POULTRY KEEPING

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21019, 22 November 1933, Page 14

POULTRY KEEPING

PIGEONS AND CAGE BIRDS [By FAXCIER.] NOTES The delegates from local clubs will leave to-morrow morning to attend the annual meeting of the South Island Poultry Association to be held in Invercargill on Friday. It is very probable that the next annual meeting of the South Island Poultry Association will be held in Christchurch during Carnival Week, 1934, when the show and races will attract many visiting fanciers. There was a fine collection of poultry at the Courtenay A. and P. Show held at Kirwee last Saturday. The breeds were well represented, and Mr Geo. H. Bradford judged. The finance and ladies' committee of the Christchurch Poultry Club has arrangements well in hand for a dance and card evening to be held in aid of the prize funds of the club. The results of experiments by the American Department of Agriculture show that heavy laying during the breeding season apparently favours high hatchability. ■ The Sixth Triennial World s Poultry Congress will be held in Germany y three years hence. This decision was reached at the fifth congress, which was held in Rome in September, and was to some extent probably due to the fine exhibit sent by Germany. . Local utility men seem fairly certain that the Poultry Bill will be passed this year. . , , , * All judges should be instructed to use their best endeavours to judge the buff Orpington as a utility fowl and to drop the idea that we want huge, long-backed, fluffy fowls, with coarse combs, big tails and heavy bone, which are useless for the purpose so many of us arc aiming for.—W. H. Cook, Orpington, England, in the "Feathered World." W H. Cook is a son of the creator of the Orpington fowl and would doubtless like to see breeders follow the idea of his father in keeping tne utility lines as Australian breeders have'done in giving us the Aust.ralorp. The Sussex Poultry Club of England has renamed the utility classes at the club show to be held at the Crystal i Palace, London, which will in future, be known as "commercial" classes. ] It is suggested that as the word | "utility" has come to be regarded as relating almost exclusively to egglaying qualities, this new phraseology might well be adopted by other clubs catering for heavy breeds. It would then become indicative of table properties as well as laying abilities.

What's In a Name. The popular light Sussex takes its name from the light Brahma and the same colour is seen in the Wyandotte, but in this variety it is called the Columbian. The Columbian Rock is the same colour, and presumably all American breeds of the same colour are called Columbians. In France varieties of the same colour are called Ermines and as they are white with tail and neck hackles striped with black. Ermine seems to be the most correc' name for birds of that colour, and it is also the most distinctive. Fattening for Christmas. We read in sacred writ of fatted fowl, and in olden times both natural and artificial methods were practised largelv. and still are in some countries. Here 'in New Zealand, judging by the poultry in shops, not much fattening of anv kind is done and practically no attempt is made to bring fowls into prime condition. All sorts meant for the table should have room to move a little, but only a little. Confinement should last from 14 to 28 days, and any of the meals used by poultry may be given. The meals should be mixed with milk and one-fourth potatoes mashed and well mixed. There should be plenty of fresh water all the time. The food should be fresh and fed often. No green feed is needed, and if the birds show loss of appetite mix a little yeast or brewer's grains in the mash and pellets of fat meat daily: or fat of some kind. Do not forget to supply a little grit. The Best Table Sorts. Different opinions are held on this point. The English taste demands a white skin, a white leg and a meaty fowl. Here we have not a big field to choose from. Among ordinary sorts we have white-legged Old English Game, Buff and White Orpingtons, Sussex, Dorking, ,or crosses between hens of these sorts and Indian or Old English Game roosters. But though these, and a few others we have, dress best, the yellow-legged and yellowskinned sorts popular in America are good enough for anyone; so are the dark-legged Langshan and Australorps and others. The main thing is to get them young, and both sexes are better if not allowed to mix. Barnevelders, Faverolles and Jersey Giants I have also heard of in New Zealand and they are good table sorts. Pigeons and Cage Birds. Homing pigeon production seems to be good, but the fancy section complains of poor hatches. Doubtless the birds never being at liberty is one of the causes of unsuccessful hatching. Among cage birds the breeders seem to be more lucky and I hear of more success. Parakeets are more plentiful and canary men are doing fairly well. Wild birds in the suburbs do not appear to be as plentiful as usual and blackbirds, thrushes and starlings, which I found in plenty for years seem to have deserted me until a few days ago, when a few appeared; but chaffinches, goldfinches and yellow butting and white-eyes and fantails I have hardly seen this spring, and only a few greenfinches and redpolls.