POULTRY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 16

POULTRY NOTES.

(Bv R. J. TERRY.)

TO CORRESPONDENTS

I'ERI'IiEXKD. —You do not give me sufficient symptoms to diagnose. ■ If the abdomen is distended nnd on pressure there is a cream coloured fluid from llie vent, the chicks have white scours, and very little can bo dune except to put a germicide in the drinking water. If there is not any scours look for insects.

BI'CKLVXD'S BKAC'II. —I am sorry, but I cannot assist you in the procuring of a supply of eggs. If you put an advertisement. in the •'Star" stating your requirements there should be 110 trouble in getting the weekly supply you need.

INQUIRER (Ellerslie).—No, it is not advisable to mate what might be termed brothers and sisters. Feed in ash jn the morning and grain at night, although it does not make a great deal of difference in such a climate as that of Auckland. Yon feed mash in the morning in cold countries and during the winter to save the time expended by the birds in grinding the grain, and the grain having to be ground in the ginzard before it can be digested lengthens the feeding period of the bird. You do not say the size of incubator you want. RIVERI IEAl).—11 is highly probable that the birds are infested with feather lice which are very different from body lice! If they are in great numbers the bird-i would peok at the feathers and the portions that you mentiou would become sulphur I>USt thol ' ou = h ' ly witli o r <>und EPSOM. A proprietary remedy that will cure roup can be procured.

HEAT STROKE

During tlie very hot weather, where the birds have no shelter and are overfed, the above is not an uncommon cause of death. The symptoms are: Ihe bird falls to the ground in a state of partial insensibility, and is sometimes found dead. In cases where the fowl staggers and falls the simplest remedy is to pour cold water over its head, when frequently it will recover. Bleeding the bird is also recommended. This can readily be done by making an incision in the big vein under the wing and taking away about three or four tcaspoonfuls of blood from an adult fowl. Purgatives should also be given. The trouble is usually associated with old birds, show birds in high condition, or birds which have been unduly excited. Some strains of birds seem predisj>osed to apoplexy, and even after they have been successfully treated, the trouble may return time after time, and in most cases each subsequent attack will be more severe till death occurs. It is not advisable to breed from an affected bird, or one that has been affected, under any circumstances. ENGLISH VERSUS AMERICAN. Two of my correspondents have had an argument as to whether England or America lias produced the best breed of poultry, and they ask me to say something re the history or make-up of what < I consider the typical English breed and the typical American breed. It is much easier to answer the question re the English breed, for the Black Orpington stands out as the typical English breed. The Black Orpington was the lirst of several varieties to be originated, the date being 1880. Three different breeds were used in making the Orpington— Black Minorca, clean-legged black Lang Shan and black Plymouth Kocks. It was highly probable that Mr. Cook, of Orpington, Kent, used black sports of the barred Plymouth Rock. When I was a boy in England I bred Plymouth Rocks, and it was quite common in one strain to have quite black pullets, but never black cockerels. The Orpingtons gained considerable popularity in England, 'but were never taken up seriously in America. The breed is gaining ground on the Continent of Europe, and is being reintroduced in a modified form under the name of Australorp. The Orpington is a utility breed with good fleshing properties and laying abilities. Black Orpingtons have won a number of egg-laying competitions, competing against all other breeds. Tlie birds are so well known to my readers here in New Zealand that it is unnecessary to go into details as regards their points. I would choose the barred Plymouth | Rock as being a typical American breed. Its make-up would be much older than the Orpington. Purely barred chickens of relatively small size and usually with rose combs were common in many parts of the eastern United States as early as 1750. As interest in poultry breeding increased, more attention was given to the improvement of these barred chickens, until they came to possess a fair degree of uniformity in type, and were moie or less the same size. However, they had both rose and single combs, and about the time of the first poultry show of Boston, U.S.A., these rosecombed barred chickens came to be recognised under the name of Dominique. The origin of the term itself is in doubt, and after it was decided upon there was still greater improvement in the type and in other, qualities of the breed. Interest in Dominique soon waned, and to-day the breed is almost extinct in the United States, but I am convinced that this breed originated the barred Plymouth Rock. The earliest \ ariety of Plymouth Rock was the barred, and until other varieties appeared the birds which later came to be known as barred Plymouth Rocks were simply called Plymouth Rocks. While the barred Plymouth Rock seems to have come from at least three fairly distinct strains, Robinson, a leading American authority on the origin of American breeds and varieties, says it owes much of his history to Dominique. Both have the barring factor, and when the Dominiques were established as a rose-comb breed the single-comb birds of the same breeding were in a large measure developed into the barred Plymouth Rocks. The three distinct strains in the improved barred Plymouth Rocks are the Drake, originated about 1866 at Massachusetts, the original stock probably being single-combed barred birds, the Sussex County from Massachusetts going as far back as 1856, and the Upham of Spaulding Upham, which came from Connecticut about 1860. These three strains were developed independently of one another. The hawkcoloured birds used were the Dominiques, Cochins and Dorkings, and the early Plymouth Rocks were pronounced Dorking type. If we take the his--1 tory of the make-up of the American breed, it must be admitted that it originated more or less by chance crossings, as did the original Silver Wvandotte, another prominent American breed, but on the other hand the make-up of the Black Orpington was deliberate and planned. I knew personally Mr. Cook, who originated tlie breed, the father of the present prominent poultry breeder. Many years ago he was a coachman, and attended to fowls, etc., but, being of a thinking turn of mind, he noticed that some birds were much better layers than others, although all the birds might be fed in a similar man- j ner. This thought led to other thoughts, and developed the ambition to produce a bird which would possess good laying qualities combined with fair table qualities, quiet in disposition and of good constitution. The result Was the Black Orpington.