POULTRY NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11869, 22 January 1902, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES.

Capons make excellent nurses for turkeys and chicks. Nine-tenths of the young turkeys die from lice. "Remember that. Young turkeys must be carefully attended to- until well feathered.

Our Tuakau correspondent writes:— often reads in the News' columns of the profits of poultry-keeping, and how best to secure these profits. It is perhaps probable that a lien belonging to Mrs. D. H. Madill had heard these things talked about, and determined to put the knowledge to practical use, so she went away to a nest of her own choice and having laid the requisite number of eggs f sat and hatched a brood of twenty-one. chickens, which she brought homo for her owner's approval. A 'Subscriber, Parengarenga, writes; —I • should* be much obliged if you would advise me at the earliest possiblo occasion in your Poultry Notes re a troublesome sickness which this year's brood of fowl and turkoy chicks have develpped. fl They are about two ; months and one month old, and up till about ton days appeared to be a very healthy brood, when they; developed sore eyes, large lumps (having, the appearance of a quantity of warts), forming on the eyes (generally only , one eye. of each.chick). The chicks are apparently blind in the one eye. '1 he lump increases in size, and the mouth of the bird also becomes sore. The bird has every appearance of being very sick. The sickness at presont has only appeared in the chicks, not in the old birds. My fowls have been- fed on wheat, sops, and scraps. A note giving the cause of this disease would be a great boon, 1 as an excellent brood of chicks _is being ruined.We have seen no complaint amongst poultry such as is described above, i Have any of our readers' poultry been similarly affected? Mr. W. Stewart, patentee of the Nonpareil incubators and foster mothers, _ Unwm s Bridge Road, St. Peters, thus writes to us on December 28:—" I enclose you the result of the incubator competition which has just been decided in this State. As it is the first public competition in the colony I trunk, it published in your valuable columns, it woulu bo of interest to the poultry fanciers. The enclosure is as follows: — v

The final of the three incubator contests closed at the end of last week, with rather unsatisfactory results. One hundred Muscovy duck eggs were put in each of the seven machines on November b, the following being tho number of ducklings hatohed, and other records: —

Incubators. Infer- n't'h- Per tile. Bad. G'd. ed. cent. Nonparoil, 5 quarts; Zenith 6 quarts; GolZenith ... .•• 6 23 69 33 473 Golden Cob .... ... 19 27 54 19 Cyphers 1" 37 51 M f'2 Egyptian, 5 quarts; Eclipse, 4 quarts Peta«e ••• 13 21 65 5 Ji Petaluma i'> 36 49 0 " Tho amount of oil consumed during the five weeks by each machine is as follows: Norpareil, 5 quarts; Zenith, 6 quarts; golden Cob, 14 quarts ; Cyphers, 10 quarts Egyptian, 5 quarts; Eclipse, 5 quarts ; i e ta ' in a, 11a quarts. The infertile eggs and those described as bad were removed on the eigiitn day, the balance being considered as containing live birds. It will thus bo seen out of 412 good eggs the whole of the machines hatched but 120 ducklings, the balance bomg. I all dead in shell. One of the conditions as to the working of the machines was to tne effect that did any accident happen to either lamp, tank, or other portion of the apparatus the. makers were to be _ communicated with at once. However, nothing of any moment occurred throughout the hatch, but Mr. Ellis reports that while carrying out the maker's or agent's instructions, had he been at liberty to exercise his own judgment m the way of supplying moisture, better results might have been had from some of the machines. A chcquo for £2 10s, offered by Mr. Ellis for the most successful of the contestants, has been, in Mr. Bradshaw's hands for - some time. This has been duly fowarded'to Mr. Stewart, who won two out of the three contests with the Nonpareil incubator. , ' ' „ ,