POULTRY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1928, Page 20

POULTRY NOTES.

(By R. J. TERKT.)

TO CORRESPONDENTS. AMATEUR—It looks very much as if the" ancestors of your birds contained some other blood in addition to Light Sussex. Powdered sulphur will not kill the eggs of fowl lice, but if any sulphur remains on the skin when the eggs hatch most of the young lice will probably die. ANXIOUS. —It is possible ducks have a form of paralysis which is more or less allied to infantile paralysis, or it is possible, as you say the best birds appear to be affected, that you are growing too much condition before you have formed the frame. The feeding appears fattening. Are you giving green stuff and bran ? POLISH. —You are wrong and your friend is right. Polish fowls did not originate in Poland, but in all probability from the Italian Polverra. That early strain had infusions from Western Europe, and possibly from Russia. Darwin classified all breeds with crests under the term "Crested or Polish." It is probable from this fact that the name has clung. I do not think you can regard the Polish fowls other than fancy. FRESHENING THE RUNS. The continued dry weather will give most of the small poultry breeders' runs a spell —that is, a spell from the ground absorbing excessive poultry manure. Where the run is not too large, poultry breeders will be well advised to sweep the runs once a week. The sweepings will consist to a very large extent of quite dry poultry manure, which can be spread on the vegetable garden or stored for future use, when the rain comes. Don't leave the dry manure to form a slurry of filth when the rains commence. Sweeping during the dry weather may prevent your ground from becoming poultry sick. As the birds in many cases will have been short as regards their green feed rations, and, therefore, their bodies will lack certain essentials for vigorous egg production, it would be as well to look forward as much as possible to providing extra green food as soon after rain as possible. In many cases flower and vegetable gardens have been ruined for the balance of the season; here is an opportunity to rest the poultry ground and give the birds a change by allowing them the run of the vegetable patch. There will be a small amount of green stuff obtainable, insect life will be destroyed, and a certain amount of poultry manure will be distributed over the land. It is possible that in some cases advantage may be taken of the vegetable patch being out of use to shift the wire netting, making what was a vegetable patch the fowl run, and the fowl run the vegetable patch, with advantage to both the poultry and the vegetables that you will grow. When runs are sufficiently large to remain in grass, they should be cleaned as far as possible and then topdressed with either basic slag or lime. It is a good practice to use basic slag on grass poultry runs every two or three years, and lime as often as you think necessary. Such treatment will sweeten the soil and improve the herbage, while lime is one of the best dressings for preventing sourness. The amount of the dressing, or how often, would depend on the nature of the soil and the number of birds running on it. Lime helps to break up clay soil and prevent impaction or crust forming on the surface. If the run is comparatively small, and you have noticed that the birds have been affected with small round worm, and it is not necessary for you to study economy, then give the ground a dressing of salt or a brine watering. Failing this you may use a 2 per cent solution of sulphate of iron and water thoroughly with a watering can. It is not so effective for the round worm as a good dressing of salt. Practically all small poultry runs, or even large ones, which have been overstocked, become poultry-sick sooner or later. The fouling of poultry runs is largely avoidable. Many small poultry keepers persist in throwing food, especially green stuff and scraps from the house, down on the ground, possibly because throwing it to the fowls is the least arduous and most speedy method of supplying it; but by this means pieces of food and the stalky parts of cabbage, etc., get buried in the ground, with results only too obvious to every person who gives a thought to the subject. Mash, particularly if spilt on the ground, is apt to make it sour. A good rule is to avoid feeding the birds close to their house. 1 In fine weather, when the ground is dry, the grain should be scattered to the furthest part of the enclosure. That part of the run immediately adjoining the house should receive particular attention, and should be removed from time to time. It is not always sufficient toTnerely dig the run when you wish to sweeten it, for no matter how deeply you dig, the result is not as satisfactory as if the fouled top layer were cleared out and fresh earth brought in to replace it. The stuff removed from the rtm will mix very well with the manure heap. How often this renewal process must be done will depend on circumstances, but it should be fairly frequent, especially the ground in line with the door or entrance to the house, as this gets puddled in wet weather, and naturally the percentage of manure is greater, as all birds have to frequently pass over this portion. No matter how careful you are, the alternate run system is generally the best for all where sufficient ground is available. NEVER OVERCROWD. Judging by the tetters I receive and the poultry yards I sometimes see, the above sound advice needs to be repeated continually. No one has ever obtained more eggs by putting more birds into a house or run than it should rightly hold. I would rather err on the other side, for if a few less fowls than a house is capable of rightly taking are kept together, the better it will be for the fowls. They will have more freedom to exercise, the fear of infection will be reduced to a minimum, and the ground will keep sweet longer. The small suburban poultry keeper, whose fowls are kept partly as a hobby or to supply the house with fresh eggs, has no excuse for unduly cramping the birds. For such small houses I would advise five square feet space for every bird; but where larger numbers are kept naturally the area may be reduced. For 100 birds a house measuring 25ft by 15ft is suitable as a rule; but if the birds are of a heaw variety their number for such a house should be slightly reduced. A flock of 10 birds should have a house measuring not less than Bft by 6ft, ■with plenty of head space. In such a house you can confine the birds in wet weather* and so save the runs and keep nests and eggs fairly clean. This leads me to the subject of fresh air. Perhaps the most serious effect of overcrowding in poultry houses is poisoning by foul air. It is supremely important that fowls should have a constant Bupply of fresh air. As fowls have no sweat glands, waste matter which in other animal creations is largely carried off through the skin, has to be carried off through the medium of the breath by means of air sacs in addition to lungs. Remembrance of this fact will show how easy it is for a badly ventilated fowl-house to become stuffy and evil-smelling. Birds that are not allowed sufficient air space soon show signs of moping. They lose appetite, and finally contract diseases, probably tuberculosis. If, in addition to being too small and insufficiently ventilated for the number of fowls it contains, a house is badly Jighted, the plight of the birds in wet i weather is pitiful, and their speed on the i downward grade in the matter of health is accelerated by want of daylight,