POULTRY NOTES

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3495, 3 November 1926, Page 5

POULTRY NOTES

Fl'.i’.DlNfi ACCORDING TO appetite. Inquiries frequently reach me as to the exact amount of food that should be supplied daily to a given number of birds, writes F. C. Brown, Chief Poultry Instructor, in the Journal of Agriculture. This is a question that cannot be answered with any degree of satisfaction, for the one and only safe course is to feed according to the birds’ appetite. The rule of weight or measure cannot bo fixed, because the birds do not eat the same amount of food each day or at each meal. Their appetites vary according to the season of the year, and whether they are in a laying-condition or not. Obviously, as egg-laying increases the bird will demand a greater food supply. because it is impossible to got something for nothing. A half-starved bird is never profitable. There, is no danger of overfeeding the heavy layer with the right class of food, provided she is given an opportunity of taking plenty of exercise. The foolish policy so often advocated of keeping fowls on the hungry side with the idea of preventing them from becoming too fat does not hold good where the high-class layer Is concerned. It is safe to say that there arc more unprofitable flocks to-day duo to underfeeding than from any other one cause. Even if food-prices aro high, the hen of the right iay-ing-type will return a good profit over her keep. Many complaints reach me of birds not laying up to the expectation of their owners. This in most cases is due either to underfeeding or the supplying of a food which the birds do not relish. Not only should the food be appetising, but it must be of sound qual-ity-food capable, after the bodily wants of the bird have been supplied, of enabling eggs to be made from it. Economy in all things connected with tho management of poultry should always be kept in view, but tho short-sighted policy of stinting tho heavy layer of food it will eat is much to bo deprecated. Of course, the poor layer or a bird past its most profitable period can be overfed, and these birds will soon declare the fact by developing an overfat condition. This is because they (tho poor layers) convert their food into bodily fat. while the heavy layers converted theirs into eggs. The remark is often made, “I think my hens are too fat to lay.” In most eases it is not that they arc too fat to lay, but rather that they aro not concerned in egg-production. Obviously, the keen poultry-keeper would not retain such birds. The only way of reducing the food bill is to provide, an abundance of green feed, which tho majority of poultry-keeper:; can produce themselves. In this connection few realise the value of lucerne as an all-lhc-ycar-round food tor poultry. If cut. in its succulent stage and finely chaffed it provides an ideal i green food for birds of all ages

wlii'ii fed in troughs during the day. Well-cured lucerne hay chaffed end ‘Teamed overnight will also he found valuable bulking-matcrial for the morning mash during the off season. It may also be fed to advantage in troughs to birds of all ages. Red clover is also an ideal food to grow fo> poultry, and may bo fed in a similar maimer to lucerne.