POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 22618, 9 April 1937, Page 2

POULTRY NOTES

By “UTILITY-FANCY”

HOW MUCH.TO FEED? Consider quality more than you do quantity and buy the best. Wheat is the best grain for egg production. See that the wheat is clean and free from foreign seeds and rubbish which; have little or no feed value. Bran and pollard must be sound and hive a sweet, nutty smell. Sour bran or pollard may cause heavy losses. Unless in extreme cases, the wet mash method is the best. Dry mash has some advantages, but, as another writer points out, there are many followers of this method who have not yet set the'Thames-afire. Fowls must be : fed intelligently. Sometimes a flock will require more food than at other times. ' Feeding daily a definite weight, no more and no less, may suit a machine i under a regular load, but does not suit the animal organism. _ In estimating quantities- required' for a certain period it is usual to allow daily per fowl half an ounce of' bran, one ounce of pollard, two ounces of green feed (or, in bulk, that' of - the bran and pollard combined), and one and a-half to two ounces of wheat. Animal food is known to be essential to success, and the more convenient form is meat meal. On the average daily one pound per_ 100 birds suffices, so one ounce for six pullets js near enough. One well-known authority suggests that “ the bran should be placed in the mixing trough, or bucket, and scalded with meat meal soup. Then cover this with chaffed green feed and let swell for 10 minutes, then mix. Now add. the dry, pollard and: thoroughly mix the whole to a semi-dry or moist,, crumbly mash and feed in troughs. On no account throw mash on the ground.” Personally, I prefer feeding the green food separately from the mash.: You may feed more green stuff at midday if the birds will eat it. If not, then give them one-third of the grain ration at midday, and the balance an hour before dark in winter and about 5 p.m, in summer. However, I think well to add, that regularity as to hours of feeding and seeing that the birds eat each meal with relish, leaving none to go to waste and perhaps sour before being eaten is better than trying to serve given weights or measures of food. If one, two, or more birds do not rush with the rest of-the flock to the trough at meal times 7 'it is an indication that the quantity served should be reduced till the appetite of all returns. As I have often insisted, “Hungry fowls are healthy fowls.’WORKING WITH NATURE. Mr Will Hooley, who is a regular contributor to ‘ Home Poultry Journal,’ points out that fowls are nqt machines, and that the successful poultry-keeper is the man who puts the fowls’ real needs before the cut-and-dricd methods of pseudo-sciencq. He says:— “ One phase) of poultry keeping* in which the beginner is likely to . fail is id treating the hen too mechanically, “ During the last 10 years there has sprung up a, section of the. industry who live, speak, and dream in terms of percentages, and who expect everything to he capable of being worked out on a graph, but poultry-keeping has not yet attained such mechanical heights—or depths! “ Beginners are always asking me to tell them precisely what they may expect to make, apparently thinking that this kind of thing has been worked out to the railway exactitude of Id a mile- “ It is quite true that mechanised aids to poultry-keeping are wonderful, but I should like the beginner to think a little more about the ‘ subject ’ —i.e., the hen. The hen, after all, is a creature of flesh and blood, and the successful poultry-keeper is the one who works with Nature, not against her. “It is very remarkable how soon many of the pseudo-scientists come to 1

