POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 22327, 1 May 1936, Page 2

POULTRY NOTES

A GOOD MOVE. Hatcherymen and breeders generally in New South Wales have recenptly formed an association, the aim of which is to ensure that only the highest quality chickens be bred and offered for sale. "The rules of the hew association, which is anticipated will include 00 per cent.' of those interested in the selling of chickens, make it obligatory on members to maintain proper and adequate .breeding pens. No eggs under 2ok. in weight are to bo set, and breeding is to oe done only from mature stock, with a careful selection of all flock-mated stock. Members of the association arc to purchase eggs only from breeder-members of the association. Such breeders’ names must be supplied to the association. Rules concerning aU appliances on the plant, the packing of chickens, etc., have also been framed. _ . ~ A mimimum price for day-old qhiokens is to be fixed from time to time by the association, the price to be jfßoh as to'enable members to maintain ihe high standard of quality laid down by the association. Each member will hav# to furnish a bond in the form of a promissory note -payable on demand at the bank of the association, and lodged at the bank. The amount of the bond is to be £1 per 1,000 of incubator capacity, with a minimum of £lO and a maximum of £SO. Should any member Commit a breach of the rules a maximum penalty, either forfeiture of the bond or expulsion from the association, may be imposed by an Investifa.tion Committee of five. Each member as to give a written, undertaking to abide by the decision of the Investigation , Committee, with the right of nppeal to the Conjoint Committee, whose decision shall be final. ; If the anticipated 90 per_ cent, of hatcherymen and breeders join the association, all will he well. CULL AT NIGHT. As a rule, culling is done in daylight because the advantage of doing the job after dark has not been considered. Night culling causes no upset of the birds, entails little disturbance of the daily routine, avoids frightening the birds, and saves time. Moreover, it makes easier the detection of nervous individual birds. The birds will have to be lifted off the perches, and this is best done by gripping the body with a hand on each side. This prevents struggling, with its consequent squawking, and so does not disturb the other birds. RAT’S PET AVERSION, We are always told that if we want to keep rats out of a house or pen to bury some small mesh netting a foot and a-half in the ground and turn the bottom 6in upwards. But this is not always effective. It depends upon the enterprise and hunger of the rat. I have a breed that will start a hole ‘well out in the field and dig under almost anything, except cold metal. Put a strip of iron sheeting in the ground round the house, at least a foot and a-half deep and no rat will face it.—‘ Feathered JVorld.’ A GAME FOWL BREEDER. Game fanciers throughout the world will learn with regret that Mr Herbert Atkinson died at his home, Ewelme, Wallingford, Oxford (England), on January 3. Universally acknowledged as the greatest authority on all varieties of true game breeds, his loss will be greatly felt, for not only was he a fancier, but an artist capable of depicting on canvas a “ living ” bird, a very rare thing where drawings of poultry are concerned. His paintings of the various varieties of game fowls are looked upon as the standard to be attained by breeders, they arc executed witli such outstanding finish in every detail that picture-lovers outside the poultry fancy regard them as works of art fit to be exhibited in any academy. We are indebted to the ‘ Feathered World ’ (England) for the following;— Mr Atkinson was a bachelor, the son of a country doctor, from whom he inherited the love of an open-air life and a fondness for shooting, hunting, and fishing. His dexterity with his fingers was amazing; he could cast a trout fly equally well with either hand, and njany of his best pictures were painted with both hands—the left-hand side of .the canvas being done with the left hand, and the right-hand side with the other. Mr Atkinson could model as well as he could, paint—witness his magnificent plaster cast of that great stallion, St. Simon, in his study at Ewelme—and in his younger days he had far more to do with racehorses than with game cocks. He was an extensive traveller, going out East each winter, and one of his best trophies was a record pair of bison horn S—obtained in the Western Ghats, India, in 1923, after walking nearly 100 miles. His paint brush always accompanied his gun, and some of liis best pictures were of tropical scenes—ajtiger, native boys by the campfire at night, an Arab marc on the terrace of an Indian x-ajah, Mallard rising from the reeds, water buffalo in a jungle swamp. Mr Atkinson owned his first game cock when he was aged 11. and he was never without one all liis life. He

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studied game breeding in all its aspects. He was the first Englishman to pit cocks in Northern France, lie attended mains in Spain, India, Ceylon, and Malaya. On one of his earliest visits he brought back the genuine Indian jungle fowl—asil of the highest caste — and has bred them ever since. They are very reachy, with thick heads, broad shoulders, and whip tail. Their shanks are fine in bone and set comparatively close together. In colour the cock is a black-breastcd red, ami the hen a light wheaten. and they breed very true to type, showing their pure and ancient lineage. He never kept many birds actually at Ewelme, having most of his stags out at walk. But for years he has bred a noted strain of piles, and also of black-reds. One of the most interestings things a Ewelme’s is the collection of cock spurs. There is, for example, a silver spur found among Roman remains in England, showing that artificial spurs were used in the earliest times. (They were, in fact, used by the Greeks, as mentioned by Aristophanes.) This Roman spur is of particular interest, as it is quite small, indicating that the game cock of that time was not a very big bird, and it is shaped like a cone which fitted on to the stub of the natural spur. The point was very short until a later period, as shown in a medieval French spur, also in Mr Atkinson’s collection. This spur is fashioned on much the same principles as the English spur, except that the point, instead of being short, is drawn out and the cone-like base is much broader, so tha.t even in those days the French cock was much bigger than the English. (In Northern France to-day cocks are fought up to 111 b.)

