POULTRY KEEPING

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19975, 9 July 1930, Page 7

POULTRY KEEPING

NOTES.

(By Fancier.)

answer to correspondent. get a cheat) book oh IHfitims one of the booksellers. Have ... -pasted letter. . The United Pigeon Fanciers' Club will hold a .meeting this evening. The Hokitika Show takes place on Friday and Saturday next. Mr Ben Johnson haß taken on magpies again, and will exhibit at the Lyttolton Show next week. The Christchurch Poultry, Pigeon, " Canary, and Cat Clnb will meet on Monday night. Mr H. Leger, of the.Village Egg Farm, Weraroa, Levin, caihe into the limelight with his utility White Leghorns over a quarter of a century ago, and has continued to be a noted breeder ever since. As" will be seen by an ad- . vertisement in this issue, Mr Leger is taking ordere for stock and day-old . chicks. Mr . Clem Hart, of Hokitika, was in - town to see the Test match. He was • tskfen round some of the lofts by Mr J. W. Green, manager for Messrs O'Brien and Co., and secured some turbits and homers, which he took back to Hokitika. The other evening the writer was shown the silver cup awarded to the best young frill at the Christchurch ' Show'. It is a very handsome trophy, ' a«d inscribed '' The Oriental Frill Club of. England, presented by W. B. McKenzie." The winners so far are J. J. Pilbeam (South Australia), 1929, and . F. W. Chambers, 1930, .. I have read in one medical work that charcoal is of no value, but it is used largely by ppultrymen .and other bird;kee.pers.. With the old birds it is best to keep :a supply handy to the mounds. An ounce to ten pounds of meal will bo enough. Pigeons and cage birds "may be given a little soft food occasionally on which is a slight dusting of charcoal. A veteran breeder complains that his ducks have gone off laying, although they made a fine start when 4$ months .old. That may and probably is the cause of their going off. On the other •hand they may have got a fright by 'a'dog or some of . the .introduced pests. Bucks are much niore' sensitive and easily frightened than hens, and are mote easy to put out of profit. Geeee Raising. - Geese' are very hardy, and could easily be raised in a small garden, but the farm or a good range is the place for them. On waste land they will eat rough grass and weeds that other farm stock would pass by. But other farm stock do not care to pasture on land that geese have run over. Geese live and breed to a great age, but two to four-yew-old ganders are best. The females may be younger or mnch older. One gander to throe females is enough. A bit of mash or grain once a day will make the females lay better, especially if the eggs are taken away as laid. The breeders are better in a place where they can have a bath. A big hen will take four or five eggs, and if .the goose sits keep well away from her, for she can hit a nasty blow with her wing. ' Eggs for Hatching. Eggs froinTcßiferent hens dlffer"w!3ely * in qualities and in hatchability. WTfre 'f&"«3ifi£. '"~T > lcnty-of exercise arid" hard feed will, as a rulo, give better fertility and hatchability than soft food. The latter does not seem to affect fertility so much as It does hatchability. A mixed diet of hard grains and soft food not oftener than three times a week, with 2 per cent, codliver, oil in it and.exercise, should give good results, but as hinted, eggs differ .greatly. The eggs for hatching pullets and cockerels, should weigh ..at, least two ounces each. They should also be shapely and the shel] smooth in texture, and as fresh as possible. I have known eggs from Australia to give a gpod hatch,'andlsawa Minorca pullet ;n s a Show here that was hatched from an egg laid in England. Where eggs are being 'kept ' for hens or machines to hatcn the temperature should be frpm 55F. tB 60P., and they should be turned ofWn." Eggs fo;r hatching should be 'clean, - washing, them ii not good for hatching....- If "eggs get too warm the gfcrm develop, and the chick 111 either weakly or the -<gg.it spoiled. Use eggs from, birds of good pedigree. Eveh'the rooster should come from a mother with a'hitfh record. Whore one is net tiding, eggs from one's own - birds ons should deal with a reliable breeder, tn jsrperiments in Maryland, U.8.A., -eggs faeldfor ten dayfr gave a 55 per eent. baitchj ll to 20 days a 41 per cent., [attd^o^ ; hftld from 21 to 28 days only al7 ;per. Cent, hatch. Eggs for hatching may be-too strong In the shell, but more; often the shell is/too thin and. jrougßJ : One- eause pf roughness' is plenty .of grit at one period and none the-next. Keep the grit box always before the birds. The breeders should Hot ~be, forcecL Forcing is a cause of watery whites; and a fright has a bad effect on eggs, for hatching. Bandits Bold up Bomer Glob. On April ?oth, when members of the Brpnx Homing Pigeon Clnb (N.Y.) were peacefully smoking their pipes in their club-rooms, and the president was hold* ing 1800 dollars in prisse money, four gangsters entered. "Stick 'em up I" the gunmen directed. They ordered the club members to .line up, face to the wall, in the manner 'of the Chicago St. "Valentine's Day massacre. Patrol Sehellhorn, off duty and in street clothes, veered toward a rear room- as he approached the wall. He hunched his coat over his left arm as a shield while he whipped out his retailer with his right. Looking over his 16ft arm the patrolman fired three shots at Walsh, one of the bandits. The gangster returned two as he fell. Excited, the gangsters and club members upset tables, pigeon race timing clocks, and empty eages as the revolvers roared in ;the low-roofed club-room. Walsh received three bullets and is paralysed from the waist downward. Sehellhorn, .the patrolman, has shot several .bandits in the course of his career. A Vjist Difference. ''The Hon. P. A. de la Perrelle, replying to Mr H. S. S. Kyle (R., Eiccarton), who asked for the withdrawal of the. restrictions on the importation of such domestic birds as doves and pigeons, said that although the main pouree of psittacosis infection was from parrots and allied species, there was evidence that other birds could contract the disease." Quite so, but there is no evidence of pigeona ever having had the disease. Wild birds deprived of their freedom and natural foods are 'apt to contract the trouble, and with heavy mortality, and no wonder, tho change is so great. Est pigeons art not' to becompared' with wild birds. Firstly, pigeons are not wild -birds, and their conditions on a ship aro little different from their : own lofta. They may have a big loft, bst they spend most of their time is their. nest boxes, or lockers, and the. lockers are just about the size of tho boxes one finds In travelling crates, while there is no change in the foods. With wild birds it is different. The change from freedom of the air to a

small box is great. Greater still is the change of food, and it is the change that Drings on the disease called psittacosis. Non-fanciers fail to understand the difference between wild birds and pigeons. ■ The slight alteration in the conditions' is one reason why a death among imported pigeons is a rare thing, and never from psittacosis.

Turkey Tips. Toms both old and young may be given 12 females, some more and some less, according to vigour. But don't inbreed, aa turkeys can't stand so much of that as other fowls. One mating fertilises a clutch of eggs, but another mating is wanted to . fertilise a Becond clutch. Yearling to two-year-old hens are a popular mating because tho two-year-olds lay larger eggs, and tho larger eggs hatch the larger poults. Two-year-old toms should not have so many hens as the young, birds. Turkeys do mnch better if out in the open, or not closely confined, And away from other poultry. The hens make good mothers, and a little wine in the mash is a common practice to sake thejn broody And sit olose. Four eggs are enongh to give a common hen early in the year, but a big hen may be given 7 or 8 eggs when the weather is warm. Care must be taken the hen is free from inseets.