POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1925, Page 25

POULTRY KEEPING.

(By K. J. TERRY.)

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS

DUCKS (St. Heller's Bay) would be gratefnl for advice which would make ducks lnr My correspondent has some Indian Runners that are moulting They are ted on sharps in the morning, maize at nlffht haTe a grass run, and also a mud flat ' When killed they are lined with f ßt '__lour feeding is wrong. For a while feed half bran and half pollard, nntil you counteract to - some extent the maize and pollard feeding, then feed two rTnrte Dollard, one-part bran, with the iddltion of a little blood meal. For the next four or five weeks substitute soaked acts or barley for the maize; then you may give balf maize. Boiled liver will take the place of the blood meal. It is lust a question of which you can procure the easiest. «B. (Mount Eden) asks: Do I consider dry mash feeding as satisfactory as wet mash If so, how would it be to go a step further and keep the different meals, etc., separate, and let the fowls balance their own ration? Is this the time to sow lucerne? —I have written in this column several times re dry and wet mash. Briefly! if you have house scraps the wet maeb is a good medium for utilising them. If you have a large number of birds feed dry mash with an occasional ■wet mash for a. change. You i-aise a veryInteresting point. I aE3 inclined to think the meals would be best mixed, but giving the birds access to bran at all times. You can sow lucerne now, but I prefer the eprlng sowing. Will write something about it shortly. JJIGHORN (Papatoetoe) seeks advice re the mating of some Leghorns, and asks if a cross between the White Leghorn and Black Orpington produces good layers. Does sulphate of iron help hens In the moulting period ? Should fowls be given Condy's. crystals in the drinking ■water? Do they need- ealts regularly? They have plenty of grass and greenstuff. —Without seeing the birds I could not advise further inbreeding. The White Leghorn and Black Orpington cross is a good one. Naturally the birds must be good layers on each side. Sulphate of iron, given to white birds during the moult, is apt to give the plumage a yellow tinge; otherwise, if not given in excess, it is good. Do not put Condy's crystals in the drinking water. It deranges the digestive organs, nnd has nothing like the value that people place on it for other purposes. Fowls which have plenty of greenstuff do not require Epsom salts. WAIPIPI (Waluku) has trouble with some fowls. They lose the use of their legs and topple over. When they ore killed very little blood comes from them. Should the gall be of a very bright green? They are fed . bran and curds, maize at night. They have also had Parish's food. —You do not give mc quite enough to diagnose on. Before the birds die do they stand by themselves and then lose the use of their legs through weakness? Are rthe droppings watery and greenish in coJour, with some white? Is there great loss of condition before death, or are they etill plump, nnd only the use of the legs gone? In the birds that you have killed, do you notice any little nodules about the size of a pin's head between the skin and the flesh? Write mc again. The gall varies from a light to a dark green in health. TO VARIOUS HEADERS.—Many thanks for Inquiries. I don't think there will be any permanent 111-efferts. SELECTING PULLETS FOR CONTEST A_ Tβ Aroha correspodent asks for come advice re the ahove. My correspondent does not state if the birds are to be entered for a public egg laying competition, or if he wishes to do some private testing. If the birds are intended for public competition, then he is. far too late is asking for advice. A bird or a team of birds to win a present day competition should he as carefully prepared as is a. horse with a view of winning a certain race. They must be fit to start off the mark. Carefully study the rules of the contest and the prize list, and decide what special prize or section you mean to concentrate on. For instance, if you wish to win what is termed a "winter contest," you cannot afford to have the birds two or three weeks at the competition before they start to lay, but if you know your birds well in past seasons, then it might bo possible to win a twelve months' competition, even if your birds did not get really going for the first month.-.; The question ■ as to whether birds should have been laying before they are sent to a competition or not is a somewhat difficult question to answer. If one' is. quite near to a com.petition and could take the birds to the =?.pens fairly late in the afternoon, then I 6hould say, have the birds laying for a little while before the competition, as you will then be able to judge the class of egg that the bird is likely to lay, if the bird lays three or four days and misses a day, or lays only every alternate day, it can be discarded for more consistent ones. Further, you have the opportunity of discarding a pullet .which lays a thin shelled egg or one which, if heJd up to the light, shows spots in the shell, showing that the shell is not the uniform thickness. Such a bird, af it did happen to be amongst the winners, would possibly lays eggs with a poor hatchability. On the other hand if you are any distance from the competition I consider it would be preferable for the birds not to have laid, tut to be as near laying as possible. If they have laid you take the risk of the bird going into a semi-moult, and so losing valuable time, or eggs may be broken that had been laid during transit, and have been eaten by the birds, and so there is the risk of the habit of egg eating being acquired. I consider that you should have had two years' previous knowledge at least of your birds without the introduction of any fresh blood, and study well the development of the pullet, noting the development of the comb in relation to the commencing to lay. Then for the first. pick choose about three times the number of birds you require, put them in a clean house with clean litter on the floor, throw the grain in the litter and watch them. You will now be able to discard a few. Handle the remainder, looking for the development of those points and conr formations that I have on several occasions described in this column. If you are very keen go a step further, and for the last couple of weeks before the birds leave home, have them in surroundings and feed them as near to competition conditions as possible. They will then not feel so strange, and there will be no check or set-back as might be the case when a decided alteration of food and surroundings is made. I am sorry I cannot tell you an easy method to win. You should have written earlier. Even a Gloaming would not win a race without preparation, but there are other years if you are late for this. I CYANDIE A POULTRY HOUSE. Headers of the Star" will have seen that my cyaniding of a poultry house vas nearly fatal, so it might be as well to remove any wrong impressions as regards cyanide. I will admit that under the ordinary conditions or in the ordinary constructed poultry house the use of cyanide would not only be unnecessary but of no value, but under What might be termed extraordinary

conditions, or where there were permanent fixtures from the roof to the perches, nests, walls, etc., the cyaniding could still be carried out. In this instance the conditions were not ordinary. I charged the house with probably 60,000 feet of gas, and on return to the building found a gate from the road open, and the prop which kept the door of the poultry houee closed had either fallen or had been knocked down. The natural inference was that someone might have entered the building, hence my entrance into the poultry house. After the experience I am inclined to advise readers to leave cyaniding alone. It would never be necessary if the interior fixtures were movable. If you have a number of nest boxes which had become infected they could be removed to a room or other building which could be completely closed, then in a china or earthenware basin put two parts of water, then add to the water one part of sulphuric acid. Never pour the water into the sulphuric acid, always the sulphurife acid into the water. Then drop the same weight of cyanide as the sulphuric acid into the mixture of sulphuric acid and water. Half a pound of water, quarter pound of sulphuric acid, quarter pound of cyanide would be quite sufficient to fumigate everything in a. small room. Leave the room or building immediately you drop the cyanide in the sulphuric acid and water. Do not enter the room until next day. Leave the door open for some time before going inside, but, as before stated, cyaniding should be resorted to only in extreme cases. MUCH IN LITTLE. High fertility and hatchability will result if the breeding stock is not forced during the early winter months. Do not give too much meat to the breeders, but give a little. For ordinary swollen eyes that is just a simple cold, not roup, bathe the face of the bird with chlorinated ioda or ordinary salt water. This will promptly reduce the inflammation, but will not cure roup. The cheapest male is the one with a pedigree record. The greater number of years that a record has been kept the safer you are in breeding from him. The most expensive one is the scrub which one usually gets when exchanging with a neighbour.