POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 23438, 1 December 1939, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. A.F.” (Dunedin)—Asks what is the best treatment for fowls suffering from worms? A Government bulletin on the subject says:—

Quite a common trouble, especially where fowls are being kept on the intensive system, is intestinal' worms. Though birds of exceptional vitality may lay very well for some time when affected by this trouble, the weak memof the flock wilf generally succumb. In all cases the trouble, if allowed to continue, means serious loss and a reduced egg-yield. A‘common indication of worms is that the birds stretch necks and make a screeching noise, a sound very similar to a seagull, which is often confused with the throat trouble, croup. Other symptoms are a ravenous appetite, poor condition, feathers loose, and ruffled comb and face pale, while the birds may be noticed to yawn frequently. When fowls are badly affected with worms ' these will be readily found by opening and followipg the digestive tract with a small pen-knife. There are several methods of treatment, but perhaps the most simple, and one that is rapidly effective, is to starve the affected birds for a day and then give them a dose of Epsom salts, about loz packet for every 12 birds, dissolved in the water with which Ahe mash is mixed, adding also to tho mash some sulphur (about the same amount as the salts) and a teaspoonful of pure spirit of turpentine for every five birds, the whole to be thoroughly mixed with the ingredients before they are moistened. The effect of this diet, given after a fast, will be to expel the worms. Care must be taken, to thoroughly clean up and effectively destroy the droppings after the treatment. It is well, therefore, to confine the affected birds during the treatment in a small space/ so that the cleaning-up process may be properly carried out and further risk of infection avoided. Where this treatment has not been found to be efficacious it should he repeated in a week’s time. . The houses should be thoroughly sprayed with a strong disinfectant and the runs dug up and limed, to prevent a recurrence of the trouble. PREPARING FOR HOT DAYS. After the spring flush of egg production there is nearly always a decline in the early summer. This is duo partly to broodiness, partly to the need for a zest, and partly to environment conditions. With egg prices rising the decline may be serious, since it means that advantage is_ not gained by the rise in price. It is worth while going to considerable trouble to keep up production in summer. Management must depend upon the age of the birds. Early hatched pullets should not be stimulated in any way. Their time will come later in the year. Yearling hens hatched about August or September last year should be encouraged to lay and l then, in February and March, force moulted. Hens which are to be sold when they begin to moult should be- pushed as much as possible. Any measures to encourage production should begin as soon as_ a fall in the number or eggs is noticed. Results cannot be immediate, and once the egg numbers are really low it is very difficult to get them back again. DUNEDIN UTILITY CLUB. The Dunedin Utility Poultry Club held a successful field day recently at Mr Anderson’s poultry farm, Wakari. Notwithstanding the bad weather about 40 poultry-keepers attended and, after

