POULTRY NOTES

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1925, Page 8

POULTRY NOTES

POULTRY FARMING.

(By

G. H. Ambler.)

During the past months scores of meh have gone into poultry farming without the necessary qualifications of available i capital. My experience is that few people lookupon poultry farming as similar to other business. They seem to place poultry farming on’ an entirely different footing from,say, the manufacture of ■ motor-car’s. 5 In the latter case they know that a considerable outlay is essential to success on buildings, machinery and plant oi various description; that skilled labour is and must be provided for in the estimates, as well the raw material before there is any likelihood of a Rolls-Royce being constructed. But when it comes to many imagine that they have only to collect a few hundred cocks and hens, crowd them into some sort of house with a few square yards of grass run, with any Tom, Dick or Harry to feed them, and the thing is done. I am convinced that somewhat similar ideas to the foregoing have been the cause of most failures that have occurred in poultry farming. It is no more unreasonable to take on a miner in a motor shop as' a turner or fitter than to expect the latter or other tradesman to become a successful poultryman without years of tuition and practical experience. Listen to what Darwin says on this matter “Not one man in a thousand has accuracy of eye and judgment sufficient to become an eminent breeder.” THE NECESSARY CAPITAL. As'-regards capital, unless you had ample to provide plant and to carry on with you would never expect to make your motor' business a success, and there is no reason why y° u should imagine that the circumstances are altered in the case of poultry. Consider well what you intend | to manufacture or produce, ask yourself if you have the ability and requisite skilled assistance to do so. You cannot always do the work yourself. Yqu cannot always even be on tho place. An efficient assistant that you can rely on in your absence to do what you yourself would have done in an unforeseen circumstance that might arise (and nowhere do such things happen more frequently than on a poultry farm) is a matter that goes to the very root of success or failure. Satisfied on this, think out carefully the probable time that is likely to pass before you can produce that which you are seeking. Calculate the working expenses for this period, and add the cost of sufficient stock and plant that will enable you to accomplish what. you are striving for, and then see that you have still, more' capital left to tide you over an unexpected bad period. POINTS TO THINK OF. Remember that you are dealing with live stock, not something inanimate that you can turn out at so much a dozen, but live birds, affected by the weather to a greater extent than most domestic stock, and .subject to many more diseases and mishaps, than usually fall to the lot of most other farmyard animals. Unexpected losses invariably occur. A sudden hailstorm may kill a number. The inclemency of the weather may account for hundreds of infertile eggs. 111-health of your best stud cocks may result in dead in shell and but few weakly chickens, and a hundred or other similar things may crop up to retard your, success, and unless a reasonable margin of time is allowed in which to overcome such difficulties, it is possible—l by no means wish to infer it is probable—that you may uinder-estimate the capital that is necessary before the business is in thorough working order. When such time is likely to arise will depend upon the branch of poultry farming that is adopted. V, VARIOUS METHODS. Ttiara ova Tn'inxr diffownt methods

There are many ainerent mecnoas that can be adopted by the poultry farmers, such as table egg production, day-old chicks, record egg strain layers, fattening fowls for markets, exhibition poultry farming. The latter branch of the industry alone would not be profitable in New Zealand. So far as the other branches are concerned, which method is best depends upon the circumstances 'connected with each individual case. There is only one individual so circumstanced as to be able (provided he possesses the necessary experience) to pick and choose any or all branches of poultry farming, viz., the farmer of a mixed farm, i.e., part grass and part arable. PRODUCTION OF TABLE EGGS. Small houses sufficient for a dozen or 25 hens at the most, dotted about on the grass land of any farm and drawn ' on to the stubbles wJTen the corn is cut is a method by which any farmer \vho intelligently feeds his poultry can easily earn 15/ per acre net profit of his holding, not only without injury, but with real benefit" to the land, by the production of table eggs. Such is no mere assertion on my part, but what has been proved over and over again by many farmers. But the majority of those who go into poultry faming are not ordinary farmers on a farm. It is necessary for them to hire land for the express purpose of keeping poultry on it—not as a side line, but as the main crop, and it is solely from the fowls that they can look for any returns for the first few years, even if they plant the land with fruit trees. Practically all foods have to be bought, whereas those kept in small flocks on a ifann find half or more of their living. Attendance, too, in confined runs is very Heavy and expensive. A fowl confined requires not only twice the amount of food during the greater paid of the year than the one does that is at liberty, but such items as green foods, grit baths, etc., which in many cases of fowls at liberty can be dispensed with, have all to be provided for those in confinement. Disease, too, is far more prevalent in the latter case than the former, not only necessitating more labour and greater expenditure, but actually greater loss by deaths. Remember, also, that the flock of 1000 head of even 200-eggs apiece cannot be bought without paying as much or more for the birds than two years’ ' production would be worth. Egg pro- ! duction on the intensive system is very costly in all ways. Outlav on plant is ' great, so is labour and the food bill, and, combined, the expenses do not compensate for the extra number o<? eggs obtained during the winter months. The plain fact still holds good that, no one has ever hired land for the express purpose of keening poultry for the production of table eggs alone . and ever made a living out of it. - BREEDING TABLE CHICKENS. Almost identical words to the foregoing could be used with truth concerning the breeding of table chickens. ’ The ordinary farmer of a mixed farm

—especially if he possesses. a considerable proportion of arable land—has exceptional advantages towards, making a handsome return from the sale of table chickens, j I knew a farmer in Yorkshire who showed me his poultry account for five years, who annually netted some hundreds%of pounds from a 700-acre farm, and who made a boast that he had never fed a fowl in; his life. s His method was this :As soon as he commenced to cut his corn, he used. to send to Ireland for eight weeks , old chickens and place them in lots of 50 in movable houses about the stubbles. Every day a lad rode a horse around and dragged the houses a few yards further on, and saw that fresh water was put in the drinking troughs, but from the day that the farmer received the chicks until they were sold in Leeds market as table’fowls they never received a handful of corn, but had to search for their living. In many parts of the South Island of New Zealand chickens treated iri a similar manner when about eight weeks old, will repay their owner. Discretion as to the number allotted to an acre must be used. One field may,; have three or four times the amount (of corn knocked or fallen out from over-ripeness, compared to another, and in consequence is capable of maintaining a far greater number. But that stubble so treated is considerably improved there is no question of doubt. Not only will next year’s crop show how clean the ground ha| been cleaned of the previous crop, but many injurious insects are practically annihilated, and the ( manure, from the- chickens, which by this method is lightly and evenly spread over the whole land, is the finest possible fertiliser to be found.