POULTRY KEEPING

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20977, 4 October 1933, Page 14

POULTRY KEEPING

' PIGEONS AND ■ CAGE BIRDS' ". " ' [By FAXCIER.] ANSWERS TO 'CORRESPONDENTS' A.C., Ashburton.—lt is rather late to mate up for next year's layers, but you may still go on until the moult to produce table. - birds and bantams. Enquirer. Woolston.—The weights appeared early in the season. The eggs are graded into different sizes which are called packs. Thus: ljoz eggs equal 131b a dozen, and 10 dozen are called a .'. long hundred; lfoz eggs, 131b pack; lfoz eggs, 141b; 2oz eggs, 151b; 2-£oz eggs, 161b; 2Jioz eggs, 171b; and 2Joz eggs, the • 191b pack. V.H., Prebbleton. —Please send more particulars. NOTES:, At last week's educational meeting of the New Zealand Utility Poultry Club, Mr C. Cussen, the residential State poultry expert, gave an instructive and interesting address on the pitfalls of brooding. The next education meeting will be held on October 17, when Mr A. Leslie, of Lincoln College, will be the speaker. Schedules for the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Show, which will be held at Leeston, on October 19, may be obtained from the secretary, Leeston, or Mr M. E. Lyons, secretary of the Canterbury Association. Christchurch entries close on Saturday, October 7, and may be made with the secretaries named. The judges are Messrs S. F. Marshall and G. H. Bradford. i

At the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Red and Orpington Club, Mr J. F. Hayhurst was elected patron ; president, Mr C. H. Bull; vice-presidents, Messrs J. D. Gobbe, T. S. Harman, W. Aldous, A. E. Hounseil, J. F. Goding and A. J. Skinner ; honorary secretary, Mr A. W, Pritchard ; honorary auditor, Mr R. Pearce.

Last week the United Pigeon Fanciers' Club met and appointedMessrs C. Gallop, J. Low and Ben Johnson to draw up a schedule for next year's table shows. The com-, mittee met on Monday night and arranged a fine schedule for the attractive table shows which will start probably in the first week of February, 1934. Nex year Melbourne is to have centenary celebrations, when there may be an output for our surplus eggs and table poultry. I can remember meeting with some fine fanciers during the Commonwealth celebrations. Fanciers from all parts of New Zealand and Australia were there, and we all had a good time and made many visits to the Eastern market, where many birds were on sale.

i One of the vices which bother ! poultry keepers at this season is toepicking by the youngsters. Some l-earers are complaining, and it is j common where chickens are reared in brpoders. A. mixture.for toepicking which has given much success is made of kitchen grease, soap, soot and kerosene. Lettuce as a green feed is most j to be valued for its succulence, and for its richness in the water-soluble vitamins B and C, says "Poultry." The freshly-pulled leaves also contain digestive ferments (enzymes); but the actual feed value of the plant is very low as compared with other green feeds. As a green feed for chicks and ducklings it is not to be recommended in large quantities, but it is otherwise all right. Mr Harry G. Cranfield. The Christchurch Poultry Club has a fashion of honouring and making life-members of members who have done much for the Club by long membership, by. judging and by holding other offices and by assisting the funds of the Club or by much exhibiting or importing. Some of these claims can be made by [Messrs Johnson and H. Cranfield, who, at the sixty-sixth annual meeting, held last week, were honoured with life membership. Few are better known than the fancier whose name heads this paragraph; For more than 40 years Mr Cranfield farmed in the Methven district, where he kept poultry and acted as an officer of poultry clubs. He was a specialist in that fine old breed, the Minorca, a variety he has kept since a boy of seven. The Great War saw him enlist at the age of over 50. Mr Cranfield was, two years later, at 57 Glandovey road, Fendalton, where he also kept a few sorts, but the two years in the service of his country compelled him reluctantly to give up his fowls and the meeting places of fanciers. Breeds in Laying Tests.

The following will show the most popular breeds in British tests:— An analysis of the entries of the egg-laying competitions recognised by the National Poultry Council of England, and embracing open, country, and Northern Ireland tests, shows that Rhode Island Reds again top the poll with a total entry of 7461, as against 5891 for the 193132 tests. White Wyandottes are next on the list with 5663, then White Leghorns with 4350, Light Sussex 1272, Black Leghorns 685, and Buff Rocks 574. All other, bre'eds are represented by an aggregate entry of under 500. . .. Age of Eggs for Hatching. "A question has been asked, not by any means for the first time, as to the period during which eggs intended for hatching can be kept before being placed under the hen or in an incubator," says Sir Edward Brown in the "Feathered World." "Of course, much depends upon the conditions under which they are retained. A further point is that the age of the laying hen or pullet may i have some influence in this direction, namely, it is possible that eggs laid I by hens at liberty on free range, ! living largely upon natural, food, may be more hatchable than those which are laid by birds kept upon concentrative methods. In that case the liveability of the germ and, embryo within the shell may be : greater in one instance than the other. Here is a remarkable fact which I merely state. A hen which makes its own nest and lays its own eggs in it, when the process of hatching commences these eggs differ in age to at any rate a fortnight, if not more. If, therefore, there is. a loss of vitality in accord- i ance with the time when the egg is j laid, Nature has evidently provided j a balance, because, under such con- | ditions, it is generally found that all ; the chickens come out together. Can : anyone suggest a solution of this , problem? I have one, but hold it; over for the present." |

SEX OF AN EGG. 10 TUB EDJTOB Oy THB PEESB. Sir,—lf "Fancier" provides transport from Christchurch railway station to and from his poultry .farm, and hs

sends a couple of good broody hens tors), I would be prepared to select a setting of eggs from his collection and the results would prove that it is possible to determine, the sex of an egg.—Yours, etc, FOUX/TRK.