POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 206, 1 September 1933, Page 12

POULTRY KEEPING.

SEPTEMBER CHICKS.

BEST HATCHING MONTH.

(By ORPINGTON.)

I September is the best hatching month of all, for every breed, and the number I of chicks that the farmer's wife has out I now and up to the end of this month will determine the number of pullets which will produce eggs next autumn and winter when prices are better. Later hatched birds never make up the time, but rather take longer to mature than the early spring hatched birds. Therefore plans as to the pullet flock for next autumn must be made and carried out quickly. Egg prices are very low already, and indeed spring prices are so poor that they make many inclined not to do much hatching this year. It is well to remember, however, that food prices are lower than they have been for some time, and that reliable hatching eggs and dayold chicks are much cheaper than they ever have been at this season of the year. Also, if one is content to keep only the older hens, the result will be no eggs at all in the autumn, for it is only the first year birds that can be relied upon to produce them. Whenever the poor prices of eating eggs make the poultry farmers go out of business (as it is doing in many cases to-day) or cut down their hatching numbers, the result is comparative scarcity and better prices in the autumn. Only the poultry rearers who have kept up a steady supply of young birds can take advantage of this, and the farmer is in the best position of all to do so. As a rule he has no special overhead expenses for labour or rent, and can usually grow a large amount of tho birds' food as well as use skim milk. But, to be economic, the chicks reared must be of good stock and well cared for to reach early maturity.

Up-to-date methods, coupled with up-to-date knowledge of feeding and the diseases of chickens, have taken much from the risk of chick rearing, and although pullets can be bought so cheaply "ready made," it is still much better value, especially with the possible free range on a farm, to rear one's own. No poultry farmer can afford to sell his best pullets, but ho often sells eggs from his best pens, requiring only the early ones for his own use. Feeding and Rearing. Chicks reared on free range with a broody hen rarely suffer fatally from wrong or poor feeding, because the hen finds a great deal of natural food for them, and the fact that they have perfect warmth and ventilation in brooding tends to make their digestion strong and hardy. At the same time, if the chicks grow uneven in size and development, poor feeding is a very likely cause. With artificially reared chicks, especially those kept intensively or in bare yards, the total diet is a very important matter. The small chick requires in its rations for the first few weeks of its growth a greater proportion of easily digested proteins, minerals and vitamins than at any other period of its development. These arc all readily supplied on free range. Chicks with the hen can be started on stale bread, crumbled and squeezed out of milk, but do not supply it sloppy. The first feed should be about 30 hours after the first of the chicks have hatched. The later hatched ones may not feed then, but will soon get hungry and follow the example of the early ones. The old idea of feeding hard-boiled egg first is not too good, simply because this is a great deal less easily digested than (through the cooking process) the raw yolk which nourishes the chick immediately after it is hatched. Any cooked foods are less natural than grains or seeds, which must, however, be given either kibbled finely or in the form of ground meals.

A simple mash for young chicks would be 21b pollard, 21b bran, lib yellow maize meal and up to Jib meat and bone meal mixed with milk, or else Jib dried blotter milk added and the whole mixed with water. The ingredients are better to be thoroughly mixed in bulk in their dry state and used as required. House scraps can then be soaked in milk or water, squeezed dry and crumbled off with the mixed meal. It may be noticed that the amount of protein advised is almost more than used for laying hens, but for the first six weeks this is really advisable where chicks are indoors or where the ground has already been cleared of insect lifo by adult birds. Where there is first class range, less or no meat meal is necessary.

Chick grain is also cheaper mixed at home—two parts finely kibbled wheat, one part kibbled hulled oats and one part kibbled maize. Any good ready-mixed grain should look clean and frco from flour, which is wasted when the grain is scattered in the litter, and should not contain a great variety of seeds, probably of low feeding value and added to make weight. The chicks should have small size shell grit available, and if rain water and no milk are supplied, a little steamed bone flour in the mash makes good frame growth. One per cent of common salt is also helpful to the above mash mixture —that would be a tablespoonful to the quantities given.

All chicks are much easier reared on dry mash than wet, especially during the early stages, but this is hardly possible with hen-reared chicks as the broodies insist on doing so much scratching about of the food given. But artificially reared ones may well be started on dry bran and the small chick grain, fed on boards or trays, alternately, until the chicks are big enough to use a small trough or hopper. If they are going to be kept intensively, they should have a little cod liver oil in the bran and in the mash which should be fed from six days onwards. Although a little salt should be used, do not use the stock from pickled meat to mix poultry mashes, for this contains saltpetre in solution as well as common salt, and is poisonous in its effects. Incubator Heat. An inquirer asks what temperature should be maintained in an incubator for hatching hen eggs. The temperatures are 102$ degrees for the first seven days, 103 degrees up to the fifteenth day, and up to 104 degree* for the remainder of the time.