Poultry Notes

Evening Star, Issue 21825, 14 September 1934, Page 2

Poultry Notes

[By UTILITYFANCY.]

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “ Importer.” There', are several breeders of Light Sussex in New Zealand, and an advertisement should brinv you into touch with one or more of them. It is a beautiful, deep bodied bird, with its silvery white plumage and striped hackle feathers. It is one of England’s oldest breeds. It is a, hardy and prolific layer, and excellent table bird. Of course, it you decide to import from England you will, by introducing fresh blood, be doing a service of value to all who favour the breed here. .WHITE DIARRHOEA IN CHICKENS. Among brooder chickens we find much mortality, and one common symptom is a whitish, or yellowish white, discharge. . This discharge is due to water, from excessive production ot uric acid, in the sick chicken. sickness is due in some eases to chills, and in others to slow poisoning from continued breathing of polluted air in nnventilated brooders. In all such cases there is a rise in body temperature, and consequently the chicks feel cold, and will crowd'towards the warmer parts of the brooder. In colony brooder houses the chicks will crowd and huddle together in the corners of the room where the temperature may be low. Cold floor draughts cause colds, etc., and cause crowding. This whitish discharge is in no wav connected with the 8.W.D., which is. clue to infection by a specific bacillus, and so far is not known here.—D. F. Laurie. SEX LINKAGE. At a meeting of poultry men held in Brisbane Captain Mann, of the him ot Mann and Gamble Ltd., Sydney, outlined a scheme that his firm was, prepared to put into operation conditional upon interested hatcherymen guaranteeing a stipulated amount in value at Id per chick. An expert m sex-linking would bo provided, and bis services available five days each week. It is reported that the proposal met with a very mixed reception, the idea expressed being that sex-linkage was not in the best interest of commercial poultry farming. No guarantee, consequently,• was forthcoming. It should interest New Zealand poultrymen to learn what is done in this matter elsewhere, as this country will no doubt he canvassed on the subject very shortly. ' JUDGING COD LIVER OIL. High acidity in cod liver oil promotes the development of a dark or reddish tinge. The natural colour is light amber, but deep amber is not to be objected to. Any other colour is to bo regarded with suspicion. The oil should be clear and bright, and should smell strongly of cod liver oil. Admixture of other and cheaper oils,, such as that of sperm whale,, is frequently practised. These adulterations contain no vitamins. and the vitamin potency of a sample of cod liver oil is therefore reduced by the proportion in which adulterants have been added. Unfortunately there is no short test—we are told—for the determination of the presence of other oils, but their presence mav be. suspected if t'be cod liver oil smell is not decidedly pronounced. There is no chemical .test so far known which will enable one to pronounce on the Vitamin D potency of a particular sample of cod liver oil; resort must be had to actual test on the chicken or other animal. With regard to acidity, Mr Sheey, B.Sc., lecturer on animal nutrition, Dublin, explains that there is definite evidence of injury to, and fatalities among, chickens when the cod liver oil has fl high acid content. A good sample of oil should not contain more than 1 par cent, of free fatty acids, and that more than 2 per cent, should be considered excessive and liable to have a bad'ciTect. BEST TRAVELLED EGGS. When obtaining eggs for incubation purposes, if they have travelled by train, car, or any other conveyance, see that they are allowed to rest for twentyfour hours before being put under the ben or into the incubator. MAMMOTH INCUBATORS. It is reported that there are quite a few It), 000-egg incubators now in tire Canterbury district, and have proved so satisfactory that orders have been placed for several more for use next season. REPLACING FOREIGN EGGS. Capt. F. S. Morgan (Glamorgan) has some big ideas with respect to egg production at Home. In a letter to ‘ The Times ’ he says:— 1

“ We import 18,000,000 long hundreds of eggs annually—i.e., the produce of 35,000,000 hens. We could produce this extra hen power fu .two years—if the Government so wished. Where this done there would be profitable employment for £30,000,000 of capital (a year’s work for 250,000 men); 175,000 acres of land and 50,000 men in direct production—and, say, 20,000 in subsidiary services of distribution and handling of byproducts. Further, we should import or produce nearly 3,000,000 tons of com and meat—so shipping would gain. If foreign corn is to be turned into eggs for our food, let us at least do the ‘manufacture’ at home!”'

