POULTRY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1927, Page 18

POULTRY NOTES.

(By R. G. TERRY.)

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. RUSSEL ROAD. —I am afraid your birds have developed what is known as chicken pox, the perms of which in all probability were in the old house. It is contagious, so treat the birds at once. Wash wifh a good germicide, and afterwards apply a healing ointment. Be careful of any scratches on your hand when you are treating the bird. It would be as well to wash or dip tlie beads of all the other birds. PUZZLED. (il-EX XORE. — If there is a decided swelling on the bird's face applying iodine would only make matters worse. Make an incision at the bottom of the swelling with a sharp knife and remove the pus. Thoroughly wash with a germicide and plug with a piece of clean cotton O' linen. If you have only a few birds, wash or dip the heads of the other biros. FARMER BROWN. —It is not the policy of this column to boom the poultry industrv. but to give helpful advice. I do not care to criticise another writer. I will onlv say that honestly Ido n»t think you could look for much income from- taking residential pupils, especially as you have not yet attained any knowledge or reputation in the poultry industry. My advice to you is either to keep a few birds for, say. a twelvemonth. using a small incubator, or go to work on a commercial egg farm for a I few months.

THE REARING OF DUCKS

Call Ducks. I need not devote niucli space to describing the "call" duck. Thev> might be termed the bantams of the duck race, and naturally they should be kept small, so they should not be fed too liberally and should be given wheat or some other solid grain rather than mash. There are two varieties, the white and the grey. They would probably suit my correspondent who wished to turn them down on his marshy land. The Muscovy. This breed differs 111 certain respects very markedly from the other standard breed of ducks. They are long and broad in body, which is carried in a horizontal position, but not so deep in keel as the l'eking, Aylesbury or Kouen. The longest bodied young ducks will make the largest individuals. The heads should have feathers on the top which can be alleviated at will to form a crest. Guard against breeders having smooth heads, or in other words, lacking a crest. The face is covered with corrugations or carbuncles, and should be red in colour. At the base of the upper bill, there is a sort of knob like formation in the drake, which serves as one of the distinguishing characterictics between the duck and drake of this breed. The more prominent the knob and the more wrinkled or corrugated the face, the better is the specimen in this respect. The wings are long and strong, and these birds Hy very well, but the homing instinct is very strong in them and if they do occasionally take a circle in the air, they practically always alight in the place from which they departed. Adult drakes are quite pugnacious and will tight one another, badly at times. Thy do not quack like other ducks, and, unlike other domesticated breeds, which moult two or three times a year, they moult only once, taking longer to do so. The period of incubation for Mus-

eovy eggs is longer, being from 33 to 35 days, as compared with 28 for other breeds. In size, the male and female differ considerably, the male being much larger. These ducks lay well, the fertility runs good, the eggs hatch well and the little ducks are hardy and easily raised. They are a broody breed. The ducks will make their nests and hatch out their eggs if allowed to do so, and are excellent mothers. Muscovy ducks can cover properly about twenty eggs. Some duck breeders use Muscovy ducks for hatching out the eggs of other breeds which they wish to keep for stock birds. Property managed, they give no trouble as sitters. Some years ago I saw .500 Muscovy ducks sitting on eggs, each one covered with an ordinary butter box. All the attention that was required was for a lad to occasionally walk between the rows of boxs and see that two ducks had not gone back to the one nest. It takes about two years for the males of this breed to fully mature, although the ducks get their full size when one year of age. The Muscovy is perhaps the best general purpose breed, where a few ducks are kept 011 the ordinary farm, as they require absolutely no attention, and are well able to look after themselves even against the stray dog or cat. * .

The plumage of the Muscovy is not as downy or oily as other breeds, the feathers "being harder. For this reason, the birds are more apt to become water soaked and to drown as a result when they have not been accustomod to water in which to swim. This is especially true of the drakes, on account of their large size and long wing feathers. I have mentioned this fact to my readers in case they purchase birds which have never been in the water, but if the birds get to water when they are young, there is never any trouble. I have had Muscovies in Tasmania, two days old. swimming on a creek in flood. They seemed as if they could run on the top of the water. In fact, I always allowed the mother duck to take them to the water whenever she thought she would. Muscovies are long-lived. You may safely keep them for breeding purposes for seven or eight years. There are two varieties, the coloured and the white. In reasonably clean situations, I would advise my readers keeping white birds. The plumage should be pure white throughout. Young Muscovies of both sexes often have a patch of black on top of the head, up to the time they moult at maturity. Since black disqualifies, it is impossible to show young ducks in this condition, but these black feathers usually *ome in white after the moult, and such bird need not therefore be discarded as breeders. Naturally there are naughty fanciers who pluck these black feathers a sufficient time before the show so that the white feathers which come in their place will have time to grow out. As regards the coloured Muscovy, although the

standard ealls for more or loss white in different sections of this variety, as a matter of fact breeders desire to get the birds as dark as possible, except for a very small patch of whit? on the breast, and a small patch of white in the centre of the wing. Indeed, birds without the white on the breast and with

very little on the wing ara valuable breeders, since there is a tendency for too much white to occur in the plumage. Occasionally all-black birds occur, and these can be used to advantage for breeding, when there is a tendency towards too much white in the plumage. Plumage more than half whit- is a disqualification. The baby ducks of this variety are quite apt to show considerable white, although the l*«t of them come yellowish black. This variety tends to run a little larger in size than the white variety. Dun or chocolate colour ducks sometimes come from the coloured Muscovies, while blue Muscovite can sometimes be produced by crossing the coloured and the white variety.