POULTRY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 25

POULTRY NOTES.

(By R. J. TERRT.)

TO CORRESPONDENTS. VERITAS.—The food is for the fowls somewhat fattening. Discontinue the crushed maize, and do not use any more of the soaked bread than you can help. When ton do. mix it with the bran, not pollard. Don't use boiled livers. Change the shell grit two or three times a year. If you can find the birds which lay the soft shell eggs put a little vinejrar in their mash. Do not (rive the chicks any food for 4S hours, then feed rolled oats. If you have any infertile egrgs which have only been in the incubator three or four days, you may mash them up with the rolled oats. Follow this by whole oats, or a srooU chick feed. Give a soft mash once a day. See that they have free access to jrrit and charcoal. Clean water and green stuff in plenty. PUZZLED.—I am afraid I cannot help you unless you can find the hen which lays the egg with the blood clot. If you can locate her. give her half rations till she ceases to lay. When she comes on to lay again the eggs will probably be normal. SEW CHUM.—Eggs will hatch under a hen even when they are sis weeks old if they have been kept in a fairly cool place. and turner! over occasionally, but naturally it is no* advisable to keep them any longer than necessary. Eggs should be fertile from hens which have been mated for four or five days, and they remain fertile at least ten days after the rooster is taken away. PIO DISTRICT.—I am sorry, but I do not deal in either poultry or eggs. Xes. I think stock would be preferable, as the ecjrs certainly seem to suffer through the post. BROHAM.—lsolate the bird and reduce the food till she ceases to lay. Everything will probably be normal when she starts laying again. E.O.—Yours is a somewhat difieult question. In most cases the picking of toes by chicks is brought about by accident in the first place. A toe gets caught in the wire, or somewhere, and bleeds. Other chicks see the colour on the toe. peck at it, taste the blood, and what more? It is sometimes brought about by there not being sufficient lirter on the floor, so that the chicks see the toes of others, and peck at them when they are not occupied. If there are not many chicks you could dip all their feet in a strong solution of quasia chip. The neck of beef bones for them to pqck at often breaks the habit. IIEALY.—In a nice, chatty letter, the results of the egg production from her birds for the year. The returns are very pleasing, from the fact that there is not a single month without ejrgs. the lowest month. June, being 189, May 320, Julj 3o". This is the result, "Mealy" says, oi this page, and a year's feeding of Albnraen meal. J.T. (Rotorua). —I am afrai.l tho bulb o< the birds *ire suffering from contagious enteritis. It may remain dormant in the ground, or even on or In the birds till the constitution of the bird is lowered, oi there is inflammation of the mesentery Put a. good germicide In the drinkinj water, and shift the birds to fresh ground if possible. Just digjring up the groumi will not really eradicate the trouble, because there are always edges near the building, or the building itself, which ma; be contaminated. A couple of years' spei) for tht ground la the only rial ear*.

CHOOKS has found the Information useful, as his birds hare returned an average of 17 6 each for the past twelve months, or £ 7 net from eight pullets. A few have started to lay soft shelled eggs. See reply to "Veritas. ' STUDENT (Whangarei).—What is known in England as Douglas mixture or tonic, is sulphate of Iron (greenstone). Don't make a mistake and use bluestone, which is sulphate of potash. Add a few drops of sulphuric acid to the water in which the iron is dissolved. You then have the Douglas mixture. You would have to use •-ither wooden, china or enamel vessels for the grit, as both the acid and the iron would affect metal. Be careful of the sulphuric acid, and do not let water get into it. or you m<*y have a. small explosion. Always pour sulphuric acid into water—not water into sulphuric acid. CYANIDE (Mannrewak—No. tne cyanide does not necessarily kill red mite, unless the cyanide could be introduced into the house under pressure, so that it would force Itself into all cracks of the wood. Any way, it is too dangerous for amateurs to use. MILK (Cambridge).—The feeding value of milk may be illustrated by saying that 51b of separated milk equals about lib of mixed grain. That is if you are feeding a pig. but the trouble is that you could not give a large amount of milk to a fowl, because they are not so constituted ac to deal with fluids in bulk, but it only takes a reckoning out to see how you can make the separated milk even more valuable. If you coagulate it and take nway 50 per cent of the whey, then 2jlb of that curd would be equal to lib of mixed grain, or nearly so. because in the whey you lose the milk piver, and also the mineral salt, but the fowls can obtain the mineral salts from the green grasses and clover. If you have a limited amount of skimmed milk, j-oti should be able to considerably reduce the expenses of feeding your fowls. DISGUSTED (Papakura).—You are quite correct. Ton will get more feeding value from boiled livers than from raw liver. The feeding of raw livers to ponltry is a very risky proceeding, and the hanging up of livers to be fly-blown and the ma,jaots falling from the Mver to be eaten, is silly and risky. Risky because the birds eat the maggots, and also consume a certain portion of the putrid flesh or drippings from it. Silly, because anyone with any thinking power would know that you could not get a greater weight of maggots than the original liver, neither could the maggots have the same feedine value as the original liver. It is just one of the old grandmotherly notions. It is quite a different matter where a liver or dead animal is hung up in a tree, and game birds scratch for the maggots which fall from the liver. In most cases then the maggots are cleaned or scoured by their contact with the undergrowth, and the liver is not placed in the same place continually. APERIENT (Hamilton) asks what aperient should be put in the fowls' mash and drinking water. It should not be necessary to use any. A little sulphur may be dusted into the masii occasionally. It then answers two purpose?—a alight aperient, and it is also utilised in the formation ft the yolk of the etrg. Wher<» birds have been fed soured food for sora* 1 time, or liver disease is suspected, put a very small quantity of globular salts in the drinking water. You will get far better results by giving very small quantities over extended periods than larger quantities over short periods. SEVERAL CORRESPONDENTS—I am sorry, but in some cases your replies are a week late, but I did not receive the bolt of the previous week's letters till they were a day latt for th« writing of this articl*.