1 Contributions and questions for answering should be addressed . 1 to “ Utility-Fancy,” Poultry Editor, ‘ Star • Office, and re- 1 1 ceived not later than Tuesday of each week. ” Utility-Fancy n I j will only answer communications through this column.

LOW FERTILITY. There are many cases of low fertility, and one that is 'sometimes unsuspected is under mating. A vigorous cock will often give better results if the number of birds in the pen is increased. There is an explanation for this. Hens do not need too much attention from the males. Excessive sexual excitement results in infertile eggs. THE NEST FOR THE BROODY. The nest should be just deep enough to allow the walls to confine the nest material and just a little more. It should not be so small that the eggs may pile on one another or so wide that there is danger of their spreading over too much space for the hen to cover them. The straw or bay should be basin shaped so that the eggs cannot scatter too much. A good broody tries to keep all the eggs under her, but this is difficult to do if the nest is not properly shaped. A too deep a nest often results in broken eggs because the ben has to jump down on them, and her toe nails may cause punctures even if her weight does not crush them. THE STOLEN. NEST. A poultryraan asks; “Do you know whv the ben that steals her nest so often brings home a good brood? ” The real reason, he says, is that the hen lays an egg in the stolen nest. , The following day she returns to the nest and Jays another one. In so doing she thoroughly re-warms the germ contained in the first eggs. This goes on until the “clutch ” is completed, every genu being “ warmed up ” each time the bird visit the nest. When she returns to the nest for good, not only are all the germs thoroughly healthy, but they are all in the same state of development, so to speak. When the hen settles down on the nest for good there is no warming up of stale germs in some I eggs and immediate development of fresh germs in. others. All start ot the same time and all are vital and alive. GOOD ADVICE TO AMATEURS. Mr Randolf Meecli, writing to the ‘ Feathered World,’ points out that profits do not increase in' - "proportion to the stock. Concluding a long article lie says: “ Let me advise all beginners and amateurs in starting to begin in a moderate way; 09 per cent, of amateurs have ideas larger than their experience. and want to start off with a plant and stock that should only be attempted by those having years of practical experience and knowledge. They argue like a grocer weighing up and selling sugar, that the more they do the greater will be the profit, but I state without any fear of contradiction, if beginners started with half the plant and stock their profits would he doubled, or their losses halved. caution cannot be too strongly empha-j sised. Let an amateur, and by an amateur I mean one who has to seek advice from books, papers, or friends before starting, try and make a profit first on a weekly return of, say, twenty to forty birds, and do not argue you cannot live on the profits of so small a number. The chances are you will have to live on less if you started with a weekly return of double that number. Having succeeded with twenty birds per week for a year, then double your output, and the following vear treble them. If you overload yourself at the start, and especially ( with rearing, you may number yourself among the thousands being annually sold up. There is the undisputed fact that your profit never increases in proportion to your stock; that is, a man making £2OO on his flock, is not likely to make double that amount by doubling his stock. He may nearly do it, but it is very rarely done. Increase of stock means extra mortality, trouble, and complications; the operations should be reasonable.

There are hundreds of cases where a solitary brooder will rear every chick placed in it, but try and run, say, fifty, and you immediately have a different talc* to tell about mortality, as the brooders cannot have the same .individual attention where run on mass lines. There is no more fascinating hobby or occupation than the poultry-keeping business, but there is no branch of any industry where money can be lost so easily and quickly, or where the unexpected so often happens, or any subject that requires so much attention or intelligence, or where man’s understanding is so taxed. The moral is, let your stock grow with your experience and never undertake more than the capacity of your plant and experience.

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VICAR SHOOTS A CAT

A summons against the Rev. Emlyn Hugh James, of Armley Hall \ icarage, Leeds, alleging cruelty to_ a cat was dismissed at Leeds on July o (says the ‘Morning Post’). Mr R. C. Davies (lor the RSP.C.A.) said that Mr James shot the cat from the vicarage window. It was severely wounded and had to be destroyed. Mr James stated that lor some considerable time his poultry had been mutilated and molested by cats. He had had twenty-five or thirty birds killed bv cats, and had picked up chickens which had had their wings torn oft. When he shot the cat it was in the middle of the chicken pen. The Stipendiary Magistrate (Mi Horace Marshall) said that a person was not entitled to shoot an animal except in certain circumstances for which the law provided. It was absurd to sav that a person who had been troubled by stray cats should have to stay on guard day and night to scaic them away. ~ “ I don’t think any case of cruelty is made out against him,” he added.