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the end of the career and how the more practical ‘ follow-my-father ’ man stays in the industry, all of which should be very encouraging to the beginner. “ There seems tp be a growing opinion that it is impossible to succeed with poultry without ■ most elaborate mechanical aids, and that it is altogether a very expensive business. It need not be so. There is plenty of hope for the man who really loves his livestock, and to whom nothing is so interesting as looking after their comfort and studyihg their requirements. *• The man who believes in assiduously cleaning the dropping boards is much less liable to disease outbreaks among bis stock than his neighbour who is* so well versed in the efficiency tests of a hundred and one kinds of disinfectant. It is easily explained, for by the daily cleaning of the droppings boards he limits the activities of all intestinal worms and their eggs; they simply hare not a chance to make any headway.' . “ My advice to beginners is to carry on with simple routine. You may be laughed at, but with ordinary luck you will have the last laugh.”THE EGG AS FOOD. Scientists have discovered that the egg yolk is a splendid spurce of iron and copper, and that when egg yolk is added to milk it is effective in preventing anaemia. Also that the yellow, pigment in egg yolk, carotem, is the material out of which our livers build what the scientists _ term vitamin A, which helps us to resist infection. It is also announced that egg yolk contains the so-called vitamins D, B, and 6. Egg white is protein, which may be substituted for meat and fish. It is good for energy and body repair. To-day any list of foodstuffs drawn up in order of merit from the newer conception of nutrition places eggs at the top of the list equal to milk. This fact should be made Known to the consuming public. There can be no doubt that such a valuable protective food should become a more general article of diet. , Publicity in the case of milk has been remarkably successful, and there is no reason why a similar movement for eggs should not be equally successful. CONSTITUTION. The variation within all breeds of the degree of constitution points conclusively to the fact that only by selection and management can we eliminate the weak strains; strength of constitution is invariably hereditary, both in the sire and the dam. There are two factors which will always impair the constitution of even the strongest strain. These are,' firstly, any degree of line breeding or inbreeding; and, secondly, endeavouring to rear on productivity alone. Line breeding and even inbreeding are necessary to establish a strain, but once the strain is flxfid—i.e., the points desired and obtained or strongly improved—new bipod is absolutely necessary in order to maintain constitution. It is of great importance to breed within the strain—seeking, however, for new blood by the introduction of as distant relations as possible, and also it is of great importance that the breeding pens should consist of birds of production capacity, provided they are not reduced constitutionally by excessive production. COOKED FOODS. The value of cooked foods as used by breeders of pre-war days was stressed by Mr W. Powell-Owen in a lecture to members of the Ashford (Kent) F. and F.S. on January 14. Then, he pointed out, it was customary to find a copper in use on almost every poultry farm. Foodstuffs which found their way into the cooker included oats, wheat, rice, vegetables, linseed, maize meal,

bones, and the like. This mixture was added to blended meals to provide an appetising and nourishing wet mash for growing stock. Given to growing birds when three or four -months of age, he considered such cooked foods would help to increase their powers of resistance. I ( or the latter reason, too, generous feeding was advocated during the early stages. In conclusion, Mr Powell-Owen said that it was useless to start with weald,y chicks from inferior parents. Baby chicks required that “ little extra which only well-chosen breeding stock could give them, combined with nourishing foods. What chickens lacked in the growing stages could not be replaced later on. ANOTHER VITAMIN. About hatching: Our scientist friends have found another vitamin, “G. It aids hatchability, and is found in milk. What will happen after “ Z ” is found» We shall have to follow motor regis-. tration procedure and use two letters, “ A.A., “ 8.F.,” etc.— ‘ Poultry ’ (England). FIRST CROSSES. Though looked upon with suspicion by many poultry keepers, first crosses, both for table purposes and egg production, can prove quite a profitable venture if subject to correct management. The writer has met with several breeders of cross-bred birds who prefer them to pure-breds—perhaps through ignorance of the laying abilities of the latter—and they have told me that they prefer them because, while they get all the eggs they require, and can always rely on a good specimen for the table, they never have any trouble with regard to fertility and hatchability, and the chickens are hardy and quick growers*. I once knew a poultry keeper who was in a small way who introduced a cockerel of a different breed every season to his flock of hens, and although he acknowledged that his birds were not merely cross-breds, but out-and-out mongrels, he was satisfied that it paid him to keep them. CAUSE AND CURE OF WHITECOMB. Back-yarders occasionally find their layers developing a sort of floured appearance over the head and comb, which may be mistaken for meal from the dry mash hopper at the first glance. Never neglect to' make sure by handling, and if the “ dustiness ” is not at once removable by a wipe over, then it must be a skin complaint _ called white comb, whicli is very catching. The trouble nearly always arises at about this time of year, or a little later, and is generally due either to insufficient green food or to “sour,” dark, or ill-ventilated conditions in the poultry house. Having seen to whichever applies most in his particular case, the back-ya'rder will soon be able to stamp out' tile whitecomb if he treats every bird two or three times, with intervals of one day between, as follows: Mix a saucerful of vinggar and water about 50-50 an<J sponge over the whole face and comb with this. Leave for a minute or two, then dab dry, and rub in a little carbolised vaseline. Alternatively, one can sponge as before, and, after drying, paint lightly with iodine one day and with oil of turps, the next. If the floury appearance does not return within a week after the last application, the bird is cured. In any case, the complaint does not seem to affect the victim’s general health at all unless allowed to get a real hold.— ‘ Smallholder ’ (England).