POULTRY KEEPING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, Page 17

POULTRY KEEPING.

CLEAN SHEDS. DISEASE RESEARCH.

(By ORPINGTON.)

The shelters the young stock occupy during the growing time may not seem of great importance when the birds are out on range all day. Neither are they so long, as the birds have enough fresh air that is really pure and not charged with gases given off from an accumulation of droppings. It is quite possible that a few birds that are reared under poor and neglected conditions may perhaps appear to be none the worse, so long as they may range in the day time, and this might make one decide that more hygienic conditions are not needed. But in big flocks or where the birds are kept under intensive conditions, and particularly over a period of years, stock that is neglected as to cleanliness wilt deteriorate.

Dirty runs and sheds, too, are probably most obvious, and present most inconvenience to their human attendant during winter rains, when the yard is a sea of mud and droppings', and the shed does not dry out properly during the short day. Then it is often impossible to do cleaning and repair since the birds cannot be moved to other quarters without putting layers out of production altogether. To the birds, dirty conditions are just as trying in the summer heat, and more so, of course, where a stuffy shed is concerned. And now is the time of year to clear each shed of birds in turn, clean them thoroughly, and carry out any alterations and repairs that are necessary or advisable. It is quite possible to do this even while the sheds are occupied, although it is not so convenient. Where a shed is going to be empty for a while, it becomes more difficult to clean the longer it lies vacant, while runs tlia.t are not occupied should be limed immediately, before being rested or dug over and re-sown.

Wherever droppings have been, in a used poultry shed, there is the possibility of infection for new stock, as well as in the dust tliat accumulates on every ledge —even where the et.ock recently vacating the shed were to all appearances perfectly healthy. Earth floors as well as used litter may harbour worms or coccidiosis, while every crack and crevice of a recently occupied shed can be suspected of red mite, a pest that would be quite sufficient to keep young pullets from coming into lay when they should, or from maximum production after they have started. Treatment and Repairs. The best start towards cleaning a poultry shed is to take out all such fittings as perches, nests, troughs and drinking vessels, for all the furniture should be readily removable just in order to make cleaning simpler. Then brush down the inside roof and walls with a stiff broom, remove the litter, and either scrape the floor clean or remove a layer of the earth as the case may be. If plenty of water is available, a hose can be of great service to swill out the whole place, while if economy is necessary in this respect use warm water with a little washing soda. This quickly softens hardened droppings, and all matter should be entirely removed from the laying sheds at least once a year in the cause of hygiene, even although it entails some labour. Any of the commercial disinfectants can be used in the last swilling water, although soda acts as a mild disinfectant, and thorough removal of debris is of greater importance than mere sprinkling with disinfectant, which may or may not reach lurking infection. When perfectly clean, all timber in the shed should be treated. There is nothing better than creosote if the cheaper variety available at city gas works can be obtained. This is not only a strong disinfectant, but preserves the wood, and by ita oily nature prevents further dirt sinking into open timber. It is also quite the most effective red mite preventive. But often this can only be purchased as a proprietary article or from a distance, in either of which cases it becomes too expensive for lieu houses. For sheds all timber, tar can be diluted with kerosene for the outside, but is rather dark for the inside. Whitewash can well be used to make certain that the intensive shed is germ free, while where iron is used, it may be suflicicnt to treat the timber frame with used car oil.

The pert-lies and fittings which have been removed generally need considerable cleaning. Washing soda in the water and a good scraping are the greatest help, although forethought in the arrang 1 ing of the shed can prevent much work. The birds should be able to perch nowhere but on their perches, even in the day time. The tops of nest boxes can either be sloped or be protected by wire netting (upright), or may form the dropping board under the perches, and would then be cleaned frequently. The perches should without fail be creosoted. Apart from seeing that the roof is watertight and closing any gap that may have appeared in the woodwork with a batten on the outside (to prevent draughts in bad weather), it does not really take long, when the shed is being fixed up any way, to see that the perch sockets are suitable; that there is a sturdy shelf for the water vessel, one a foot from the ground, so that labour will be saved cleaning litter from the tin; that there is some means of through ventilation from back to front of the shed for airiness in summer, and that an easily-made hood protects the open window from storm rain in winter. Fowl Paralysis. For all the research work being carried on —in other countries —on this disease, only a little more data lias been discovered as to its origin, and that of so technical a nature as to be of little assistance to the poultryman. That there most certainly is such a disease and that the different forms of paralysis and tumours that appear in young birds, particularly between the ages of two and six months, are not generally caused by worms, coccidiosis or tuberculosis (as has often been suggested) is realised even in this country, where an agricultural college authority declares that fowl paralysis is known on very many poultry breeding stations. It is not highly infectious in the manner that roup or pox is, but it is incurable, and attacks, not the older birds more easily dispensed with, as tuberculosis generally does, but the pullets just as they are coming into lay. A - bulletin recently issued by an American experimental station gives scientific details of work that has been carried out on this disease, according to which it is due to an infection early in the bird's life by germs of the typhoid or paratyphoid group. According to their theories, in order to combat these germs the blood cells of the chiek'ns become materially altered, which drastic change ultimately affects the nerve centres, causing paralysis.

Tho "Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association" states that "Control measures should take into account the selection of progeny from poultry stock of known freedom from diseases and of proved livability, and the control of diseases during the growing period by sanitation. While clinically affected individuals should be removed from tho flocks, wholesale slaughter or quarantine methods are not justified."