to escape. Thoroughly wash out the cavity and plug same with a small pioi'O of clean rag or cotton wool dipped in a good antiseptic. Wash twice n day. putting in fresh plugs. The foot will have to be bound up to keep plug In place and the wound free from dirt. ITOW TO LIVE writes that her husband is afflicted so that she cannot take up work that would take her away from him more than a few hours (luring the day. Friends would give her the use of land rent free, cottage, nud supply part labour. !>he asks what prospects would she have with poultry, and where could she sain the knowledge?—T'nder the circumstances I think it would he a fairly safe venture on a small scale as you would be at practically no expense except for what misht he termed liquid assets—or, in other words, you would need to spend only on things which could be re-sold. If you are prepared to work and show any aptitude I think I could get you a few "weeks' tuition without any fee.

PRICE OF EGGS. I am being repeatedly asked to take up the matter of the price realised for egge.

Well, I know too much about the egg trade generally to do so, and my reason for not taking- up the matter is that the time is not yet. I am afraid poultry breeders will have to hit harder than they have before a sufficient number of them realise that the whole system of marketing eggs wants organising, but my readers know that if the price rose next week another threepence they would forget about the necessity of organising, or at least they would forget to take an active part in; it. Several schemes have been put to mc by more or less interested parties, but the solution does not lie in any special house or firm handling the eggs. The remedy is possible, and, in fact, easy, only when a sufficient number of producers amalgamate and start to educate the public as to the class of goods they arc purchasing. It is a difficult matter to shoulder the blame on to anyone whilst the public are uneducated. If an egg is not bad, does not smell, and has no glaring defects to the eye, the average consumer is satisfied. It is not recognised that the quality of an egg varies quite as much as does the quality of milk. There are eg2B with thin watery whites; I say whites, because an e<?tr contains throp separate whites of different density; but quite apart from this question of quality, the otherwise careful housewife

does not seem to grasp from an economic point of view the difference in size and weight of eggs. The difference between two eggs may not seem much, but multiply this difference by the eggs consumed during the twelve months and you will see what has been lost to the household.

As an instance, I was pointing out to an auctioneer that the eggs I was sending in were as heavy as any, if not the heaviest, in the auction mart. We put a ten-dozen tray on the scale, and it weighed fifteen ounces more than other ten-dozen trays. Further trays were brought, and sbme weighed two pounds less. Now, if either I or those who market the same class of egg sell a hundred dozen eggs, from ten totwenty pounds in actual weight of eggs is given for very little more, and in many cases, no higher return than that given for the smaller egg. I am simply giving this illustration to show the want of system in marketing of egps. I am not squeaking. I don't squeak. The difficulty is. who is to put things right? The auctioneer agreed with mc that large eggs should realise more than small eggs; that it cost more to produce a large egg than a small one; but what could he do, as there was no rule in the trade.

We have to go through the various stages, as do all industries in the bu'ldin<r tip. The Californian fruitgrowers had bankruptcy and ruin staring them in the face before they properly combined. The dairying "industry in all countries has gone through practically the same stacee till sheer necessity made the combination.

It will not help things by a letter or two to tlic Tress. I know what should be done, hut I am afraid thorp is not a sufficient number yet who think the snmo. ROTJP. Probably due to the excessive wet weather roup is extremely prevalent at the present time. Not a day goes by during the last few weeks that I do not have either telephone or personal inquiries re this trouble. It attacks both the small and the large poultry plant. The spread of the trouble is due in a great measure, in my opinion, to the birds drinking from the small pools of water left by the heavy rains and these pools are soon contaminated by a few sick birds. The pools should either be filled in as soon as noticed with a shovelful of earth, or if they have reached larger dimensions, then use lime and fill in as soon as dry. It is only by checking the trouble in its early stages that real control can be kept. In most cases a few bubbles will be noticed, in the eve, or the eye will appear inflamed and watery. If you are a close observer you will notice that the feathers, on what might be termed the shoulder of the bird, are soiled, due to the bird rubbing tho eye on these feathers. At this early stage, n pinch of boric acid dropped into the eye will often put things right. It is the ability to notice the early symptoms that spells for success. I noticed one bird in a flock of between seven and eight hundred in one laying house. I put in hours during the next two weeks walking through that house at all hours looking for the next case, but the time was well spent, as tho trouble did not get any further. In another instance I was asked to pick out six birds for breeding purposes. A number of birds were cautrht and placed in a crate for mc to pick from. The owner thought the birds quite healthy, but I noticed ona had soiled feathers on the shoulder, and that another one's face, wattles and comb were inclined to be purplish. One bird had roup starting in the eye, and the bird with the purple face had a growth in the passage to the lung, so that it was semi-suffocated. In all five birds were infected with the early stages of roup. Now, these are symptoms which should be apparent to anyone. There is nothing to be afraid of'if you check the trouble early.