SEASONAL HINTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 215, 11 September 1931, Page 15

SEASONAL HINTS.

; FREAK EGGS. fowls ;*o*\ ***™ G

Mjyfoid the reason and remedy here. own laying. season, At !¥should be working at the top ferment producing her five or six week with unfailing regularity, fihis not the case, it's up to you to ; ?out : the reason at once and apply; Are they boredt A hen vi hae lost the joy of life cannot proand 60. your first efforts must interest in life. Not lilwe advise the complete cleanng "I of the old Utter and liming of the Lr and dropping-boards, but we ask effect-of using a different 1 f J flitter. To encourage the S ttite bury all grain feeds in the appetite m jr tni ht whlch KB-Si » can fed / n ?i so that they can get it easily. rtSeTappetfeer, mix fish grains fttSSML at the rate of 51b to 1,1 Jr Sb and feed ae usual. Too many S Broody birds are useless birde b t £ laying is concerned and, theref ■'loon as'you find, one she must Kn offthe y nest and placed in a Md bottomed coop where she will be Sly uncomfortable. They want W Ail sorts of sicknesses may ttß , ; ow among birds which are 2£J Pot the 3 benefit of the £flun'6 rays. If their house ie 'tiveand the. windows are glazed tSnarV glass, this-should betaken : h *plSd with one of the Sry ray-passing glasses or, in the &fof thk ye* should fit a dropSshutter over wire netting and open Sejieverposeible. 'Ware parasites. soid,cau lay.if she u plagued with parasitel. So go round and paraffin all likelv crevices, clean out,, disinfect and flitter, the nest-boxes and give the foWie a'thorough dusting with a good insecfcDOwder. .- Speaking at the recent ed day of the Auckland Poultry ProSeers' Association, Mr. F. C. Brown, fhief poultry instructor for the Dominion, said that black leaf 40 was a wonderful corrective for parasites. He aaid a little put in a cocoa tin, which had small ho l es punched in the! bottom, shaken on to the top of the perches, would kill anything in tie'parasite'line.

FREAK. EGGS. There was brought into, tie "Star" office one day during the week a pullet's ecg whici weighed : soz. The only value knoticing such an occurrence would be in the direction of fixing a type of hen which laid a soz egg regularly. That, of course, is an impossibility. _ Freak eggs are very common at. this time of tie year, hut in nearly every* case-there is a reason.for a misshapen egg, which could and should he remedied. Dwarf eggs, for instance,: some of which are no bigger than thrushes' eggs, may be due to excessive external fat, especially in over-yeared' hens. Exercise, a course of Epsom salts and .adjusted rations, will make an improve ant. If the trouble occurs in pullets, it is generally due to excessive stimulation of the ovi-ductr-meaning that your feeding method is too forcing, therefore needing amendment. Rough-shelled eggs need more following up. They point to some kind of functional disturbance in the oviduct -a certain sign of weakness—which may possibly be inherited by future chicks. I advise, therefore, that you find out- which of your birds is laying these eggs, leg-band her and watch for further developments. Sometimes soft of "shell" and membrane are ejected by themselves. This generally points to the finish of a long sequence of good laying and indicates that the bird is about to take a rest. Blood in eggs at this season inay be regarded as a danger sign of too-forcing feeding, but Wood on eggs merely indicates that a lather late, over-yeared breeding hen has just come into lay.

TEST HATCHING EGGS. There are several advantages to be gained by testing eggs during the hatching period. In the first place, by removing "duds" you make more room for tie good eggs and, when-you are using broody hens, you may often find a *Mce of amalgamating the good eggs from two or three clutches, thus freeing » woody for another lot. Moreover, infertile eggs tend to lower the temperate of those ne ar to them, while addled e BP give off had gases. Testing is done °i the. seventh and fourteenth days, removing the infertile and "addles" respectively, How you . can recognise these types of duds and the stuck-germ broken ?. troubles has been explained many A fertile'egg on the seventh day has \i « te clear air -space at the big end «wthe germ can-be noted as a speck «e size of a small pea from which'blood Tessels radiate, giving the whole the "PPearance of a spider. On the fourteenth day a fertile egg r , th e air space most definitely dezf 1, ow »ig to the rest of the egg being Jjy much darker. The difference be«n this and an addled egg is that Z ° 0! ™ of the former are movable, 2 .ye* fed to one place on the shell, Jjr th e contents of "an addled egg are { e se J>arate from the shell and appear tL • kan opposite direction to «« in which the egg is turned. POSTING BANTAMS' EGGS. whilw? ing of is a hobby ,', lsl *g taken up much more than , 0 P 6 a few years back; so much ta'm * trad 6in sitt Jng3 of ban ' sidpr n fif S hatching is assuming conW«fc P r °P° r tions. Those of you who *w e O f?v then should take y° m trade. The trouble is that w n? 4 ' ,il?ver s °J d before y° u 2k£ Ot hen " Size e °S boxe8 > about m 5« e^s win wobble The flifflNil ■ con ipartments of these. WS*S K h best surmounted in this | Me2lf C i- an/ s^e t-smelling chaff to a Sin bv ■lii\ Then wrap each egg in and ■Bio- Bbeet of greaseproof paper! «H un &- each compartment. Now' y u &W y - An °ther method, when to Set's.* e l en prd P er e ?S boxes, is ;t Xi«l# "4» chocolate box; line proot'ttß'.'.^P-.e»«h egg in greasea twist, lie b °x • Wy M: -«p - the Ud, li * %«Bdn»Jt «Wtie-& the