The art of spurmaking has been lost, as Mr Atkinson pointed out in a most interesting leaflet on * Artificial Cock Spurs,’ published by him a few years ago. In days gone by the best spurs were not made of steel, but of silver with a copper alloy so judiciously blended and tempered tha.t the spur could be bent like elastic and still retain its original form. Spurs like these, when torn off in combat, have been known to fly across the pit with a peculiar humming sound not experienced in any modern spur. Mr Atkinson had many variations of this beautifully-made spur, including an Old English pattern, from which the Cincinnati Skeleton Drop Socket Spur —much esteemed by American cockers to-day—had been obviously copied, and exaggerated into an illegal form according to our rules. Among other specimens from all countries some fearsome, native-made, steel spurs from Bali and the Malay Straits. They are like thin, curving knives, commonly known as “ slashers,” and they arc fastened on under the foot with many yards of soft cotton. Only one spur is usually used on each cock. Then there is a pickaxe-shaped weapon from Bali, in Malaya, for their large cocks. This murderous weapon is also tied on underneath the foot, but instead of projecting only at the back also hard a sharp point in front, with another piece of iron running up the shank to keep it in place. Apart from spurs, Mr Atkinson had an interesting collection of cocking books—and he wrote one on the game fowl himself, which is the text book of the breed. He was life-president and founder in 1885 of the Oxford Old English Game Fowl Club, which held its jubilee show this year, and no man did more for the breed he loved. Beyond lifelike paintings he has left behind him an example of straight breeding and sportsmanship to all who were his friends—lndian rajahs, civil servants, native boys, country gentlemen, and soldiers. He put the game cock on a pedestal of race purity; and it should be the aim and duty of all who knew Herbert Atkinson, and valued his friendship, to see that there is no tampering with that high ideal. THE BREEDERS. The birds which it is intended to use as breeders the coining season should not. from now on, be fed for high egg yield. The results of recent experiments show that food with a low protein content is best for breeders, and it is contended as a result of these experiments that it would be better if breeding stock could be kept under conditions more nearly approaching Nature, and that, other conditions being equal, eggs produced on mixed farms should be more suitable for hatching purposes than those from the average poultry farm. BRAN GOOD FOR POULTRY. It was at one time said that we gave the best of the wheat grain to the stock and retained the balance for human food. This is not the case today. Ground wheat, says an Australian authority (Mr D. F. Lauri) is safer. Poultry men are using grain ground to coarse meal. This meal is best fed mixed with equal parts of good bran. Good bran should contain most of the mineral salts of the wheat kernel—• hence its value. Good bran has a high percentage of soluble protein, and is of unique value for chickens. Bran should be flaky and fairly heavy.

ADVANTAGES OF SEX-LINKED MATINGS.

Poultrykeepers who go in solely for egg production, and to whom the breeding side has no interest, cannot do better than obtain sex-linked pullets. The great advantage of these cross-brcds are that both stamina and productive power are increased, and among the birds bought there are no cockerels, but all are pullets, recognised as such by their plumage. In the Old Country many poultry-keepers prefer,- in buying dayold chickens, to order from scx-linkcd breeders only. DUCKS. A supply of oyster shell and grit should always be near the drinking water supplied to ducks. When eating their mash or grain they are in the habit of running frequently to and fro to the drinking vessel, grit and oyster shell hoppers. The drinking water should be deep enough to enable the ducks to bury their heads and thus wash away any mash adhering about their eyes, otherwise there will be eye trouble, for ducks are dirty eaters. Unless there is plenty of oyster shell, thin-shelled eggs are likely. This fault is rather because of the fact that when a duck gets on to laying she produces her eggs at a faster rate than does an ordinary hen. All ducks should bo shut up till 9 or 9.30 a.m., as the majority lay in the early morning. If they are allowed out they will lay their eggs all over the place, which will moan considerable loss by breakage, etc. When ducks have swimming water quite a number lay their eggs in the water, and so the eggs are lost. Ducks should be well bedded down at night with litter or straw, and their houses should be kept clean. Many poultry men seem to think that ducks' houses should always (necessarily) be in a dirty condition. This is not so: ducks should be kept as scrupulously clean as hens. Better results and better health are maintained under clean and hygienic conditions.