Poultry Notes

Evening Star, Issue 22031, 17 May 1935, Page 2

Poultry Notes

[By UTILITYFANCY.]

THE ADVANTAGE OF AN EARTHERN FLOOR. Provided the earth floor of a scratching shed is good soil the advantages are:—(l) Earth is a good natural disinfectant ; (2) earth is probably the most effective deodoriser; (3) it is also the cheapest floor and most easily renewed ; (4) when the old floor is renewed, in preparation for renewal it makes a good fertiliser or manure for the garden; (5) it is more comfortable for tho birds’ feet than a hard concrete or board floor; (6) it is easily scraped, and thus may have a new surface every day; (7) it does rot. The disadvantages are: —(1) Earth floors, if not properly made and attended to, may become too damp; (2) earth floors are not suitable for use in the central parts of large towns, as they become soured by deleterious matter absorbed from the air in such places, and thus lose their effective good qualities. EAT MORE EGGS. There is no question but that eggs are a valuable food, and should, as a student of home economics has pointed out, play a more important part than they do at present in bringing about improvements in the standard of nutrition. Their particular usefulness may be summed up somewhat as follows: In protein they compete successfully with meat. They are valuable as sources of iron, as any meat except liver, and more valuable than meats like pork and lamb. They more than compete with vegetables and fruits .as sources of iron. As sources of vitamins they are very valuable. Weight for weight they are equal to milk iu tho vitamin B content. By weight they contain 10 times as much vitamin A as milk, although in this connection it must be remembered that we use much more milk at a time than we do eggs. However, this makes eggs an exceedingly valuable supplement to milk, increasing the vitamin A content in the diet. When we recognise tho fact that in many parts of the country this vitamin may be relatively low in the dietary, particularly during the period of early childhood, and that some investigators seem to have proved that it bears a direct relationship to immunity to diseases of the upper respiratory tract, we here recognise not only the importance of giving milk its full share in tho family dietary, but the value of permitting eggs to supplement the milk. Eggs provided under ordinary conditions are comparatively rich in what is known as the anti-rachitic vitamin. It is on record, we are told, a convincing number of experiments which show that the daily egg yolk in the dietary of the baby is . sufficient to protect it against rickets,and in many cases to heal rickets which have already started. In most cases, we are tojel, however, they , cannot compete with cod-liver oil "in their anti-rachitic power. However, when babies, or children, or adults cannot take codliver oil a successful method of introducing the anti-rachitic factor is through tho use of the egg yolk for babies and tho whole egg for children and adults. They contain no vitamin C, a fact which should 1 be taken into account when eggs supplement milk in a baby’s diet, and which should bo compensated for by additions of the juice

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of oranges, lemons, or tomatoes. Eggs are therefore competitors of meat in quality of protein and in price. They are rich in vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin D, and in iron. Although they have a low calcium content, they more nearly approach milk in this respect than any other foods. From the standard of all the contributions they make in the diet eggs are more nearly equal in protecting value to vegetables and fruits and l milk than any other foods. The fat of the egg is largely digested in the stomach, and therefore makes it one of the most valuable types of fat to include in the diet even of infants.”

POULTRY CULTURE FOR WOMEN. It is often essential that women make the best of poultry keeping owing to their attention to details. An experienced lady poultrykeeper, writing in the National Poultry Society's Year Book (England), says: “It is natural for women to take trouble over any work in which they are interested, and small live stock thrive best under such conditions. Rearing of chickens, especially, is best done by women who can stand the long hours, whilst the work is not heavy. Pedigree breeding appeals especially to women, and they often possess a valuable instinct which guides them in selection of stock. Those who are willing to give themselves up to work of an exacting nature are rewarded by building up a sound useful strain of birds. Such creative work appeals to women, and they find in most branches a use for muscle and brain, also intelligent and creative ability.” ORGANISING THE POULTRY INDUSTRY. They are finding this a difficult job in England owing to the fact that there are so many small holders of poultry and relatively few in a big way. The following, which gives ’ a politician’s view of the subject, will be interesting reading to those anxious to organise the poultry industry here in New Zeaand:— Writing in the ‘ Sunday Dispatch ’ on August 19, Mr Randolph Churchill, son of Mr Winston Churchil, said of the poultry industry: “ The principal difficulty arises from the number of producers. There are between six and seven hundred thousand people who keep chickens in Great Britain. Many of them keep very few and sell their surplus eggs to their neighbours. They do not wish to be organised or regimented. “ This will prove the main stumbling block in Mr Elliot’s path. Great Britain consumes seven thousand million eggs a year, or about 180 per head of the population. “ Five thousand million of these are produced at home. Of the remaining two thousand million more than half come from Australia. Britain is the third largest egg consuming country in< the world, the United States and' Canada both having a higher per capita consumption.” THE ART OF FEEDING. Whether successful feeding is really an art, the fact remains that some people appear to get better results than others, although they use the same materials.

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We frequently come across people who use the best foods obtainable, but do not get as good results as they expect, and they are anxious to know the reason.

In some casse, of course, the stock or the accommodation may be at fault; and this may be suspected when dry mash of good quality is given and the birds have the opportunity to help themselves.—‘ Poultry ’ (England). ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION OF GAME EGGS. Pheasant eggs are best incubated at 102 deg F. for the first seven days, lOldeg F. from eight to sixteen days, and lOOdeg F. to hatching on twentyfourth day. Humidity should b© higher at the beginning than at the end of the period (75 per cent, falling to 05 per cent.). The quail has different requirements: 101 deg, F. throughout the hatch and a low humidity to start (65 per cent.), rising to 75 per cent, at the end of the period. It is probably better not to mix eggs of various game birds in one incubator. —Bull. 616, Cornell University. THE PROCESS OF EGG FORMATION. The organs of reproduction in the fowl are compact and efficacious, but easily deranged. The female bird has only one ovary, which lies on the left side of the spinal column. The oviduct leading from it is dilated at the end next to the ovary, and there is another still larger dilation near the other extremity, which, however, does not open directly on the exterior, but into a passage called the cloaca.

This opening can be distinctly felt on the roof of the cloaca, immediately above the rectal exit, by inserting an oiled finger gently into the cloaca. The ovary or the laying hen is filled with ova in different stages of development, embedded in a mass of tissue.

A mature ovum, when it is ready to escape from the ovary, consists of a light yellow body enclosed in a delicate membrane and having at one point a slightly darkened spot or disc, which, when fertilised, is termed the germinal vesicle—the division and development take place only in the disc, the yolk serving solely for nourishment. When the ovum escapes from the ovary, it passes into the dilated portion of the oviduct, where it is fertilised by the sperm cells, and passes on downwards. The white of the egg is secreted by glands situated in the walls of the oviduct, and surrounds the ovum as it passes through it. Another set of glands, a little farther down the oviduct, secrete the substance that forms the shell. When first deposited around the egg the shell is quite soft, but when it reaches the lower dilation of the oviduct it remains there for 12 to 18 hours, during which time the shell becomes quite hard. After this the fully-formed egg, surrounded by its shell, is expelled by violent contractions of the walls of the oviduct, and passes through the cloaca to the outside. In other words, this expulsion of the egg is what every good pullet and hen ought to be proficient in—namely, laying.