POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 23130, 2 December 1938, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

By “UTILITY-FANCY”

Contributions and questions for answering should be addressed to " Utility-Fancy,” Poultry Editor, ‘ Star ’ Office, and received not later than Tuesday of each week. " UtilityFancy ” will only answer communications through this column. (Advertisements for this column must be handed . in to the office before 2 p.m, on Thursday.)

ANSWER -TO CORRESPONDENT. “ Beginner ” (Brighton) asks if he feeds on grain only— oats in the morning and wheat at night—will the hens lay as well as if mash were fed. If the birds can find insects, worms, slugs, etc. and plenty of green stuff, mash may be dispensed with. Fowls that are kept intensively or semiintensively and have not the advantage of rangej must have a mash containing what the range supplies. It. is the mash obtained one way or another that results in, eggs, in profitable supply. The fowls would be healthy on grain only, but not productive. FLOCK REGISTRATIONS. The total registrations of poultry flocks in New Zealand for the year 1937-3 S reported by the New Zealand Poultry Board is 12,900. The Canter-bury-Westland district, with 3,502 flocks, shows the highest figures, Wellington, 3,376, being next, and then Auckland, 3,160, and Otago-Southland, 2.803. Of the flocks registered, 10,662 were less than 100. There are three’ flocks, all in Canterbury, numbering over 6,000 birds each. The number of flocks in the Dominion over the 1,000 mark totals 140. Registration fees collected for the year totalled £2,356 ss. SEASON’S EXPORT TRADE. The exports of eggs for New Zealand for the season just closed totalled 7,812 crates of 30 dozen each. The quantities shipped from each centre were as follows: —Auckland, 1,053: Canterbury, 3.447; Otago, 3,312. ; AIRCRAFT FORCE MOULT. It is reported • that poultry breeders in, the , Blackpool district (England) complain that their flocks ai*e constantly being scared into panic by planes moving low over them, with the result that they are put off laying and thrown into . premature moult. This should suggest to poultry keepers who want to force on ap early moult that all -that is required is to frighten them —never mind the method. Of course, 1 do not recommend this being done, for frightening birds may lead to serious results. WHEN TO-NJCS ARE NEEDED. Many valuable birds are lost by neglect when they have recovered from some serious setback; in fact, it is no exaggeration to say that want of good nursing often causes the death of a convalescent bird. Who shall say what are the sufferings of a bird that’ has pulled through an attack of pneumonia, only to be turned out by a thoughtless pwner in a weak and emaciated condition -among a lot of other birds to rough it once again ? Poultry which have suffered any setback through sickness must have special cafe afterwards; those which have not been ill, but .are suffering from general debility due to want of sufficient food or to want of grit to enable them to digest, their food—all alike need a tonic. . A good tonic is Douglas Mixture, which is made as follows:—Dissolve loz of iron sulphate in one quart of water, add one drachm of dilute sulphuric acid, and put one teaspoonful of this mixture in each quart of drinking water. Do not tonic up the birds every day. Try three times a week for i one week, twice a week next week, and once weekly afterwards for as long as you think the birds need it. FEEDING CHICKS. Bran and pollard by themselves are not-a complete or suitable ration for either the growing chick or the adult bird; proteins and fat must be added. The protein content may be made up of 6 to 8 per cent, meat mash or milk and 10 per cent, maize meal. If the birds have a certain amount of range and can forage up animal food , for themselves in the shape of insects, the protein content of their ration can be lowered. CALCIUM FOR CHICKS. “ Intensively reared chickens must be supplied with calcium. This being the case, t.o be on the safe side add li per cent, precipitated chalk to the mash for the first two months; after that reduce the quantity to f per cent, and allow the . chicks a supply of oyster shell or limestone grit.” The foregoing is a quotation which may be worth considering, but my own experience has taught me the oyster shell alone serves' the purpose, without recourse to precipitated chalk. Further, I may add that experience has proved that the addition of minerals to the mash is not advisable. . BROODER HOUSE FOR CHICKS ONLY. When your brooder house is empty and you can spare it, keep it empty

