POULTRY NOTES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 January 1939, Page 7

POULTRY NOTES

Watch the Ducklings. Watch your growing ducklings for future breeders. Those that outgrow the others are worth marking for the purpose as ability to mature quickly with a heavy carcase are valuable breed factors. Drinking Vessels. Both the life and usefulness of metal drinking vessels are increased by painting the interior with tar or shellac. Backward Chicks. Chicks that have been badly handled during the first week or two rarely give the profit to be expected of them; if, however, the neglect was at about six or 12 weeks of age then judicious handling may pull them round, although they will never be the equals ot those that have grown without a check. Feed such chickens as generously as possible and give them all the green feed you can. to induce growth and give a change to fresh [ ground if it is available. Treat late matched chicks the same way from six tc ten weeks old. Watch the Pullet. Those back-yarders, who rear stock

are often too prone to regard all pullet* as sacred. They are nothing of the sort, and must be culled almost as ruthlessly as cockerels. That stunted little creature with sticks of legs can never make a profitable layer. Suppose you handle the pullgts one evening and find one well below weight of remainder. Feel the breast, and if there is a tendency to knifelike boniness scrap her. This bird—if the same age—has had exactly the same chances as the rest, so 10-to-l something is wrong internally. If in doubt, study the head, and particularly the eye. Only if the latter is bold almost hawk-like, and prominent should the bird be given another chance. But if, instead it is sunken and dull, this confirms the worst. Make “the best is good enough for me” your motto.—Stephen Hicks. Exchequers and Anconas. Practically the only difference in plumage, etc., between the Exchequer Leghorn and the Ancona is that the black and white of the former are evenly distributed, and the white (of the surface colour) is in the form of large blobs. In Anconas, however, there is much more black than white, while the latter is in the form of tippings—the more evenly v-tipped throughout with white the better, but tipped and not laced or splashed.