GENERAL NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 24

GENERAL NOTES

Regularity in feeding of poultry is most important. To maintain egg production now every effort must be made to keep the pullets comfortable. Laying birds require more protein in the form of meat or meatmeal than do those birds that are not in production.

Maize is an excellent grain for use at this time of the year. Not only do the fowls prefer it, but it supplies the colouring matter to produce rich eolden-yolked eggs as well as preventing roup. Imported maize at a more reasonable price will be available shortly.

One very satisfactory way of retailing pullet eggs so as to give fair value to both buyer and seller is to weigh out 240z of eggs as this is the standard weight of one dozen hen eggs. Some claim that pullet eggs taste better, but there is little foundation for this.

Greenfeed fed regularly to fowls will keep them in good health even under adverse conditions. The supply should be regular and preferably of mixed kinds well chaffed in very short lengths. Many pouftrymen use very short lawn clippings, but care should be used when the grass is tough or too long.

Sanitation is the key to disease infection. All cleanings and manure should be removed right off the premises. If kept bone dry droppings will not do much Jiarm, but to spread them in the oDen is inviting disease infection. Dampness permits the disease

"eggr." to incubate and become dangerous.

Grain and all poultry foodstuffs should be stored in tins, drums, or bins. Rats and mice will work havoc if once they get a holding. A good cat is the best rat catcher the poultryman can use.

In damp harvest years a form of mite often infests grain crops working out of the sacks in the spring. months Actually the mite does not damage the grain very materially but it is important to keep the feedroom free from infestation of this mite as it will breed rapidly. A peculiar smell is noticeable and the grain is. not so readily eaten by the birds.

Some poultrymen have installed automatic wet-mash mixers made on the lines of .concrete mixers, but some say that the work of cleaning the mixer each day is almost as gVeat as that of hand-mixing the mash. The wet mash should not be so wet as tq be sticky but if good pollard or meals are used, the mash should mix "heavy." Light, friable mashes are not of much value.

Small potatoes make a Useful adjunct to the mash but they should be lightly boiled and the liquid used in boiling discarded. Not more than 20 per cent, of the mash bulk should consist of potatoes and the meal content should be increased. They supply bulk or roughage which fowls like.

There is evidence that less fowls are being kept by side-liners. With a return to better wages and with higher feed costs only the best-managed poultry flocks will show a reasonable margin of profit.1 A small flock well cared for will show a much greater per-bird profit than, a larger flock.

Egg-shape, size, and shell texture are hereditary so that care must be used in selecting eggs for incubation. If 100 hens are selected as breeding stock without trapnesting for these points probably only about 25 eggs per day can be used for incubation, although they may lay as many as 50 or GO. The better the strain of birds, the higher will be the percentage of suitable eggs laid, When buying day-old chicks do not place too much consideration on their price. Quality is the chief consideration and cheap chicks are a menace and an indication that the seller cannot procure a higher price for.them'

The breeder who has been in business for some years and who advertises regularly has a reputation to protect. Examine his price list and his stock and if satisfied place your confidence and your business in his hands.

•As a hobby poultrykeeping can be profitable and fascinating but as a means of livelihood it is a serious requiring natural ability, much education, far more capital than one would imagine, and a keen /appreciation of the importance of detail.