until next season. It should be kept for chicks only, not used for sick fowls, market consignments, etc. The chicks have enough to contend with without disease germs and vermin being introduced as a further handicap against their welfare next season. This applies to the brooder-house runs also. WEIGHT OF FOWL’S FEATHERS. A White Leghorn pullet weighing, 60(oz has 4ioz of feathers; a cockerel of the same breed weighing 69Joz has sfoz of feathers; a heavy breed pullet weighing 7140 z has about sioz ol feathers; and a cockerel weighing about 9Sioz has 7ioz of feathers, according to experiments by T. A. Halman, M.A., at Cambridge. These feathers represent about 26 per cent. of‘- the total protein in the body and 15.2 per cent, of the energy, so the demand on the fowl for them 'is a heavy one, and is serious if the fowl is not properly fed. STORING EGGS. Research work carried out by. Dr T. Moran, of the Cambridge (Eng.) University, points to the fact that the best temperature to store eggs intended for hatching purposes is lOdeg C. WASHING EGGS. Tests showed that washing eggs did not affect their immediate keeping qualities, but rendered them more subject to consequent bacterial infection. Eggs, washed with a cloth and ordinary washing soda solution kept better than those washed with steel wool and sand. THE FUTURE STUD BIRDS. More attention should bo paid to the breeding of the male birds. It is only part of the question to select .male birds whose mother was a good layer. She must also be a layer of heavier than standard eggs, and those eggs must be of good shape and have sound shell. Careless feeding tends to overfat hens laying eggs with faulty shells, but it is to be hoped that most poultrv keepers give this point proper attention. Then the mother of .your inale bird should come of stock, on both sides, well proved for several generations. While characters are transmitted in a complete whole and not in part, it must be remembered that recombination of characters occurs at each mating. So until you have line-bred your characters for several generations tjie recombinations will give unexpected variations. This will continue as long as poultry men are I slack in culling and selection.. Just any male- bird is not good enough.—D. F. Laurie. ; PERSONAL ATTENTION IMPORTANT. There is only one. road to success with poultry, and that is .the personal attention which a poultry-keeper gives to his or her flock. In ,this one point. I think, lies the difference between success' and failure, to reach the rewards which can be secured from the industry. Given good strains of poultry. properly housed, fed on the right foods and in the right manner, there is every chance of success; but the crux of the whole question lies in the personal attention given. The most minute detail is essential, just as a minute screw or pin is, an essential factor of the mechanism of a watch or a motor car.- Attention to detail is the cardinal virtue among all successful poultry breeders. Methodical and commonsense methods are those which lead to success, but these, of course, are founded on knowledge,, not upon ignorance. You cannot know too much upon any question : concerning the management of fowls, and. therefore, it is up to everyone to learn everything possible by reading about and understanding the most successful methods. PUMP FOR PLUMP. From Rome comes the report of a poulterer who pumps up his turkeys with a tyre pump to make them look plump. One turkey exploded, and an assistant. stopped a flying fragment of bone with his eye. FEEDING AND DISEASE. Faulty feeding is blamed for a big percentage of the diseases which poultry suffers from, but nevertheless nutrition is not the causative factor in disease. Answering a question, “ Why shouldn’t poultry mortality be high?” ■ Dr ■ Monty. A. dull, writing in the ‘ New England Poultry man,’ gives 12 causes of disease other than from nutritional causes, which incidentally provide valuable hints to poultrykeepers :

1. In thousands of eases growing chicks and laying hens are kept on the same land year after year, the soil all the time becoming more thoroughly contaminated with the “ eggs ” of numerous parasites and the organisms of various diseases.

2. Thousands upon thousands of brooder and laying houses are never properly cleaned nor thoroughly disinfected. 3. In all too many cases unhealthy conditions, including overcrowding, that tend to lower the vitality of the stock, prevail in brooder and laying houses because of poor housing conditions or because of mismanagement, or both.

4. On all 100 many farms the old stock is allowed to mix with the growing chicks. 5. On many farms turkeys are allowed to mix with the chickens. 6. Immature and undersized birds are used all too numerously for breeding purposes. 7. Tbe use of diseased birds as breeders tends to disseminate disease, and inasmuch as more birds become infected each year the dissemination of disease increases each succeeding year. 8. Commercial incubation is frequently a means of spreading disease. 9. The dissemination of diseases is augmented by the widespread distribution of baby chicks, market poultry, and breeding stock. 10. In many cases where breeding stock is purchased it is not adequately; quarantined before being introduced into the flock. . 11. Oftentimes birds shipped from egg-laying contests and poultrv shows harbour disease organisms of various kinds.* 12. Visitors may carry disease organisms from farm to farm, and the flock owner himself may carry them from pen to pen.

GIZZARDS BLOCKED WITH MATTED GRASS.

The following is by Dr H. P. Bayon, an English authority on poultry diseases

After the spell of dry weather I have received many fowls which have died from the effects of grass-stoppage of the gizzard. They have not been thriving, and have appeared to limp or lie down as if in pain, and therefore have been killed and sent to me so that I might find out the cause of the trouble. Or it may be said that there was sour crop, in which case there may be a crop filled with, fermenting mash or wheat; a condition which I have been told could be infallibly cured by washing out the crop.

“ On opening the carcass and examining the inner organs these appear quite healthy, and the ovary may even contain several well-shaped yolks. The gizzard seems to be stone hard, and is distended; when cut open it will then be found filled with a hard, compact hall of matted grass, in the meshes of which a few grains of wheat may he entangled. Frequently enough the grass-may also fill the glandular stomach that comes before the gizzard. “ Now, if the sour crop is due to a stoppage .of the gizzard, nothing will cure it, except removing the obstruction in the gizzard. Except that the matted grass completely fills the distended gizzard, the stoppage need not be complete, ami a certain amount of soft food will strain through; so that the bird will live on, though getting thin, being unthrifty and suffering from the pangs of chronic indigestion. Often enough I have seen matters made much worse by some busybody coming along and recommending some tonic or vermifuge. The medicine given leaves the obstruction untouched, but usually succeeds in irritating the bowels, which often enough require fortifying, not the contrary. The possible causes of the stoppage are many. Missing a feed may bring it about; the hungry birds rush and pick up a deal of dry, stringy grass; if the birds have not been provided with hard grit it will be compressed instead of crushed and ground up. The immediate remedy is to provide the fowls with pebbles or flint grit, for when suitable grit.is in the gizzard of the average healthy fowl it will grind up. .even cocksfoot grass to powder. Next a soft wet mash may be provided. which will help to work down the ground-up grass. At the same time it will be advisable to give a small teaspoonful of olive oil to the ailing birds to help to smooth the way for the grass For prevention dp not allow the grass to get too long; either have it grazed by sheep or by cutting or mowing it down. Regular feeding of the birds twice a day will help them into regular habits.