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By “UTILITY-FANCY**

inspecting the farm, they were addressed by Mr Jourdin, of the Department of Agriculture, and also by Mr P. Hanson, each in his turn explaining the points of the two breeds kept —White Leghorns and Australorps. KEEPING COOL. Really hot days, especially when there is a drought, cause considerable Buffering to hens. The hen’s only method of keeping cool is to gape. The feathers remain much the same winter and summer, and there are no sweat glands as in some animals. Shade and green food are the first essentials. When the houses do not provide somewhere cool for the bird to shelter then outside shelters should be provided. These need be nothing more than hessian stretched on a wooden frame, or huts made of branches. Leave the two ends open so that as much air circulates as possible. Let the open ends face so that shade is provided from the midday sun. When grass is burnt up dur- , ing a drought then green stuff of any description is much relished. Any sort of warden rubbish can be given to birds. It is worth while growing a crop of lucerne on a small area of ground for summer greenstuff. Lucerne is very long-rooted and remains green during the dried spell. It can be cut repeatedly, and provides very valuable green food. PROVIDE HARD GRIT, The requirements of the fowl of grit are not fully met by the provision of the ordinary sea shells which supply reserves of calcium for bone and eggshell formation, but are not hard enough to assist the action of the gizzards in grinding tho food. Experimenters have expressed the opinion that the chief change which takes place in the food of the fowl while in its crop is bacterial in character, and consists principally in’ the formation of lactic acid from carbohydrates, there being no evidence that digestion of fibre occurs in this organ. This lack of fibre diges- ■ tiou emphasises the importance of efficient functioning of the gizzard, which, by the aid of the grit contained in it, crushes the plant cells and sets free from the cell its contents, which can then be acted upon by the birds’ digestion juices, and it has been proved experimentally that unless hard y;rit is present in the gizzard a proportion of the food escapes digestion. THE HEN’S EGGS. A reader new to poultry wants to know if a fowl is born with the number of eggs she will eventually lay, or whether she just makes them as she goes along. A question which betokens an inquiring state of mind. To answer it. a fowl is hatched with an ovary in which are countless tiny cells that will eventually become yolks. These ripen or mature, when the bird is old enough to lay, and they do so because they are nourished by a blood stream which carries all the materials for making the yolk of the egg. How many ripen at once? This one can hardly answer, except to say that there is one, yolk first, complete and ready for leaving the ovary, and four more behind it, each a grade smaller than the one in front. These are all noticeable, but after the smallest of the four there are others, all a shade smaller, until they eventually get down to the ovary, -with the egg cells down to pin-point size. In short, the potential eggs exist beforehand, and are not produced one at a time, daily or bi-daily, etc. The rate of laying will depend on tho

digestive capacity of the hen and the teeding, so that there is' no given rate for production, and the time varies with the individual. It will be realised that a pullet cannot be suddenly made to lay. The building up of the tiny ovules to the full-sized yolks is a gradual process, occupying some weeks. —‘ Poultry World.’ TIME AT WHICH HENS LAY. An American poultry farmer who wanted to find out the best times to collect his eggs in the hot weather kept an interesting record, which showed that the birds laid at approximately the following times;—Up to 8 a.m., 37 per cent.'; 8 to 11 a.m., 33 per cent.; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., 25 per cent,; 2 to 5 p.m., 5 per cent On this showing he changed his collecting times to 9 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. By this method he figured on picking up the eggs the best times after laying. BETWEEN THE BROODS. It is not fair to chicks if they have to use a rearing home, litter, and run recently vacated by another lot. The old litter should have been removed and the rearing unit thoroughly cleaned and prepared. The floor should also have been thoroughly scraped and cleaned before the new material was (if it has been) put in. Failure to observe these precautions accounts for much of the losses in the rearing of chickens. Wooden floors are the better for being scrubbed with hot water containing a little household soda. Brooders are to-day adopting a plan which allows only one lot of chicks to use a grass run during the season. In that way tho grassland gets a proper chance to rest and recover. Permanent runs to rearing homes have their drawbacks when a second lot of chickens occupy them immediately a previous batch has vacated them. It is a good plan to put down fresh sods of grass just outside the rearing home so that each lot of chicks starts off on fresh ground. This part of tho run can be wired off from the remainder, so that the latter has a chance to rest.

VALUE OF STOCKHOLM TAR. Medicinal Stockholm tar should be stocked by every poultry, keeper, because it serves so many useful purposes, writes a correspondent. It should be remembered, however, that the medicinal kind should be purchased and nob the commercial variety, for the latter is too sticky and contains a considerable quantity of impurities. This kind of tar is extremely beneficial in the event of any bird being wounded, whether it is the comb or wattles through fighting, the back and thighs of a hen caused by the male, or in any other way.

The wound should be carefully cleansed by washing and the hole should then be filled with this medicinal Stodkholm tar. One advantage, apart from its curative effect, of this tar is that it prevents other birds in the flock pecking at the wound, since the taste is objectionable.

Bumble foot is _ a fairly common trouble and one which is not always easy to cure. Qne of the best methods of treatment, however, is to apply this refined Stockholm tar once a day to the foot. As a general rule, five or six applications prove sufficient to effect a complete cure. Stockholm tar is also excellent in a case of prolapsus. The protruding part should be washed and then smeared with tar and returned gently to position, and finally the vent should be smeared with the same substance.