POULTRY NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11581, 20 February 1901, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES.

Many deaths among young chickens this season.

The cause of death appears to bo unknown. The chickens droop, wings trail on the ground, and in two or three days they are dead.

"Wo have heard of some settlers whose losses in this respect have been very heavy. One settler was mentioned whoso losses were said to have exceeded seven hundred chickens.

The disease appears to. bo contagious, for we have heard of one settler who has been breeding from his own stock for several years. This season he decided to make a change, and purchased 20 birds. Since then all his chickens have died, but the older birds survive the attack of the complaint. A correspondent writes to us about some large eggs laid by Langshans in his possession. He says an egg was dropped by one of them a few clays ago which weighed 2oz 12dr. A couple of years ago we published particulars of several large eggs by the same breed of fowls, which weighed considerably over the weight now stated. Two-ounce eggs are not the kind grocers usually sell, however, anxious they may be to purchase them at the ordinary prioe. Rhode Island led fowls are believed to have originated by crossing R.C. brown leghorn males on the old Cochin China or Shanghai females, which were imported about 50 years ago. Some other crosses have been made since then, but there is no telling what they were. By the use of trap nests we learn the egg value of each lien in the flock, and are enabled to handle the layers frequently, thus taming them and keeping constantly informed as to their individual condition and requirements. Beginning a number of years ago as a fad, the individual nest system has gradually developed until now its adoption presents a practical business proposition to the market poultryman and the farmer as well as to the fancier and pedigree breeder. The practical, simple, inexpensive yet scientific trap nest enables every poultrykeeper to adopt the individual system. Geose are excellent foragers, and farmers who have gathered their crops will find them useful in " stubbling" after the cereals have been garnered. Where horses and dairy stock are kept it is net advisable to allow geese to roam over the nastures, and on this account many farmers will not have them on the farm, but where the conditions are suitable geese are profitable. An expert gives his views on how to feed poultry. He says: In the morning I usually,jfeed wheat and wheat screenings, Kaffir corn, or Indian meal; at noon a bran mash made of two-thirds bran and one-third cornmeal mixed with sour or clabbered milk. with a portion of concentrated beefmeal, at the rate of lib to 100 fowls. This I find very healthy for them, and it causes them to grow very fast. At night I feed the same as in the morning, except that I use whole corn to some extent, but am careful not to feed too much, especially to laying hens. After the young chicks are three weeks old they are fed three times a day. the same as the older fowls.

A chicken is omnivorous. The meat, bone, etc., contained in the mash, together with the skim-milk, furnishes part of the food elements usually secured in a state of nature by foraging for insects, etc By keeping both wheat and corn before them for the balance of the day, each bird is able to use its instinct, and select what its individuality requires to complete its food requirements, without clogging up its system with a lot of surplus carbonaceous or nitrogenous matter, as the case may be. At any rate, good results are go't in this way, and the feeding problem with its attendant labour is very much simplified. Chicks have been hatched in an incubator, and fed in this way, that weigh 21b each, at 10 weeks old. They are always eager for their one meal a clay of mash, although they have had the cracked corn and cracked wheat; lying constantly before them since they were a week old.