POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1936, Page 14

POULTRY KEEPING.

FOR BEGINNERS. SUPPLY OF GRIT.

(By ORPINGTON.)

The success or failure of keeping a few liens in the garden to "eat up the scraps" and provide the desirable truly fresh eggs depends to a very great extent on the system of feeding.

There is one principal to bear in mind and that is that, eggs are a form of meat, and to enable a bird to produce eggs, meaty substance in some form must be fed. Too many householders feed their few hens on grain, greens that would otherwise go to waste in the garden, and house scraps containing possibly a large amount of fat but little or 110 lean meat or fish scraps. Even on this diet a good laying hen will produce some eggs, but not the whole number of which she is while if the birds are old or from a poor strain few eggs will be laid except in early summer.

The house scraps should by all means lie used, but fat scraps are of little value and harmful in any quantity. All bread scraps should be soaked in milk or water, while potato and other vegetable peelings, coarse cabbage leaves, and so on, must be boiled. Then the whole, when cool, can bo mixed up with pollard and bran to a good friable consistency—neither wet and sloppy, nor dry, but just crumbly. Meat meal is not expensive as its value goes. If bought in less than the 501b bag, and when it has to be kept in the house, it is best put into a large tin, preferably with a lid, as soon as purchased. Then a spoonful or two —up to 10 per "ent of the other ingredients—can be added to each mash feed unless when meat or stock are already included.

A daily.feed of grain is also advisable either night or morning. About ljoz per head can be allowed, although it may pay to give the hens more when they are all in lay and they will take less at the beginning of the moult. Whole maize is not economical; it takes the birds so long to digest. A mixed grain is better, but the cheaper, madeup mixtures are a convenient by which dealers dispose of poor quality grains. So it pays best to buy the grains separately and mix them oneself. Also to buy in as large quantities as possible. Drums are very useful for storage, taking up less space than sacks. Equal parts of wheat, kibbled maize, oats and barley make an excellent mixture, but can be varied according to prices at the moment.

Remember the Grit. With pullets just coming into lay always bo sure that there is an ample supply of shell or limestone grit. They need tliis material for the shells of their eggs, and although they may neglect it during the growing period, especially on free range, yet they will feel the need of it when laying. If lime is missing in their diet, they may draw on the material in their bones, causing a weakness, and finally will lay thin-shelled eggs. By that time a great deal of harm will have been done.

Always handle any pullets that are being bought or moved into a laying house and reject any which are thin, light, or out of condition in any way. Thin birds may carry coccidia or worms which can infect the others, particularly later in the year, when they spend more time in the shed scratching in the litter in bad weather.

Many pullets start to lav anywhere I except in the nest boxes provided, and the old-fashioned china ngg has much Ito recommend it for showing them where the eggs should he laid. Always treat a laying pullet very gently, otherwise there is great danger of peritonitis. If the pullet is roughly handled or frightened, a ripe egg yolk may fall from the ovary before the oviduct is ready to receive it and so go into the abdominal cavity, among the intestines. Many pullets are lost every year from this trouble, which is invariably fatal, although a layer may linger a long i while.

Litter. In any ordinary laying shed, that is, one with a solid floor rather than a slatted floor, there must be some sort of litter. The object of this is to provide a softer and more congenial footing for the birds, to cover the grain feed, and enable the birds to obtain exercise by scratching for it, and to provide a means of absorbing the droppings and keeping the pen in sanitary condition. The labour of cleaning out litter is no inconsiderable item, and is often put ofT for far too long to the detriment of the birds' health. For this reason the single bird laying cages are being found attractive to the intensive poultry keeper because they require no litter. However, it is early to say how far this venture will proceed. Similarly, where there is plenty of grassland, slatted floor houses are being used, again with the object of avoiding the continual work of clearing and renewing litter in order to keep the birds under ideal conditions.

Hay is a very bad material for litter. It encourages insect pests, absorbs very little moisture from either droppings or weather without becoming quickly matted and sodden and also leads to crop binding if the birds are fed amongst it. Hay is better kept out of poultry sheds. It is often used as nesting material, but will harbour red mite and fleas too more quickly than any other litter. 1

Straw is a very usual litter where it is obtainable, particularly wheat straw, which is rather more absorbent than oat. The birds delight in scratching in it, but it very soon becomes scratched to pieces; it is not particularly absorbent and soon becomes dirty. Some birds, too, eat their straw litter, which again frequently causes crop binding.

A cheap and usually fairly easily obtained litter is wood shavings. It is a good light colour and. easily scratched to get the grain fed in it. This is not, however, quite as absorbent as sawdust. These again may be eaten by some birds, but do at least pass through them without causing trouble in the crop. Money paid for litter is practically money wasted, so anything that can be obtained locally, such as dried leaves, pine needles or bracken should ba used whenever they are obtainable.

In cases where there is any suspicion of disease, the continual avoidance of germs and parasite-laden droppings will make any litter a hotbed of disease, and the only procedure then is to use the cheapest kind available, to use very little and clean it out and burn it frequently. Particularly is this the only wise procedure with eoeeidiosis, which resists ordinary disinfectants, so that the mere adding of disinfectants to the litter has no effect on the oocysts, which may be ,present at all. .7 _ ~ '

Sanitation. Even the best stock cannot be immune from disease. If red mite is taken as an example, it will be realised that not even the best stock bred could withstand nightly onslaughts of these blood suckers. Fortunately red mite can be detected easily and eliminated, but coccidiosis and worms, which are directly and indirectly responsible for very much mortality, cannot be so readily detected and are just as likely to attack wellbred as inferior stock.

Sanitation is the greatest safeguard against internal parasites, but despite the obvious precautions for which commonsense methods are laid out earlier in these notes, the ideal form of sanitation for the egg factory has yet to be found. Laying cages such as form part of the modern hen battery systems that are being tried out in this country are useful, but they are limited in their scope. It is, so far, impossible to rear pullets in them to maturity, and they are impossible for breeding purposes. Free range with a low concentration of birds is another solution, but it is not possible to a great number of poultry keepers. Birds are natural scavengers and unless houses are cleaned out more frequently than is economically possible, they are bound to pick up a certain amount of filth likely to be infected with coccidia or worm eggs. The use of a little litter only and that cleared away fairly often seems the only ordinary solution.

Food, even grain, should be fed in troughs rather than in dirty litter or on foul ground.