POETRY NOTES

Northern Advocate, 22 July 1933, Page 7

POETRY NOTES

HOW TO SUCCEED.

TEMPERATURES IN BROODING.

The most important thing in brooding is the maintenance of proper temperatures to suit the age of the chicks being brooded. Next to this is the number being brooded as one unit, and the proper thinning down as they grow older. Another point is that a brooder designed to accommodate a given number of baby chicks from a day old to, say, three or four weeks, will be too small to accommodate the same number to six weeks. Conversely, a brooder that will be good for a given number from three to six weeks of age is generally too large for the baby stage. To meet these contingencies one has either to understock in the first place and thin out at three or four weeks, or have two sizes of brooder units. In order to meet these differing conditions some beginners resort to brooding without heat during the last two or three weeks. This practice is, however, not recommended, as it usually leads to big losses or the ruin of the chicks physically. The best practice is to use heat throughout the first six or seven weeks, the latter during the winter and early spring, keeping in mind the necessity for reducing the temperatures and weaning off as already mentioned. The temperature for the first week should be 95 to 90 degrees, then reduce at the rate of 3 or 4 degrees each .week. Operating “Cold Brooders.” How to operate cold brooders has formed the subject of inquiry. It should be said at once that chickens, can be brooded without applied warmth by persons “knowing their chicken” and possessing infinite patience and the necessary time to attend to them. The main thing in cold brooding is to keep the baby chicks close to the brooder until they - have learnt to use it to conserve their own bodily warmth; watch that they do not stay out too long at a time on cloudy days or When there is little power in the sun, and generally “mother them” until they become

strong. Speaking of brooding generally, it does not admit of half measures; it should not be taken that because baby chicks can be brooded without heat that success can be obtained by brooding with low temperatures. If with heat there must be sufficient of it to cause the chickens to spread out. A WASTE OF PROFIT. It is remarkable, writes C. Grange in “Poultry ” (England), how many poultry-keepers keep deformed or abnormal chicks right up to maturity and then cast them out. This is a waste of profit. Deformities, etc., for which chicks should be culled, are blindness, monstrosities, twisted thighs so that walking is difficult. All interfere with egg laying. On* the other hand, if we are rather short of layers, those deformities which do not affect laying may permit of the bird being retained, but certainly never used for breeding. Such deformities are bent toes, wry or squirrel tail, and slightly crossed break. Of the fowls left, there will be some which are not good “doers,” and when mature will not yield sufficient annual profit to make their retention worth while. The slow featherer is unlikely to be a good layer, or if a male, a stock bird producing good layers. When comparing these points such as feathering, it is important to make sure that no other external factor has had any effect or we shall cull wrongly. Such factors are age, strain, feeding, and brooding conditions. One, too, should remember not to compare males with females, particularly in the heavy breeds; the male is slower to feather than the female.

The female chick which has an unplumaged back last is the worst chick. The carrying of baby fluff to a late age is another bad sign. Cockerels which show bare shoulders when their penmates are nicely covered will probably make large stock fowls, but are not desirable for breeding. Pullets which carry fluff on the back of the head when fowls of the same brood are feathered arc poor ‘‘ doers. ’ ’ The head, too, of a “dud” is long, beaky, unsymrnetrical, puffy faced and wears a dull look. Such fowls seem unbalanced when handled, and are a bag of nerves. The good pullet chick is quiet, docile, and definitely friendly. Breed Type. Emphasis is laid by Mr Grange on the importance of breeding to breed standards. The most successful man today, he urges, is the one who takes due care .of maintaining good breed type in his layers. While not suggesting that fowls not to breed type should be culled, he stresses the point tjiat they should be earmarked ' for future reference and never used for breeding. Mr Grange instances single comb in rose-combed breeds, white earlobes in red-lobed breeds, feathered legs in clean-legged fowls, and with Some breeds, especially the Wyandotte, shape of body. Such fowls often make excellent layers, of course, and it would be unwise to cull out, but they should be regarded as layers only. A culling on these lines will result in a flock of docent-typed fowls, of good body size, sound in wind and limb, and capable of producing the maximum profit as adults. Moreover, a considerable saving in feeding and housing is effected..