POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 22535, 31 December 1936, Page 2

POULTRY NOTES

By “UTILITY-FANCY”

INHERITANCE OF BREED FACTORS. Numerous experiments have been made to ascertain how the factors for high and low egg production are inherited. The most noted of these experimentalists have been Messrs Goodale, Hurst, and Pearl. The latter ascertained that there are two factors that govern production in the two breeds experimented l with viz., Indian Game and Plymouth Rocks. The one for low production he termed) LI and the one for high production L2. All these experimentalists agree that LI may he passed from both parents to the progeny, but even if the offspring receives a double dose of LI she will still give a low egg yield. Pearl and Goodale join issue on the inheritance of L2 for the former found it to be a sex-linked) factor, and that a highrecord hen could not pass L2 to her daughters, but only to her sons. Tho son could pass L2 to his daughters but not to his sons. Thus it is a sexiimited character which passes from the female to her sons but not to her daughters. Goodale, working with Rhode Island Reds, found that the L2 factor could be inherited from either parent or from both parents. This is a perfectly clear issue between these two men but it is thought that the balance of evidence is on the side of the factor L2 being a sex-linked character, for there is not a practical breeder but believes that the cockerel is more than half the pen, hence the value in mating the female with a cockerel from a highproductive hen—in fact all the great advance which has been made in breeding for egg-production is bound up in this idea. In spite of the belief that L2 is sex-linked, breeders are advised to mate high-producing females with cockerels which have for dam a highrecord hen. If this is done the inheritance will pass to the progeny no matter how the_L2 factor is inherited. This, in my opinion, is the safe way of breeding for high-record egg production. If a hen possess these factors she may put up a good record, but if any of these should be absent, either no eggs are laid o,r very few. These factors arc given below; — (1) The first factor is a structural one, and it determines that the hen must have a normal ovary and oviduct. (2) The second is a physiological factor which is known as LI, and it may be inherited from the sire or dam, or the hen mav have a double dose of LI. If this is tile only physiological factor which the hen possesses, her winter egg production will be below 30. (3) The third ’ factor is also a physiological factor and passes from the mother to son and from her son to her grand-daughters. If a pullet possesses the L2 factor her winter egg-production will be over 30. THE FOWL HOUSE. The fowl house must be dry, easy to clean, in a good position, of proper size for the number of fowls kept in it, well constructed, ventilated, and easy to approach. If on level ground all the better.

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ENTERITIS IN FOWLS, ‘ Answering a correspondent a Scottish poultry scribe says:—Fowls are subject to enteritis, muco enteritis, and hemorrhagic enteritis. The chances are that the yellowish colour which is seen in the droppings of your fowls is due to a lack of bulky food. You might put it in another way—there’s a lack of bulky food or starchy food to absorb the colouring matter from the bile, which is discharged into tire intestines. The foamy matter, probably, is due to bacterial action. The enteritis, of course, is inflammation in the intestines, and if accompanied by a discharge of blood it is hemorrhagic enteritis, The remedy is to give a lot of bulky food, but not bulky food that is too fibrous or too tough; in other words select green food that is young and tender. Feed all this sort of material that the hens will eat. If you have plenty of skim milk or buttermilk, sweet if possible, give them this to drink instead of water. We treat conditions of this Iffnd much the same as physicians treat stomach ulcers in human beings. The idea is to give them a lot of liighly-nutritious food that is easv to digest for them. In this way the inflammation is quickly checked. A REMINDER. Tho present work of the poultrykeeper is only an opportunity to move; how he (or she) moves is up to him (or her). You will go either forward or backward, but you cannot stand still; it’s either on and up or down and out. MEAT AND CROPS AND GREEN STUFF. Chou Mollier and oats are the green foods most used on large poultry plants, in conjunction with grass cuttings, the Chou Mollier being considered excellent feed. If the stumps or stems of the Chon Mollier can be split the whole length the birds will eat out all fhe pith. Meat and scraps are collected from the abattoirs three times weekly for one Australian plant, and boiled in an outside copper until practically reduced to pulp. After removing the fat the thick soup is added to the mash, and the fat is stored in vats and sold for almost as much as the original cost of the meat. A KEROSENE TIN OF WATER. A kerosene tin is stated to hold four and one-sixth gallons. This measure of water would weigh about 41Jlb, A FRESH START. The time comes when every poultrykeeper has to think about clearing his old hens out and getting a fresh stock. On some of the large establishments all the hens are cleared out of a certain house mi the same day, and after this house is thoroughly cleaned out and disinfected a flock of pullets is transferred

to it. In this case there is nothing in the nature of sorting out attempted. Some of the hens are sure to be in lay, but they have to bo sacrified—the room is needed, and they have to go. The small poultryman, who only runs one flock, does not, as a rule, make such a wholesale clearance. He picks his birds out in twos and threes, killing one for the table now and then, or supplying a neighbour with a couple. He naturally tries to choose those which have ceased laying, and in this way he makes room for his young pullets and avoids overstocking. Both these plans have their advantages and disadvantages. In the first place, to clear out a whole house at one sweep is bound to mean sacrificing a number of eggs, but the other man often errs in the opposits direction. He is so anxious not to lose a few eggs from his old hens that he keeps a number hanging about long after they have ceased laying. He sometimes goes to the extent or neglecting his pullets for the sake of a few eggs from the old hens. This is a very short* sighted policy. He will get more eggs in a week from his pullets than he will in a month from old birds. The poultry-keeper who puts the pullets first is following & wise course. CAUSES OF DIARRHCEA. Diarrhoea is caused by many things. Often the feeding is at fault, and we get it with several diseases. It is no use giving anything at all to cure while the cause remains. Jf only one or two birds are affected it is probably because they have avian tuberculosis, or some breakdown of the ovarian organs. Three to five drops of chlorodyne in a little water is very useful, but the cause should be removed. Too much cabbage and swedes will sometimes cause it.— ‘ Poultry World.’ AN INCUBATOR LAMP REMINDER. Many poultry-keepers clean out their incubators and brooders thoroughly enough but for one particular—they leave oil in the containers. Now paraffin oil destroys the copper containers and the burners of the lamps. Clean out these parts at once and empty them of oil, so that they will come out of store next season in good condition. If they are left as they are, new components may be required in a hurry in the spring. q:0 MAKE SURE OF DISINFECTION. It is not realised sufficiently that a disinfectant qannot act unless it actually touches the germs. To spray a house after merely having removed the litter is useless. The roof and walls should be brushed down and freed of flaky whitewash, the perch sockets and battens scraped, and all corners raked-out with a V-shaped tool, ' If a house is being cleaned out because of a definite disease, the best way of making sure that this rubbish is removed is to scrub down with hot, strong soda water made by mixing lib of washing soda and two gallons of water.