Poultry Keeping

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 20

Poultry Keeping

By R. J. TERRY

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. AVOXDALE bought some ducks six months ago, and they have not yet laid an egg. Tney are fed on pollard, wheat and green stuff. —You do not say whether the ducks were old or young. They may have been quite old when you bought theui, and just finished laying, buthaving kept them so long, I would advise you keeping them for a further period. Add bran to the pollard, give them meat or milk in addition to the mash. Remember au egg is a surplus of the food after the requirements of the bird have been satislied.

RATION. —I am repeatedly advising my readers not to feed by strict weigftt or measure. The birds should be slightly eager Cor food at all times, but should go to roost with a fairly full crop. A' Khode Island cockerel mated to Light ' Susex should give you a useful bird, but it is very much like crossing a Jersey and a Guernsey. AVhy not keep the Light Sussex pure? Pea meal would not be -suitable to replace pollard. You may add pea meal to the mash it you are not giving meat, milk or albumen. FAIR DINKUM.—The sample of meat meal you send would not have more than half the feeding value of the other meal. It contains a considerable amount of vegetable fibre. EPSOM. —Rub the birds' heads with some mercurial ointment, which you can procure from a chemist. *This will be much better than carbolic or similar substances for this particular trouble.

DAY OLD CHICKS

The supplying of day old chicks has so tremendously developed of recent, years that it now constitutes a most important branch of the poultry industry. Day old chicks Hre sent safely und comfortably from one end of the Dominion to another. A consignment may number only a dozen, or perhaps it will run into hundreds, and in some few cases even thousands, but whether this consignment be large or smarf the chances that it will reach its destination in perfectly sound and healthy condition if properly packed and handled must be about a thousand to one. There may still. be some who question, on humane grounds, the desirability of sending chicks by rail to distant parts, but I feel sure there is no need for them to have any qualms of conscience about the matter; for if the packing and handling are right, the journey does not occasion them the slightest inconvenience; in fact they are as perky and as inquisitive at the end as they were at the start. It is common knowledge that newly hatched chicks can go without food being supplied to them for two or three days;, even when being conveyed several hundred miles they need no attention en route. Usually they are placed in small cardboard or light wooden boxes, in some cases lined with cloth or similar material, and in other "cases with corrugated cardboard with ventilation holes in the sides. When two or more boxes are being sent at the same time to the one customer the}' go best and cheapest tied together, but air space must be allowed around each by placing narrow battens between the boxes, otherwise the heat from one box may affect the chicks in the other.

As I have already stated, chicks packed properly travel safely, but much depends upon the treatment they receive from the railway officials. My experience covering a long period is that very seldom are the officials careless in their treatment of this class of traffic. All live stock should be kept but of draughts and this is the chief source of danger to chicks where they have' to be transferred on a cold day from one railway to another. Even so very few cases of trouble arise. The newly hatched chicks intended for dispatch, should be allowed to dry off properly, but the sooner they are put on the rails after the drying process is complete the better they will travel, especially if long distances have to be covered. The chicks are benefited by t lie journey so long as they are comfortably boxed. The reason for this is that they require plenty of 6leep for the first day or two, preferably in a darkened compartment, where they are not tempted to exercise nor to worry each other. When chicks are sent cn a journey they are compelled to rest in the boxes, and at the end of the journey, when the consignee lifts the lid of the box, they will look up perkily and be quite fresh' Contrast this state of things with the restless exhibition treatment the birds might have received from novices if kept at home. As soon as the consignment of chicks reaches its destination the box and contents should be placed in a brooder registering about 80 degrees, and the lid should then be removed so that the chicks cool off gradually to the heat of the brooders. The youngsters should on no account be tipped out of the box. It is advisable for them' to remain in it as long as they show a desire to do so, which will not be for long. When they want to leave the box they will promptly clamber out, and the box can , be removed. If-a brooder hen is being used, the chicks should be kept in the box until evening. Many hens refuse a family offered during daylight, but few will do so when they cannot see what is happening. The youngsters in this case should be left resting in medium temperature with the lid of the box slightly up until night comes when they can be placed under the broody. , It is important that baby chicks should not be fed too soon, even though they have travelled a considerable distance. The behaviour of the youngsters is the best criterion as to the proper time for beginning to feed them. Rather than feed them too soon let them go

jvitliout as long as possible until they come to scratch and forage about seriously. Then, and not till then, should you give them thefc first meal. This shouldf consist of a little coarse oatmeal or rolled oats, or' whatever first feed you consider best. They need also water and grit with finely chopped green feed right from the commencement of feeding. Although the day-old chick industry is growing in a very satisfactory manner in New Zealand, it is a mere bagatelle when compared with some other parts of the world. In U.S.A. there are districts where chick hatching is done- on a huge scale. A million eggs at a time is said to be the hatching capacity of two small towns alone, Zeeland and Holland, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Last year about eight millions chicks were distributed from the little district, most of them passing through the Zeeland post office. One of the hatcheries there has a 179,000 egg capacity, and another deals with two 240,000 at a time: Practically the whole of these chicks are distributed by parcel" post, many of the chicks having to travel hundreds of miles.

Do not attempt even In late spring, or even" summer, to send very small numbers of chicks in a box. It is the combined heat of several chicks which makes the journey safe. Twenty-live in a box or compartment would make a safe number, if possible the corners of the box should be rounded, and thin can be easily done by tacking a piece of corrugated cardboard inside the box in the form of a circle. This prevents the chicks from crowding into a corner and smothering or over heating the chicks in the corner. «