POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1936, Page 15

POULTRY KEEPING.

GROWING PULLETS. NEED FOR SPACE. (By ORPINGTON.) As the pullets grow at this season, adequate housing - only too often becomes the problem of the moment. The old hens are still laying, or should be if the recent return of winter has not put them permanently out of their stride for this year, and, of course, they are the right type of bird. But any change, such as a move, just now is certainly enough to send them into a moult. The two-year-olds can safely be discarded just as soon as they do stop laying now, for they will fetch no better price either in the moult or after it, and are being fed all the time. For this purpose alone, if for no other, it is valuable for the novice to learn to know immediately he handles a bird whether or not she is in production. Many do not even realise that a hen or pullet is always definitely "laying" when she may produce anything from two to seven fcggs in the week, according to her kind, or "out of lay" when one clutch of egg yolks is exhausted and the first of another clutch not yet ripe for laying. <jiy expert will gladly demonstrate the simple handling necessary to knew if a bird is producing. It is imperative that the pullets have just as muc.h space as can be I allotted to them while they are growling, both in the way of airy shedding and clean runs. Often the only way to provide this is to discard old birds. BC-t it does not do the pullets any harm at this stage (and even in spite of inclement weather) to be kept almost wild as far as accommodation goes. They need some shelter for roosting, and in the day time, too, but 'it can consist of shrubs or trees, instead of sheds. Better the former by far than that they should be overcrowded in small coops. Because there is no definite and tangible disease called "overcrowding," • this is disregarded, sometimes not even of necessity, but to save labour. Birds require a lot more air-space in comparison to their body weight than humans do, and anaemia, lack of body size, colds, general weakness and susceptibility to disease have all a root cause in over-

crowding. The pullets must, of course, be into their . winter laying quarters before evon the foremost of . them start to lay, or these, too, will be upset when they are moved, quite sufficiently to stop egg production when it is. most wanted. But that allows another two months' grace for tho main flocks yet— two months when free range, fresh air without stint night and day, and a plain, bulky diet of cheap foodstuffs should be every rearer's aim for them. In the meantime the whole of last year's pullets will be handled, a proportion being culled as they finish their first laying season. The majority of the two-year-old birds will be culled as they moult, only the late moulters being kept for breeding for egg production. In some well-managed breeding flocks, next year's breeders take the present place of the pullets in colony houses, or even "wild" on free range during the next month, or two. That way the pullets are installed in their winter quarters in nice time, but there is no attempt made *to get autumn eggs from the hens. Intsead, every effort is bent towards having them in good hard condition at moulting time and into early winter production to fill the incubators in July. Intensive Hoiyjng. On the other hand, to keep domestic birds without shedding, in open shelters, on free range, or even in good sheds without padlocks, is, it is understood, .utterly impracticable on a very large proportion of laying plants, because they are in or near cities Where the light-fingered poultry thief stalks. This is one of the very many matters for the poultryman's benefit that the Poultry Producers' Federation has taken up. It is an excuse for the intensive system only recently realised. Hitherto the poultry thief, if caught, which is not «asy, generally got off with a joke from the judge. The value of the few hons, looked on as carcases, may be little enough; looked on as potential breeders, they may represent the whole of a man's all too small capital.

It is, all the same, a great mistake from a health point of view, to start keeping the pullets intensively a day earlier than need be. There are distinct advantages under certain circumstances in rearing them indoors for the first six weeks after hatching if it is well done, but from six or eight weeks until the pullets are five months of age it is of vast importance for their development that they have, access to grass range if it is possible. There is little doubt that it is the big proportion of intensive work carried on by New Zealand breeders that has brought about the prevalent toolarge combs among the White Leghorns in this country. Most particularly the cause is intensive rearing during the growing period and under iron roofs. Even in one generation this fault can be slightly corrected by more natural conditions during the growing period. However, there are many poultrymen who have to make a living just now on sections where there is not even enough room for range for the growing stock, and the only alternative, is to see that their shedding is as suitable as it can be made. And good shedding is preferable every time to foul "range"' on stale ground. The main things are to keep the young stock very busy, and their shed -just, as airy both day and night as i 8 possible. Ventilation at the back of the shed, as well as open netting at the front, is essential in this climate, although the first is better to be -capable of regulation. Wire-netting doors inside the timber ones at one or both ends of the laying sheds are invaluable. Small mesh wire-netting should be used, and then these doors can be shut on hot nights and the others left open, even in a rat-proof shed. From four months onwards, the pullets need all the four square feet of floor space per bird when kept intensively; that is recommended for the- layers. Keep all nests, water trbughs, green feed baskets or other poultrj'-house furniture up off the floor on shelves, in order to give the youngsters the maximaim amount of space for scratching and exercise generally.