YOUNG STOCK

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 82, 3 October 1936, Page 24

YOUNG STOCK

ADVICE. ON REARING

The earlier-hatched pullets should be ■well feathered now and care must be taken not to neglect them in favour of later-hatched batches of chicks. Poultry keeping on a large scale means double-time work at this period of the year and unless care is exercised it is very easy to let the young birds down by mismanagement. Some may say that because these earlier chicks are well perched they need no special care as they are not required for egg | production too early, but the experienced poultn'man realises that any check during the growing period means a loss, which, cannot be [picked up in later life. We force the growth of baby chicks for the first. eight weeks in order to get them well feathered and old enough to obtain exercise and fresh air. Once weaned from heat they should have ample free range in small units. Batches of fifty do best in movable coops spread over land grazed by sheep or cattle and so situated that shelter is provided from cold winds and hot sun. Hen-reared chicks will rarige over as much as twenty acres in search of titbits and brooder chicks will do likewise if they have the opportunity and are encouraged. After eight weeks of age the growth must not be forced, though it should not be checked. For the next three months the aim is to build up a strong frame, good bone, plenty of muscle, and a really strong constitution. Pullets so reared will then be quite fit to stand the strain of two years' hard laying. Free range is ideal for chicken growth, but not essential. If the amount of land available is limited and already "'fowlsick" through use by adult stock, then the growing pullets must be reared under the intensive system. Such work is certainly a job for experts, but it can be done. Careful grading into small units is advisable and the type of shedding -must be ideal. Ample exercise can be provided by wheaten straw litter and the feeding must be balanced. Plenty of roughage in the form of green feed or bran should be fed. and severe culling will be well rewarded. THE FOLLOW-ON SYSTEM. No system will cause more trouble than the follow-on method of rearing chicks. By this is meant the type of brooder where chicks are moved on each week. The first batches , have clean, sweet sheds and runs, and, of course, do remarkably well. But the later batches have to run where older chicks have soiled the - ground and even where care is used in sanitation the results will be ■lappointing. Digging over the ground will not ■ help very much, for once the dreaded disease known as'coccidiosis becomes established the chicks will weaken and fail to thrive. Coccidiosis can be,called a "repeating disease" in that infection is proportionate to the number of "eggs" eaten by the chicks. These eggs are passed out by infected birds with their droppings and under favourable conditions incubate where they drop. Other chicks when pecking around swallow some and the more they swallow the more severely will they become infected. A check to the disease is easily applied with a little trouble. If a batch is infected, or should infection be suspected,' it is as well to have a report from the Wallaceville Laboratories, then the following treatment will usually work wonders. Starve the chicks for two meals and then give a mash containing from,one-half to one pound of Epsom salts to every 1001b' of mash. Within twenty-four hours remove the chicks to a clean shed on fresh, untainted ground and an immediate improvement should be noted. Carefully clean up the old shed and run. Ordinary disinfectants are useless against coccidiosis, but a strong salt solution is fairly effective. Boiling \vater, if applied in ample quantities, is also very effective, but it must be really boiling. Wire mesh floors are becoming increasingly popular -for chick rearing, since the droppings pass through out of the reach of the chicks and so reinfestation is prevented. The wire platform under the brooder canopy, as described in the Department of Agriculture's poultry bulletin, should be in use on every farm for chicks still under heat. Not only is it an aid to sanitation, but it prevents sweating of the chicks at an age when this coin-: monly takes place. It is also an aid in getting the chicks to perch, since the platform can be raised an inch or so each day. It must be remembered that this year's pullets are next year's moneymakers. They should receive every attentioii and care, and if necessary some of the adult birds should be marketed to make room for them. With eggs at minimum prices from now until the moulting season there is little profit to be gained from keeping a large flock of older hens and prices for these are much better now than they will be in a few months. Surplus cockerels, on the other hand, can be crowded a! little and given second consideration. Of course, any that are being reared for the purpose of prospective breeders must • have every care, but the bulk will be needed only for tabTe poultry and these are best reared on the intensive or semiintensive system unless unlimited free range is available. If the chicks were not sexed at hatching, the cockerels should be separated from the pullets just as soon as possible, since better growth will result and a saving in feeding costs can be made. The idea should be to get the cockerels plump as quickly as possible without any worry as to whether they will make good adults. Thus a forcing ration can be continued longer and with the dual purpose breeds the majority of the cockerels should weigh close _to the minimum four pounds at sixteen weeks old. Buyers will take slightly lighter cockerels during.November and early December, but many consider that it pays to hold them for the extra half-pound. Once they reach the fourpound weight, however, and provided they are plump, they should be marketed without delay as feed consumption at this age is expensive.