POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 24

POULTRY KEEPING.

(By R. J. TERRY.) TO CORRESPONDENTS. MINORCA (Northcote) has a pullet which has laid four eggs, three of which have been soft shelled. The last egg was simply a yolk.—Place the bird in a coop or a box by herself and give her only water to drink for a couple of days, then feed sparingly for the next two or three days, and that will probably put her off laying for a couple of weeks. When she comes in to lay again the eggs will probably be normal. Keep the bread and cake out of the scraps. P.S. (Morningside) would like to have my opinion of oats as a food for poultry.— Oats is the best grain that you can feed to poultry for egg production during the summer months, especially if the birds are fed a certain amount of maize during the winter months. Of course, the oats should be heavy, that is, oats with a large kernel or grain in proportion to the outside fibre. DAKGAVILLE has la number of pullets which have a serious complaint. The symptoms are watery eyes, which later turns to swelling of the head, and blindness. On examination I find a yellow growth in the windpipe, on the sides of the throat, and sometimes the cavity in the roof of the mouth is completely blocked with a hard yellow substance. Several have died. I am getting anxious. —The birds are suffering from neglected roup. In its very early stage, when just a few bubbles appear In the eye, you may check it in many cases by dropping in a very small portion of boracic. In the more advanced stage which your birds are now suffering from the yellow, cheesy growth must be removed and the surface underneath them touched or rubbed with ••Miracle," full strength, or a caustic pencil. The heads of the birds should be dipped in a solution of "Miracle," a teaspoonful to a pint of water, and held there till bubbles arise, which shows that the birds have endeavoured to take a breath, and the solution has been drawn into the nostrils nnd throat. The whole of the birds, whether affected or not, should be treated in this manner. It will not take you long if you do it at night. Remember, the pus or yellow. cheesy matter must be removed first. It is no use washing the outside of congealed pus. ORPINGTON (Mount Eden) has a Black Orpington hen about three years old. A kind of scale has grown on the legs; one leg in particular, until now they are about the size of a small ovstor shell, and just as hard. The growth almost completely covers tho claws. The bird is quite lame, and can hardly walk at all.—l am rather surprised that one should allow a bird to get into such a condition nowadays. The growth is due to parasites, which eat under the scales of the shank and foot, and tho growth is just dead matter. Dip the feet in fifty per cent of kerosene mixed with fifty per cent of Kilmite. The next day break oft the outside dead portion, dip the feet again, and at the end of a week scrub with warm soap and water. When dry, dip again. It will take some time to cure, but this will do it. It would be advisable to dip all the other birds in the same house once, taking care that the solution does not reach the white skin of the bird. Tut the solution in a two-pound jam tin ax.jar, dip the shanks to within half iin . inch of the feathers. The solution will travel up the rest. BIRKENHEAD asks at what age ducklings should commence to lay. His were hatched at the end of December.— It iB probable that they will not lay till about seven months, being late hatched, but it nil depends on how they are fed. Boiled liver, cooked lean meat, milk, curds, or Albumen meal -»>ll induce early laying, and the latter continuous laying. ONGARUE would like ro know what is the best remedy to get rid of yellowish mites ' troubling fowls? What should be done with a fowl of which the back part fo abdomen has become very hard ? Is the flesh of such a bird wholesome to oat?— If the insects are yellowish they nre lice, not mites. Lice feed on the skin 1 of an animal or bird, and mites pierce the skin nnd suck the blood. If you get ( some mercurial ointment -and "mix it with fifty per„ cent of lard or vaseline, and rub a piece of about the size of a pea ' well into the skin around and under the 1 vent you will poison the lice. If mites ] are the trouble they are not on the birds , in the day time, only at night, and you ' will then have to dress the perches and ( all crevices in the woodwork with Kil- < mite or similar preparation. If you , mean there is a hard swelling at the abdomen it Is probably a watery cyst, f which is a form of dropsy. Instead of | the water being voided in the ordinary way it finds its way into the tissues. , The bird would not be unfit for human consumption, but one would not fancy it. I

WHERE AND HOW TO POULTRY FARM. (Continued.) Continuing my remarks re the above in last week's issue, the man who is going to retire from business to a farmlet in, say three years' time, the chief source of income to be poultry, has several advantages i over the man who makes a start at once, s The ground may be selected and purj chased now, and prepared in many ways j for the time when he will reside on it. r First, there is the question of shelter. ! Shelter is absolutely essential on the 3 farmlet if the best returns are to be obr tamed The variety of shelter will , naturally depend to a certain extent on , the individual taste, but I may be able x to help you somewhat. The outside boundary, especially the boundary from which prevailing winds or bad weather ' are likely to come, may be planted with - wattle. Don't use the fancy wattles, 1 plant black wattle, and this should not •' be an expensive item as a furrow may ' be run along and the seed planted where ; the plants are to remain. They should ; first be soaked in hot water or thrown , into hot ashes, unless the seeds are freshly gathered. Now, some of my ( readers may say that a wattle hedge is , not very wonderful, but I am not advis- , ing you to grow the ordinary wattle I hedge. Thin out the plants and give a little manure to push them along. When ( they are two years old, about June cut some of them half way through with a sharp axe or tomahawk; don't cut more than half way through, that is, you leave half of the bark uninjured. Now bend them right down so that they are almost horizontal. If you do this work properly you will have layers of horizontal cut through stems woven in between a few upright stems. These horizontal stems will send out a mass of upright shoots and you will have a dense hedge, the densest and closest part being the bottom, the portion near the ground; in fact, stock will not be able to break through it if the work has been done properly. It will also be wind-proof, very different from the ordinary wattle hedge, which is fairly dense for a couple of years and is then quite open near the ground, and gives no shelter to poultry. Such a hedge as the one I have advocated will enhance the value of your farmlet, but this hedge does not give you any other return except as a breakwind, so we will use other plants for the other division. Where poutlry or bees are to be kept and the ground is not a heavy clay you cannot do better than plant tree lucerne. If it is kept well trimmed it is a quick growing, substantial hedge, but it should not be grown where neighbours' stock can get at it, as it may be eaten if you have a spell of drought. Not only will the poultry eat the leaves off the trimmings of this hedge, but they will eat every flower that falls to the groxmd, and, properly managed, this plant is a mass of flowers during the winter time and very early I spring. The flowers are quite equal in feeding value to chaffed lucerne for poultry; they are also valuable for bees. If it is not desirable to plant tree lucerne on any of the boundaries owing to the likelihood of it being eaten by stock, then it most certainly should be planted in clumps in the poultry runs. By the time the farmlet is occupied it will be supplying an abundance of valuable green stuff and shelter. Although it will grow in poor soil it repays for the application of manure, and in fowl runs it develops tremendous root system with a corresponding succulent top growth, thereby absorbing a quantity of manure and helping to keep the ground : sweet and free from poultry sickness. ; Lemon or Poorman orange trees may be : planted where the poultry runs are to ! be, and by the time the poultry are : placed in the runs they will have grown ; past the stage when they would be likely • to be injured by the birds. : Passion fruit vines may be planted in i or outside the runs, the wire nettin"- ! being their support, and they will be : both a breakwind and a shade to the j birds, and the roots will revel under the '• surface of the poultry runs, or an acre I or so may be planted with passion fruit I on the three wire system, five or six feet ; apart, the space eventually being occu- ' pied by Runner ducks. " • Then there is the improvement of the : soil, but we had better leave that till : next week. s