POULTRY NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11433, 25 July 1900, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES.

No incubator has brains. It can regulate, but cannot think. Begin with ono incubator, and learn, before you try more than one. In a majority of cases the failure is due to the eggs, and not the incubator. To keep chickens healthy and promote growth they should be continually kept on fresh soil. Tho secret of obtaining good supplies of eggs is by thorough management ami proper feeding and housing. In the clean-legged breeds eight or ten hens may be mated with tho cock, but in the heavy feather-logged sorts fivo hens will suffice. In suburban districts, where oyster shells aro easily procured, there should bo an abundant supply kept in tho poultry pens. Tineshells should bo crushed. To preserve grass for tho use of poujtrv pack it light in a hogshead or vinegar barrel. Coyer the top airtight, . and put on heavy weights. Lawn clippings are good for the purpose. A good layer is a hen that lays 160 to 180 eggs in a year; that would be about three times her own weight of eggs. Individual hens have been known to lay 210 to 240 oggs in a year, but they aro very rare in poultry yards, though plentiful in print. Ducks may bo exported to England, but aro not in such demand in the markets there as chickens. A cross between the I'ekin and Aylesbury is tho favourite, and brings the best price, which is 8s per pair

What are we to do with the new como chicks? Leavo them with their mother the first 24 or 36 hours— less interference the better; then give them their first meal, and, if possible, mix it with a little sunshine, and they will relish it greatly. If you ask a farmer why he will not try to improvo his flock to a good egg-production and a marketable type of bird, ho will say "he has no time to bother about fowls;" or, "that they do not pay to keep." Neither would any other stock on tho farm if kept on the same lines, and allowed to inbreed and degonorate till thoy could not produce sufficient to pay for thoir keep. In all cases of fowls dying a change in tho food should be made at once. Stop feeding on wheat and oats for a time, givo soft food, such as pollard, mixed into a crumbly mass, given almost dry, or broadcrumbs. Sco to water utensils, clcanso and disinfect fowlhouses. Use lime freely in roosting places, runs, and drains. Give green food and a good supply of grit. Place a little limo in drinking water. A poultry farm, to be conducted properly, must be thoroughly understood and carefully managed. It is tho rule with a majority of farmers to try and raise a largo lot of poultry, and crowd them into one small house, and expect the fowls to prosper. Result: Disease appears among the flock, and they die off, and the farmer can't seo any money in chickens. But if he had gono into tho business from tho start in the right way, ho would find that it is a profitable business, and that it will pay to givo it more attontion than ho has heretofore.

Thero is no need for moro now breeds; we havo plenty of breeds to work upon; what is wanted is moro practical breeding with what we have. If moro attention was paid to breeding egg-producers and general-utility birds, wo would not seo or hear of so much breeding for fancy points. Wo do not mean that all " fancy" breeding should stop. No; for tho poultry industry and breeders aro indebted to them moro than they know. It is to these specialist breedors that wo owe the caroful breeding of pure-blooded stock— the men who import and pay long prices for birds to keep up tho puroness and standard of their flocks. If it vvero not for those purebred breedors, we would soon find out tho want of fresh, pure blood and our fowls, instoad of showing the points duo to their breed, would bo small, and in time ho better than mongrels.