QUALITY OF EGGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 181, 2 August 1929, Page 17

QUALITY OF EGGS.

HOW TO IMPROVE FLAVOUR,

GROW GREEN STUFF IN THE

FOWLRUN.

A correspondent has the idea that the outside cabbage and cauliflower leaves affect the flavour of eggs. Ida not think this would bo so unless one attempted to feed the poultry on nothing else, and then the eggs would be very few. But there is a way of growing green stuff in even a small back yard if one takes the trouble. Mark out a piece of ground, say, six feet by three feet, remove the soil to a depth of five to six inches. You will be guided'by the depth of soil. Now make a frame of three-inch by two-inch timber, which must be just a little larger in every way than the hole you have dug out. Lay the frame on the ground, and stretch tightly over it small mesh wire netting. Chip the ground at the bottc-m of the excavation, and if the ground is very poor, and you cannot get a fine tilth, put an inch of sifted top soil. Now sow lucerne seed thinly if the ground is suitable, that is, if the sub-soil if fairly open; if not, sow rape or rape and oats mixed. Put on the frame, end when the green stuff reaches the wire netting the birds will peck the green stuff through the wire netting. It may be necessary, if your birds are heavy, to run a strip of wood down the centre to

keep the wire netting from sagging. Such a patch of green stuff can easily be watered during the very hot weather, and it will last for a few months. When it is getting done raise the frame, and after the second crop take out the top couple of inches of earth together with the stubble, throw it in a heap, and eventually use it on some other part of the garden as a manure. If yon do not do this, the ground under the frame will eventually become too rich and you will not get the best results. The plot will naturally last longer if the birds do not get access to it all the day, but that is a matter for your individual arrangement. Anyway, it is not a difficult matter to renew the plot, or you |may have two plots planted at different times. I am very pleased that readers are taking more interest in improving the quality of the eggs that they produce, even if its not for their own consumption. Plenty of green stuff and a fair quantity of albumen meal added to the mash, either dry or wet, and you have an article which is going to help to built up the frames and constitutions of your kiddies, and which will be very different from the weak, watery eggs some are content with.

Chick Food for the Hen. A correspondent asks how the hen may be prevented from eating the chick food. If you -want fresh eggs for your household I don't think it is economy to prevent the hen eating a portion of the chick food, as the substances assist her in reaching the egg-laying stage, which in most casee, if she has been well fed, she will do in about five weeks after the chicks are hatched. If you wish to prevent her eating the food put her in a slatted coop, so that the chicks may run out, but she cannot. Then place the food a sufficient distance from the coop, so that the hen cannot reach it. If you cannot do this, give her a feed of maize before putting down the chick food, but, as before stated, it is not economy to withhold a little extra food. Young Birds Perching. Although it is inadvisable for birds to perch too early, which results in crooked breasts, it is much healthier for the birds to be perching from about eight weeks onwards. Let the perches be flat, and an inch and a half wide. Movable perches are best, as one has a greater control over lice and mites. Blood Spots. "Claudelands" asks re blood spots. There is nothing to be troubled about, except that they are somewhat of an eyesore. What really happens is that the white of the egg which is secreted in the oviduct through thousands of minute channels was, a few minutes before it was converted into the white of an egg, blood, and if the birds arc laying heavily a small quantity may pass through a channel before it was properly converted. A spot of blood is quite a different matter from a long streak or vein of blood, or several veins, which will denote that the egg has been in an incubator or under a hen. Just take out the spot of blood and throw it away. The egg has not deteriorated in any way. You are feeding rather richly. Discontinue the maize and split peas. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. FABMER.—The great essential is to keep the poultry droppings dry. Mix them with two parts of dry earth to one of poultry droppings, and keep under cover. It will pay you to do so. "Do not add ashes or lime, for if you do it will free the ammonia. The droppings contain all the essentials required for plant life in a form which is easily assimilated by the plant, with the exception of potash. If you do. not add potash you get an abundance of leaf, but the plants would be lacking in fruit or seed. TE ATATU.—I have repeatedly pointed out that it is a mistake to give a hard and fast balanced mash over extended periods. The birds should be occasionally handled, and the mash somewhat altered according to their condition. Sharps and bran will naturally form the foundation of the mash, and in all cases albumen in some form should be added; whether you should add maize meal or pea meal depends on the condition of the bird. If the birds are fairly fleshy, hut are not fat, add maize. If fat. but not fleshy you may add some pea meal. TAKANTNI.—It is generally supposed that the bacteria of white scours can be carried in the body of the adult bird without it adversely affecting it, but it is death to chicks. Often it affects the chicks for some few days before it is diagnosed, because the scours are creamylike in colour and substance, therefore it does not show up prominently on white or cream-coloured fluff. The bird's abdomen Is distended, and on slight pres- . sure a creamy-like substance is exuded from the vent. If your ground is badly affected with white scours there is only one thing to do, rest it. If it is not s badly affected, put Miracle in the drink- . ing water. 'MOUNT ROSKILL.—See reply to Te Atatu. A.J.D.—lncrease the amount Of albumen either by milk curds, meat or albumen meal.