THE POULTRY INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1192, 29 July 1911, Page 15

THE POULTRY INDUSTRY

(By Chantecler.)

Vancouver Ego-laying Test. The secretary of the Vancouver exhibition has written !o Air. .1. B. Mcrroll, Chrislchiireh, asking for tho entry of fivn pens of birds from New Zealand for the egg-laying commencing at Vancouver on October 1. ]t is expected that the five pens will be .secured from .some of tlio leading breeder.-. It will bo an excellent thing for New Zealand, and will prove in other parts oi the world what our laying stock ea.n do. The birds will leave Auckland oil September ±, and arrive in Vancouver a week before tho test begins. Tho -N'ew Zealand Poultry .Association has a membership of 140 members, and has raised nearly ,£BO in funds since its inception in Wellington a few months ago. Three egg circles—Masterton, Canterbury, and rahnerston—have affiliated, whilo 'five other circles that have commenced operations will join shortly. Tho work done by tho organiser is having excellent effect. It is not expected that the fancier clubs will join tho association in large numbers, as they prefer to keep to their hobby.' The New Zealand and South Island Associations provide affiliation for these.

Within the Dominion. The poultry conference, which is to bo held in Ghristchurch during carnival week, in November, will be the greatest effort ever made to get the poultryiuejti of New Zealand together. It will be an educative function that will attract poul-try-men from all parts of the Dominion. Tho committee, which is to arrange the programme, will meet at an early date to select the subject, and draw up the syllabus. The social element will bo catered for, while visits to up-to-dato poultry farms will be a means of education to those who attend the gathering. It is possible that some Australian poul-try-men will be in attendance, as two of them intend paying a visit to New Zenland at that time, should circumstances permit.

Dunedin Fanciers' Show. The Dunedin Fanciers' Club annual show promises to bo. one of the most successful shows held by the club. A record entry has been received, n.tid a splendid assortment of trophies and special prizes has been secured. The committee has decided this year to have the. cats and children's pets on show for two days (the poultry three), eo these sections alone will no doubt prove great attractions. Mr. J. Hayne, the well-known breeder of Persian cats, is making a special exhibition this year, and as,, probably, there is no one in Australasia who can make- such a large and varied show in this bcautifnl and attractive variety, those interested should not lose the chance of seeing them. The total entries in poultry nra 4CD, against 432 last year; pigeons 311, canaries 157, cats and pets 98. The importance of having a good brooder for the rearing of chickens where large numbers are handled is will understood, but where only two or throe broods of, say, 12 chicks each, arc intended to be reared, artificial brooders are not used as much as they might be. It has been the unfortunate experience of many fanciers to lose chickens entrusted to hens on many occasions under circumstances when tho loss has bsen severe. When especially valuable eggs are being set, or when tho setting is effected so late. in.the season that losses cannot satisfactorily be replaced, it is advisable, to have an artificial brooder handy for use if the hen turns out to be a poor or careless mother. In brooding chickens artificially, it is a wise plan to house rather less than the number which the brooder used is advertised to accommodate. The general error is.to crowd the chickens after thp first two weeks, the fancier failing to tako into account their rapid-growth. An important rule in feeding brooder chicks is to favour, dry food, and (o throw same in small quantities, so that all is eaten up, and to feed often, so as to keep them thoroughly contented and growing. Give plenty of chopped up green food, but sparingly as with grain, and let them have a. continuous supply of grit and clean water. Keep the brooder warm, and judge the heat, reciuired by seeing that the chicks don't crowd together. Tho brooder is at right temperature if thr> chicks spread out nicely from one another, and do not get their feathers or down wet with moisture. Damp chickens nro a,n indication that there is overcrowding or too little .ventilation. Fresh, air. to breathe promotes the health of both fowls and chickens. . . *' ."

This is the way to pet winter eggs.Have a. pot—a'kerosen?e tin cut down and a handle fixed, is as good as anything— and throw in tho house-scrips (bones in particular), add water and thoroughly boil. Mix in one part bran to two of pollard, bran first, and feed in a crumbly state while warm. Cabbage and cauliflower loaves should bo chopped up and boiled to a. pulp. Feed this inasli in the morning. At midday throw in green feed and *a handful or two of wheat. At about 4.30 in tho afternoon giro a good feed of dean, found wheat, Don't have any fixed weight or scale, feed according to appetite. Havo some straw, hor«! manure, or other loow litter in the yards for tho fowls to scratch in. Provide a water-tight roosting shed, and fix so tho prevailing wind hits the back of it. Have shell grit, stone grit, and charcoal in a vessel fixed fo the birds can't scratch it out and waste it. These simple things will givo winter eggs if the hens are any good. An American, writing on poultry, gives some found advice. He says: "As the world goes moving around we all, at one tiuio or another, havo something that we feel impelled to say to our neighbour on tho subjects that lie nearest our hearts. There has been fo much written on the poultry subject that it would teem the ground had been thoroughly covered, but that much talked-of disease, 'hen fever,' is very contagious, and every day claims new victims, who must necessarily stnmblo over the old mistakes which mark the way to successful poultry-raising, and so there is need for tho same old directions which we older poultrymeu have read so often, to be published in succeeding issues of poultry journals. It is therefore proper and right that we all should mako notes of our experiences and occasionally give them to the journals, so that brother poultrymen may read and possibly profit thereby. If all the poultrymen in the world should get together .and yell in one voice, 'Don't crowd your fowls!' it would not or could not impress that fact on tho mind of the beginner too strongly. I cannot compliment the farmers in my paTt of tho country by sayin" that their poultry is freo from diseases, and that they get eggs that are fertile. I have several farmer neighbours who do not know anything about their chickens. Thev do not know what kind they have nor "how many they have, and tho chicks roam just as much and as far as they wish During the hatching season I notice a hen here and there with from one to 10 chicks. The good wifo will probably take the chicks that four or five hens hatch and give them to one hen in order to keep tho hens from fighting when sno feeds them. In the fall the farmer wonders what becamo of all their young chickens. They havo eaten several, but surely not all that were hatched. About Christmas time when they want to make a few cakes they havo to buy op at 2! cents, a (logon. I know several of my neighbours who could not get three or four eggs to mako a take. That is tho success the farmers about here havo.

