POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 12067, 12 December 1903, Page 9

POULTRY NOTES

f_Bx HicaoA.] Being desirous to encourage sad stimulate the poultiy industry, we have arranged with a member of the local Poultry Club to edit thi* column, and vnll be glad to receive and publish any items of news or notes which will be of service to readers. Contributions and questions for answering should be addressed to " Hackle," Poultry Editor, 'Star' Office. ITEMS OF INTEREST. We notice that although eggs have not been bringing more than Is or Is Id per dozen locally they wero reported last Saturday to be fetching as high as 2s 3d per dozen by auction in Wellington. It is about time to knock off hatehing now, as chickens hatched later than this rarely have the stamena or attain the size rf the earlier broods. This is only reasonable, as the parent birds will have been doing duty for some months pavt, and late offspring are bound to we weakly. .Young stock cannot thrive if they are ktpt among the adult birds. They do not get their proper share of food or drink, and are constantly being chased about and worried by the old birds, and don't get time to think about growing. The result is that such young stock is generally halfgrown, thin, and spiritless. The best plan is to keep them in runs by themsebes—pullets in one and roosters in the other—and feed them well. v During the nest month or two look carefully through your yourtg birds, and pick out anything worth showing, and then get rid of the surplus lots. FATTENING BIRDS. The best way to fatten fowls (according to Mr Hyde) is as follows: Fast for from twelve to twenty-four hours, and then feed three times a day on soft food, consisting of pollard, mixed with milk, oatmeal, barley meal, or maize meal, to which add some rendered fat, lib for every fifty birds. The fattening process will occupy from ten to twenty days fc so there is still time to get some" ready for the holiday visitors, if you have them fairly forward. If the birds seem to go off this food, change it, and give them boiled grain, with, of course, grit and fresh water. POULTRY LITERATURE. We would recommend all poultrymen to take one or other of the many journals and papers which are devoted to the poultry industry. These periodicals are full of hints and information which will be found exceedingly useful. The English and American magazines are undoubtedly- good, and thoroughly up to date ; but " Hackle " would recommend local readers to take such journals as the 'Australian Hen' or the 'New Zealand Poultry-keeper,' both of which give much of the useful matter gathered from the foreign and English poultry papers, and have the advantage of giving information and hints suitable to our requirements, as well as poultry news of local and colonial interest. To anyone interested in doing the best with his birds either periodical will well repay its annual cost. „ COLD OR CATARRH IN FOWLS. Birds are liable to get the same troubles as we are, and they catch them in very much the same manner. Put a man in a cold, damp, or droughty room, and he will, nine times out of ten, catch a cold ; and so will a fowl. The symptoms of catarrh in birds are generally "watery discharges from the nostrils, aiid perhaps a little frothiness in the eyes; also the bird may start sneezing. If one bird gets a bad dose of cold, it very often goes through the flock. If kept warm and dry and the weather is good, things will verv often right themselves. The simplest and best remedy is as follows: —Feed upon soft food sprinkled with cayenne or ginger, and add ten drops of aconite to each pint of drinking water. Chopped onions may also be given with benefit. POULTRY-FARMING. Can poultry-farming be made to pay? We have heard many folks say offhand, without being able to give any data to go upon, that it will pay handsomely. Others, a;rain, say. with ju<t as much reason, that it must result in a loss. Our own opinion is that it ran be made to pay well if undertaken and ran in a thoroughly business-like and reasonable manner. There is no doubt that thi! great majority of those who have tried locally have not succeeded; but we believe the reason of their non-success is not hard to find. .A man with little or no experience in poultry-raising, no knowledge of the business methods required, and just about as much capital, takes it into his head that he can make an easy fortune at poultry-farming, and somehow or other he gets a start, manages to get a few birds together—very cftan of an unsuitable variety—and expects them to pretty well look after themselves and keep him." The method we would susrgest to an inexperienced man is to starTvery small indeed ; to keep a dozen or two of hens first, and learn to do the very best possible with them; to rnak-3 a study of them, and when these pay, well, then 'go on further. He can rely upon it that if he cannot make •i small number of hens pay, and cannot look properly after them, it will be only courting disaster to take on a larger number I

When he thoroughly knows his dozen hen." and all about them—what they can do in the way of results, and what food is hest for them to do it on—and when he has proved himself capable of looking after a brood or two of chickens and rearing them to advantage, it will he quite time enough to move on slowly. St:i-rt. small, and grow with experience and the knowledge gained. It is best to take a year or two, or, if necessary, more, and graduallv increase stock as he finds he can manage them with success. No sane man who knows nothing or next to nothing of agricultural work would take up a farm and expect to be able to make a success o r it straight away; nor would such a man eo into any other business without the knowledge and experience requisite and expect to do well at once. Yet this is the way a lot of people look at poultry-farming This special line, like any other, requires special knowledge. The man or woman who is to succeed with poultry-raising must have certain qualities. The "other day wr heard one man say he thought of mnniiii,' poultry, as it would be an easy way of getting a living. According to "his view, one had apparently only to buy the fowls, and they did the rest. Nobody ever made a_ greater mistake tlrnn to think that running a poultry farm constituted a lazy or even an easy life. Success is, we believe, to be attained, but only as a result of solid hnrd "graft" and careful attention to details from daylight to dark. It will take time, perseverance, and work to do well, and even these will be wasted unless a considerable amount of brain-power is brought to bear on the question. Then, again, in order that the above qualities may be made the most use of, if is absolutely necessary that one should be thoroughly interested in one's poultry. Tf an intelligent interest is taken in the business, and a person has a liing for fowls and the work attached to keeping them, then with ordinary fortune there is a good chance of making a success; but one must not expect a snecess for the first year or two. It will take that time to find out which is the most suitable and profitable birds for a particular locality, climate, and surroundings. Also, it will be fdund that there will be considerably more expense ihan income for that period, as the investor will have to get his stock and plant together, and though he may think that he has all that, is necessary at the start, his hand will continually be in his pocket for extras.

To all practical men, who have had experience and have attained the requisite knowledge, and can put capital and pergonal work into it, we confidently predict satisfactory results.