POULTRY KEEPING FOR PROFIT

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 5

POULTRY KEEPING FOR PROFIT

absolutely clean and dry, and the hessian cover also. It is good practice to keep three hessian covers for each brooder frame, and change the covers daily, and cover them with clean chaff. The cover taken off the frame should be swept clean and hung in the sun . to sweeten and dry. The changing of the cover and the use of fresh chaff each day are highly important factors in successful brooding. Changing is simple. It takes only two or three minutes, but it has a most beneficial effect. Drinking water containers and dry mash hoppers should also be cleaned every two or three days. if the chickens are kept dry, clean, and comfortably warm, the chances of trouble occurring are very slight indeed. The second matter for consideration is ventilation, and in dealing with this it is necessary to emphasise the danger of over-heating. Thousands of chickens are spoilt each year by chilling, but many more thousands are ruined by sweating or over-heating. If the first night the chickens are under the brooder it happens to be cold, stormy, or frosty, it is the usual custom to lay a few clean sacks over the brooder to help retain the heat. From experience one can say without hesitation that the use of sacks to promote greater brooder heat'is dangerous. Many batches of chickens have been “sweated” this way. Providing the house is not draughty and the brooder is in good working order, do not place sacks over the hr - Oder. One sack may be all right, but when three or four sacks are placed over a brooder the chickeiis are sometimes not only over-heated but well nigh smothered. Fresh air, not draught, is necessary to chickens, and in keeping chicks warm do not spoil them by overheating. There remains the important matter of feeding. One can strongly recommend the use of dry feed hoppers containing chicken starter dry mash. This dry mash contains the necessary materials for growth, but be sure to obtain the highest quality available. The dry mash hopper should be available to the chickens all the time, and two or three times during the day a moderate feed of first grade chicken feed (fine crushed grain) should be provided. When the chickens are very young, say, for the first 10 days, the chick food should be led in the hopper or scattered on a clean sack. As the chickens grows this food can be scattered in the scratching chaff, but dry mash in the hoppers should be available to the chickens all the time. Finely-chopped green food is a necessity, and an ample supply should be provided at least once each day. Do not let any of food become damp or mouldy, as this will cause digestive trouble. So.

♦ [By LEGHORN,! CARE OF CHICKENS During the next few weeks incubation will be in full swing. The successful hatching and brooding of chickens by artificial means, while not a, difficult task, is nevertheless a matter which calls for the observance of several rules. Only eggs of good size and shape should be placed in the incuba- v tor. Eggs that are large or small do not hatch as well as eggs of average size (weight 2 ounces). Eggs with uneven shells, badly shaped, or of poor shell texture, are unlikely to hatch, and if chickens are produced from such eggs they are apt to be deformed or lacking in vitality. Before the eggs are placed in the incubator make certain that the machine is thoroughly clean and in good working order. It pays to start up the incubator a day, or even two days before the eggs are set. This gives one an opportunity to regulate the machine. It is better to pay for kerosene or power for two days and have the machine running correctly, than to risk putting the eggs straight into the machine and then finding that because of some adjustment not being made, all the eggs are spoilt. If the actual incubation process is important, the brooding of the, young chickens is more so. Brooding calls for the exercise of sound commonsense. As a general guide it can he dealt with under three main headings, cleanliness, ventilation, and feeding. Cleanliness first, because unless the utmost attention is given to this factor, the best brood of chickens will soon be the worst. Before the chickens are taken - from the incubator, the brooder house and equipment should be in perfect condition. The brooder house should be thoroughly disinfected, and all equipment thoroughly cleaned ‘by washing with hot water. The brooder frame, on which the brooder rests, is usually constructed of three-by-one timber, over which wire-netting is tightly stretched, this in turn is - covered with a clean hessian cover, which in turn is covered with clean chaff to a depth of about one inch. The brooder rests on this frame and ths chickens have a good dry warm bed under the brooder. The wooden frame should be

not neglect the water supply. Clean fresh water is cheap, and the water container should be placed in a shaded part of the brooder house. A chicken’s size is determined to a considerable extent by the amount of water evaporated from the contents of the egg during the process of incubation. Egg size, of course, is the

i prime factor in determining the size r of the chick, but poor incubator man* i agement may 1 produce small, puny chicks from good eggs, j When tha a fact that the contents of an egg are £ approximately 65 per cent, water i 3 s realised, it is evident that excessive - evaporation during incubation may c result in small chicks. .