POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 2

POULTRY NOTES

TOO EARLY MATURITY. Excessive early maturity of pullets must be avoided at all costs, for pullets which mature very quickly have undersized bodies during their whole life, and they lay small eggs (often even in their second year) which are frequently poorly shelled. Worse still, they lack resistance to disease, particularly those modern scourges, fowl paralysis and coccid'iosis. As breeders they are hopeless. On the other hand, the bird which is exceedingly late in maturing is generally a poor layer. A middle course must be aimed at. Actually the tendency to-day is for birds to be previous rather than to mature too late. Rate of maturity is influenced by heredity, v feeding, housing, and management. It is important to start making the necessary adjustments to management while the birds are young, for when once the egg organs have begun to swell and become partly active, little can be done. In no case must feeding be cut down, nor made too bulky, for semistarvation will result in growth being checked, and this can never be,made up later. Too much meat, milks’ etc., tends to make young stock precocious. _ Shifting quarters, changing the constituents of mash, and’ feeding ' oats alternately with wheat all' tend to retard too early production, hut do not in any, manner .retard growth. CHICK REARING POINTS, One of the speakers at the HarperAdaras Conference, discussing chick rearing during the first six weeks, stated that “ he had obtained consistently satisfactory results by commencing feeding on paper with fine grit and grain. Dry mash was put before the chickens on the second day. He did not believe in wet mash or clear eggs being fed to them, feeling sure that bacillary white diarrhoea could be carried and that this food was a good way to spread it. Chickens doing well should be kept on the short side with grain so that they would be eager for it. Each day they should have two parts mash and one part grain, the latter being for morning and evening, with mash ad lib.

“Milk, either whole or skim, was a valuable food,, hut if used the rest of the food should not he rich. The use of expensive • foods like canary, lentils, millet, etc., was not necessary. Lime in the litter was a very good preventive of gapes, and should be used more frequently. He advised that even the drinking water should be dusted with it. Water’ or milk must be kept outside the house on the fourth or fifth day at the latest. If left in the house it would be found that some chickens would go off their legs and die.” The foregoing reference to lime in the litter as a preventive against gapes requires, I think, a caution that if it is

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scattered dry in dry litter it may get into the eyes as they scratch for their grain. There should he no possibility that it will rise as dust when the litter is disturbed. INTESTINAL WORMS. Fowls are troubled with worms more than is sometimes suspected. The white intestinal worm is round in shape and is less than half an inch in length. They usually infest the smaller intestine and get together in bulk, which may block the passage of the alimentary canal. Foul water may sometimes be the cause. Birds so infected can never be profitable. Several remedies are on the market. NEWLY-DUG GROUND. It is an interesting study to watch a flock of growing chickens, adult fowls, or ducklings in such congenial surroundings as an orchard or on newlydug garden ground, and to observe bow rapidly they devour the insects which they a©e so quick to discern. Such nitrogenous food will assuredly assist development of ovarian organs and . build up constitutions, f NERVES AND NECK MOULT. ’ The ‘ Canadian Poultrymau ’ says that neck moulting may be due to a highly developed nervous system in pullets of a heavy laying strain. Tame, friendly pullets of the same strain are less dikely to be affected in this way. Efforts should be made to prevent pullets being frightened by strange movements,' such as dragging bags through the pens, strange noises, or animals, and by rough handling. EVIDENCE OF STAMINA. Stamina is indicated by activity, keenness, and boldness. There should be no nervous or timid tendencies. Appetite must be keen and the bird must walk well and firmly on its feet. A lusty, loud crow shows lung power. Weight is a good guide, taking these as a minimum for cockerels at maturity (that is, 11 months): —Light Sussex 81b, Orpingtons and Rocks 7Jlb, Wyandottes 71b, Leghorns 61b j and Anconas SJlb. As regards handling, all those should be culled which are noticeably small, narrow, or shallow-bodied. A shallow cut-away chest is bad, and a loose, baggy, liquid-filled crop points to ill-health. FEED THE LAYERS WELL. Spencer,in his ‘ Principles of Biology,’ says: “Each new individual, whether separated as a germ or in some more developed form, is a deduction from the man of a pre-existing individual or of two pre-existing individuals. Whatever nutritive matter is stored up along with the germ, if it is deposited in the shape of an egg is so much nutritive matter lost to the parent. No drop of blood can be absorbed by the foetus, nor any draught of milk sucked _ by the young when horn, without taking from the mother tissue-forming and forceevolving materials to an equivalent amount. And all subsequent supplies given to progeny, if they are matured, to a parent; or parents, so much waste in exertion which does not bring its reutrn in assimilated food.” Spencer has much more to say on this subject than the foregoing, but this short quotation stresses the fact that reproduction is a drain on the system necessitating generous feeding. High laying strains of fowls require more food than poor laying strains do, and when laying they require more food than when not in lay. Further, to produce eggs in profitable quantity, their rations must be balanced to a ratio that will make not only egg hut body tissue. A GOOD IDEA WITH lODINE. lodine is on© of the most useful remedies that the poultrykeepr can have. For wounds on the head or any other part of the body, for growths on the comb or wattles, or in the mouth, or for stiff joints or swellings, it is invaluable. It’s a nuisance to nave to go back to one’s house to fetch the bottle of iodine, but at the same time if you decide to remember to bring it along next time the chances are ten to one that you will forget. Why not, then, keep a bottle of this indispensable liquid where it will bo> wanted—in the poultry house itself?