PLANTING CHKYSANTHEMTTMS. It is always aa well to get plants of Chrysanthemums in permanent positions in beds and borders as early as possible, when weather conditions .permit. The ground should be well dug and decayed manure added. Soot and wood ashes are also useful manures: these should be scattered on the surface of the soil after the ground has been prepared. The plants should be set out at least two leet apart: three feet is better and allows more room to work around the plants. The distance apart, however, is largely a matter of convenience and position, but it must be remembered that free circulation of air is necessary to keep the plants healthy. A stake should be put to each plant at the time

PLANTING OUT CHRYSANTHEMUMS. of planting. Make the soil firm round the plants; they like a firm root run, and loose soil is inclined to give a sappy growth that is an easy victim to disease. If blooms are for decorative purposes, when the plants have started the tip should be pinched out; this will encourage the lower buds to break and will give a dwarf bushy plant. Plants grown to provide exhibition blooms must not be pinched, but should be allowed to grow on until they make a "'natural break." If the plants have been grown in pots do not break the ball when planting them out. If the plants are out of boxes lift as carefully as possible so as not to disturb the roots more than possible. STAKING PEAS. Ordinary twigs or branches of deeiduou? trees or shrubs are the best mean.- of supporting Peas, as they allow the vines to ramble in Nature's fashion, preventing crowding with its consequent bad effects. When seed ia sown in wide rows a double row of pea brush, one on each side of the row, is preferred. The chief fault of a single row is danger of storms. Don't wjit Tint;! a storm lias flattened down the vines before staking them, the brush, should he applied when the vine- are abou; .O. ..• eight inches lush. There ia no need ;.j tie or train the vine-, they will take good care of themselves if given tho necessary support. Wire netting i- a very good substitute for brus::. the mesh heinff at two in.-\-.-= t • facilitate the picking of the p<v!-. A single row of support is customary when wire is u.-ed. PLANTING OUT " WARM ' VEGETABLES. Nothing is earned at any time by settin? out plants until the weather conditions are favourable. Lettuce, Lahbase. Leek. Cauliflower. Onion?, and early Celery are all quite hardy and <*an usually b* s<?t out. but Egsrplant. iVppers. Tomatoes. Melons, Squash and Pumpkins, are all tender and must no: be set out in the open until the ZTCUind is farm and growing conditions are favourable. Nearly a!! those classed as "tender" are crops of one seeding, and if destroyed by a belated frost, or even injured by a spell of cold damp weather, the entire garden effort for the season so

far as they are concerned is jeopardised. With crops that are sown at intervals this first planting is for early maturity, and if lost no great harm is done, sincu subsequent sowing made out of doors will be safe and form the bulk of the yield. If pot grown plants are used for this work there is little actual danger in transplanting, but tvhen these plants are raised in boxes or beds, and the roots must be disturbed in transplanting, care must be exercised, the tirst consideration being that the ground is ready in advance to receive themDon't have the plants laying about in the sun and wind while you dig a place for them. The importance of proper planting is too often overlooked, and lacking the essentials of a proper start, the plants usually limp along for a short time, rarely yield satisfactorily, and, in fact, midsummer usually finds them a victim of "dry weather." Make a drill for transplanting just as you would for sowing seed. Set the line and get it straight. Sprinkle a little fertiliser in the drill to give the plants a flying start, work this soil with a trowel as you plant. Set the plants the required distance apart and start planting from one end- Chop the ground thoroughly with the trowel, pressing it down as deeply as possible, and make the hole sufficiently large to accomodate the roots, and "firm the plants in place. A little shade should be applied for a few days or until the roots have started activity. POTTING PRIMTTLAS. When potting-off Primulas see that they are let into the soil close up to the seed leaves. Unless this is done the