POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 307, 28 December 1934, Page 14

POULTRY KEEPING.

" UNCIVILISED " PULLETS. CAUSE OF CASUALTIES. (By ORPINGTON.) Every practical poultry keeper of any ' experience realises that it is almost invariably a waste of time to treat sick poultry. Not only is treatment vciy . often ineffective because the surface ■ indications of sickness arc not the real cause (as in some cases of crop binding), but also much personal labour is involved, and a hen takes so long to come into production after the check of sickness and treatment that her already short span of usefulness is made entirely uneconomic. It is better, commercially speaking, to kill the sick bird and cut her losses. Even more important is the fact that a bird recovered from any ailment becomes, unless steps are taken to prevent it, a potential breeder of future layers lacking in the stamina to resist disease. There is a saying which hails from Welsh borders at Home that "a sheep's worst enemy is another sheep." This might well, at the present time, be applied to poultry, too. Without any actual reference to figures of the losses on poultry farms or at laying contests, it is quite safe.to say that 90 per cent and more of the sickness and deaths among layers during their first two years are due to their "civilised" conditions and the push for production. Too often is the so-called "intensive" method of poultry keeping just a matter of overcrowding land or sheds without adequate recompense in the way of care and attention to hygiene. The birds sufI fer, if not at present, to the third and fourth generation. Laying Casualties. Take this case. A breeder lias proved his ability to win in lajing contest and exhibition, but has not, perhaps, sufficient commercial experience yet to breed large flocks of good average performance. He sold nine six-month-old heavy breed pullets to farmer's wife. The parent stock had been highly bred for egg production and egg size for generations, with some in-breeding, a good proportion of pullet breeding and, recently, intensive breeding. However, the resulting pullets were well reared and seemed in excellently sturdy condition. They had, in their new quarters, good housing and free range, where no hens had been for many years. The pullets showed their appreciation by laying well. There was rather a large proportion of soft-shelled eggs. But, by the end of their first laying year, no fewer than six of those pullets had died and another had to be killed shortly afterwards. There was no epidemic. The causes of death were very various. One had prolapsus very badly, two died from inflammation set up by an egg broken in the oviduct; one went very lame and was run over; two went blind and one of these also had tumours. As there was no sign of worms, this indi- ; cated almost certainly fowl paralysis. Another laid eggs internally for several weeks and had to be destroyed. Now, when they are just two years old, the remaining two liens still lay excellently —an egg each almost every day, of good size and texture. Tliey have probably averaged over 200 eggs in their pullet year and would be good breeders. But what a casualty list! No commercial farm could stand losing 77 per cent of their producers, however good were the remaining breeders. This is, of course, an extreme case, and it would be interesting, if they were available, to know the adult mortality figures of the plant from which these pullets came. Too few breeders keep account of their casualties. Why Did That Hen Die ? So it becomes more important, under modern poultry conditions, that we know why the health of our birds is so undermined that any weakness readily wins the day, and that we recognise the actual cause of sickness or death in individual birds. Another laying season is entering on its last phase, when the poorer pullets shortly stop laying after the spring flush and the strain of long production commences to take toll of the highly fecund birds that are yet not strong enough to resist parasites, germ or the effect of some physical weakness. Adult mortality is invariably highest at this season. Since the spring is the worst season for the laying of soft-slielled, shell-less and double yolked eggs, it is natural that casualties due to ovarian troubles—egg-binding, eggs broken internally and eggs laid internally — occur most frequently. To discover feeding errors, post mortem examinations are undoubtedly of considerable value. In dealing with chicks, it must be kept in mind that, to find a dead chick's crop full of grain or fibre does not necessarily mean that it was crop-bound, or that the food fpven was necessarily of too fibrous a nature. The trouble is just as likely to have been first a chill on the lower digestive organs. But the enlarged and discoloured liver or kidneys' in adult birds does, unless in conjunction with other disorders, indicate too starchy a diet when it is discovered in severqj birds in a flock. A single bird is just as liable to the weakness of a diseased liver or kidney as a single human being, so that the diet of a whole pen need not be changed on that account. Similarly, because one bird that has died is found to be infested with worms, it would be foolish to give a flock of healthy laying pullets the drastic treatment necessary for a worm-infected flock. It would put them off laying and out of profit, probably without cause. Certainly it would make the careful man note any signs of worms in the droppings of the remaining flock, and, should these birds seem off colour or unthrifty, drastic dosing with tobacco dust would probably prove the remedy. But with a little knowledge only, the ! enthusiast is too apt to jump to'conI elusions and do more harm than good, which is largely, perhaps, why our instructors rightly preach to kill off and burn sick birds without ceremony and spend time rather on keeping the main flock in healthy condition, than on treating sick birds.