NEW AUTO-SEX LINKED BREED. Chicks of two new varieties which possess sex linkage, Barred Brown Leghorns and Barred Barnevelders, were recently shown, says the ‘ Feathered World,’ at the annual examination of the London Natural History Society. The exhibit first of all displayed microscopic slides (prepared by Dr M. J. D. White, of University College, London), showing the chromosomes in poultry, 66 in the male and 65 in the female. The two sex-chromosomes in the male and the one only in the female were clearly to he seen in the slides shown. Diagrams showed the mechanism of sexdetermination in poultry and the relation of the sex-chromosomes to sexlinked characters. Then followed a series of stuffed chicks illustrating sex-linked crosses very familiar to poultrymcn, e.g., Light Sussex bv Welsummer, and Barred Rock by Black Leghorn. This Jed on to the making of the anto-sex-linkcd

Caiubar, by the transference of flic Barring factor from a black down (Rock) to a brown down (Campino). Then followed an exhibition of chicks of some more recent arrivals in the fold and auto-sex-linkage, e.g., the Barred Brown Leghorn and the Barred Barnevelder. POULTRY GREENFOOD OF THE FUTURE. Green food is invaluable, and should be supplied daily to all birds whether chickens, growers, layers or breeders. It is a good food, while it also possesses tonic properties which prove very beneficial. The two difficulties that arise at tins time of the year, however, are the scarcity of suitable green food, and if supplies are adequate, only a limited quantity can be provided each day. If the layers, for example, are given too large a quantity it means their capacity for the concentrated mash is reduced and this reacts unfavourably on egg production. The new process of drying young grass solves both difficulties to a certain extent; It is known that this product contains as much nutriment as may be purchased in artificial foods and that its vitamin content is not destroyed. The latest idea, however, is not drying green food, but extracting their juices and supplying these in a semisolid state.

Experiments are being carried out with various first-class preen foods, such as kale, lettuce, carrots, and nettles. These juices have powerful medicinal and pharmaceutical qualities. It is suggested that kale extract is a safeguard against and a cure for scurvy; lettuce juice is invaluable in the case of birds suffering from fowl paralysis; carrot extract is health promoting ; and the value of nettles is fully recognised. The extraction of these vegetable juices is only in the experimental stage as yet. THE 1939 WORLD’S CONGRESS. Information has been received that preparations for the seventh world’s poultry congress, to be held at Cleveland (U.S.A.) in 1939, are commanding the support of all sections of the couutry. Mr Janies E. Rice, who it is anticipated will be the president of the congress, says in a letter: “We have in the United States for the first time a complete harmonious unity of all of the different elements of the poultry industry and the active co-opevation of consumer interests and our large national agricultural organisation and the Press.”

Proposals are being made which indicate how heartily the American Government and people have entered into the project. In the first place a Government grant of 100,000 dollars (£20,000) has been made to pay the expenses of the congress, and it is anticipated that a much larger sum will be subscribed by the States concerned. Inquiries have been received with regard to the arrangements at the time of the congress. It has been suggested, though not officially, that the opening ceremonies will be in the capital, Washington. It is thought that three days will be given to Washington and the district round about, after which delegates will proceed to Cleveland, Ohio, where the rest of the proceedings, officially, will be carried out. It is hoped that there may bo many excursions, including a special train to Chicago, so that visitors may see the wonderful poultry interest in that great centre.