POULTRY KEEPING FOR PROFIT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21805, 10 June 1936, Page 7

POULTRY KEEPING FOR PROFIT

FREE RANGE FOR BREEDERS

•By ’•LEGHORN.’’) It is wise to allow the breeders as much run as possible. If the ground is available it is a good idea to build a wire-netting run, so that the birds can scratch and exercise in the open, but be careful to allow the birds this freedom on fine days only. It is, of course, the object of every poultry keeper to get the hens back into profit as soon as possible. Keep the grit box well filled and do not suddenly change the type of grit used. If the birds have been used to oyster grit, do not make a sudden change to pipi grit; it is wise to keep a mixture of both before the birds.

Overhaul Housing

When the birds are not producing heavily is the time to overhaul the general flock houses. The perches should be cleaned and creosoted, and the nests disinfected. Because too many nests are empty these days and eggs are scarce, there is no need to be lax over nest care. The time is opportune to overhaul nesting sections, which in a few months will be working at high pressure. Where the nests are movable get them out in the sunlight and clean and overhaul them, and let them have a few days’ sunshine to sweeten them up. Any adjustments or remodelling of existing systems should be done now, whether fixed or movable, and those nests not in use liberally treated with wood-pre-serving oil or the use of the blow-lamp. All nesting material should be withdrawn and scrapped, and complete new material—of whichever kind you fav-our-put back when the nests are dry again. The oil smell will go off before the full laying season, while the woodwork will absorb any surplus. Where parts of the nests are being treated, close them off by a few bags. When the renovated ones are ready, close the others and get the layers to move over for a few days. The nesting material should be sweet and dry, and there should be plenty of it, especially in the bottom of the nest. Dirty or wet material means soiled and possibly low-grade eggs, while inadequate nesting tends to breakages. The casual method o'f bothering when the hens are not ying is a foolish policy. Production increases with great rapidity, and a wise farmer is ready for it, for as production increases the automatic market drop comes, and every egg is needed. Pay particular attention also to quietness, adequate shade, and weather protection

In the round of rearing, housing, and feeding, eggs are the aim of the commercial farmer, and the proper provision for the laying of the egg and its protection till collection is just as vital as any phase of the bird’s life and attention. Do not complain because production is down to zero; get busy and see that you get the maximum in a few months’ time under the best conditions.

Winter Green Feed _ TJ? e su Pply of fresh greens is now getting short, and many poultry keepers will have resorted to the use of lucerne chaff. This is a very useful substitute for fresh greens, and is riot expensive to buy. The lucerne chaff should be soaked overnight and mixed with the morning mash. The process of soaking restores a surprising amount of colour to the chaff, and the birds seem to like it. Green feed is one of the most necessary and incidentally one of the cheapest of poultry feeds. Green feed, we are told, is used chiefly to supply certain minerals, and it is frequently thought when supplies fall low that nothing can happen if the greens are cut down a little each day. What organic minerals the bird’s body extracts from greens we do not know. There are minerals in greens m such minute quantities that we do not know what part, if any at all they take in the health of birds. Salt and iron we know are of the greatest value—from green feed. ‘We glso know that these organic miner«fo

are easily soluble, and are quite different from the inorganic minerals as dug from the earth or those found in the chemist’s shop. In fact, where an organic mineral is invaluable as food the inorganic mineral of the same name is actually most harmful. We are more often prone to emphasise the correct balance between carbohydrates and proteins, forgetting all about the mineral necessities, but these minerals are of the greatest importance, because without them the body cannot make those juices so necessary for the digestion of more bulky foods. Sometimes it will be noticed that the birds do not eat as much greens one day as another, but we must allow for instinctive appetite in these matters to control the bird’s desires, and Hot, in consequence, cut down the supply. . The point to remember is that green feed is as important to fowlsas grain and meals, and any reduction in quantity or the starving of birds in this direction is bound to react on production, health, and the constitution of the flocks generally.

QREEN BROS, For White Leghorns, Cockerels, Hens, and Pullets. 55 Cornwall street (off Cranford street. St. Albans), Christchurch, NX 'Phone 41-SSL