A Different Case. Of course, wo have fame farmers who have a number of chic tens, c "J ducks to soil every winter am wlio bring in to sell when they am ho highest, lut T'iiavo traced them up yml invariably find a place with comfortable quarters for fho poultry, and when you talk to llw familv vou will discover lhat some or »1 of them arc, somewhat interested in poultrr and they will tell you about geldn"" few nice cockerels from some good breeder last spring. They also tell me that they alwivs sell off all poultry in the carh- winter, down to a certain number, so "that they will have plenty of X thing has been very plainly illustrated to me, and that is. if poultry is half way cared for during bad weather in winter they will produce enough eggs bo pay for the trouble. I noticed particularly that the farmers about hero who bring in eggs to sell at the store during

Din winler mouths have nn their farms a gouil many cow, buggy, and wagon sheds and a good largo barn with largo hallways. .Nearby you wjll lind a pretty well built poultry-house, so Hint during the times in winter when the ground ib covered willi snow, tho i'owls can get to all (he sheds and barn during the day and use them as scratching sheds, and the farmer, as be is uirrying his basket: of corn or oats (o feed his stock, if he notices a friendly lieu looking longingly up at the basket, almost invariably will throw her a few grains. In (ho'other hand, you will find tho farmer who has only barn room enough for part, of his stock lets his fowls roost in tho trees all winter. If perchanco some of them should insinuate that they would like to roost in tho barn, they would bo sent Hying out into tho snow with a club after them. Homo morning, when the 'thermometer registers way below zero ho linds several chickens dead under tho trees and tells his neighbours what a cold night it was, because several of his chickens froze to death. Such farmers novel , ' have eggs to sell from February (Now Zealand) until'the next October (Now Zealand). How many amateur poultrymen have a history like tho following:—ln a nearby city lived a man who had saved a few dollars and who longed for country life. Ho bought a house and an acre of ground near our village for -100 dollars. He called on me, as I presumed, for advice, and I gave him the 'best I had in the shop/ showing him my houses, brooders, and explaining my plans of operating, and so on; but before ho left I learned that he had simply called to tell mo how he intended to conduct tho business. Notwithstanding his confidence in himself, I tried to persuade him to begin with thoroughbred stock, but being a little short of money, he persisted in buying tho best common fowls he could from the farmers. Tho first season he farmed a little and raised a few chicks with hens, but the next season he invested m a few thoroughbred brown Leghorns, bought an incubator,- , made himself somo sectional brooders, and being somewhat of a mechanic, fitted them up with pas pipo and prepared to heat them with not water. , His first hatch was a good one, and for a week the chicks were lively and his prospects were bright. Then he noticed a. change, and decided- that the droopiness of his chicks was caused by lice, and he painted his brooders carefully and thoroughly with liquid lice-killer one evonm.T. After" ho finished cleaning out his brooders tho next morning he had perhaps a dozen chickens left. . , Tho nest hatch was not killed by liquid lice-killer, but he decided his luck had turned because they persisted in dying. Now ho is back at his old trade, _ and there is a house, an acre, and an incubator for sale. As I intimated before, history repeals itself. If an amateur will listen to advice, I instruct him always to begin with thoroughbred fowls, either a trio or pen; to subscribe to a poultry journal that relates tho failures as well as tho successes of amateurs and how to remedy mistakes (like Otago "Witness"), and last, but not least, to associate with poultrymon and attend all the shows he can-not to tallr himself, but to listen and ask questions. Do not be 100 nice- to live with vonr fowls-tho moro the batter. Jli.\ 'with them and become acquainted, Willi them, so that you will know every hen by sight and'6o you can be able to tell from the colour of nn egg which hen laid it. Learn tho habits of -your fowls and irovern yourself accordingly. If you «i" do these things, then you have the elements of success within you.