POULTRY INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19150, 16 October 1925, Page 18

POULTRY INDUSTRY.

DISEASES AND MINERALS. IMPORTANCE OF LIME. INTERCHANGEABLE RUNS. BY G.IT. "If hens have all these diseases, I'd rather not keep them at all." said the clergyman's wife, after the poultry lecture. "Hens," I replied, "have nearly every disease known among human beings, and from the same cause, diet, over-crowd-ing and microbes! " I thought then that I knew a good deal about diet, and that my bens were excellently catered for but they recently gave me a broad hint that they thought otherwise. When well-fed animals tumble over one another in their eagerness to get at some article of food, we mav conclude that their system has a very great need for it, and the craving becomes too much for their good manners. We know how quite guileless reindeer will trample down every living tiling in the way of their mad rush for the salt lick after a winter diet of bleached-out moss, and when I saw my hens behaving in much the same way over an old heap of mortar, I began to wonder if, after all, flint, grit and oyster shell supplied their mineral needs as well as we imagined. After pondering it out I eventuady reasoned thus: Where docs the wild bird get all the limo she needs ? You would say, but then she does not need a tenth part of eggshell that our hens do. Nor does she eat a tenth part of the carbohydrates, nor any at all in the concentrated form of ground meals that hens do. Perhaps in the case ox the hen, as of the human being, the system is so drained of lime in counteracting the acidity produced by excess of carbohydrates, that she needs to eat a large quantity in palatable and easily-assimilated form. That is what my hens appeared to feel, for they cleared a large heap of mortar which had lain since the builders left it some three years before. They have not disdained" to eat oyster shell as well, but have taken much less than usual. As the hens cleared the last scrap of mortar, scratching grass and gravel into holes in seeking for every crumb, I see that I must take steps to provide more. Mortar and Fowls. Can anyone say how long mortar must lie before being safe for fowls to eat ? Some years ago I had a pullet crop-bound from swallowing a rather large lump of a rockery that my good ladv constructed from old building stones, with chunks of mortar adhering. I broke it up in. the crop but still ft did not pass, and upon operating I found that the lower opening out of the crop was so inflamed as to be almost closed. I was quite unable to say whether this was due to the mechanical irritation or to the lime in the centre of the lamp being still'"quick." Plenty of oil and milk soon cured' it, but as I had no idea how old that mortar was I cannot say how long it must lie to be safe for use, and one does not care to take risk or experiment with so virulent a stuff as quicklime. The passion for mortar is so strong in poultry, that we ought to supply it if we are not in a limestone or chalk district. Possibly a supply of chalk might suffice, but it is never certain that one form of mineral may be given in place of another. For instance, iron in lettuce is effective for' hens and humans, vet few can tolerate iron pills chemicaJly manufactured, while the substitution of common salt for potassium magnesium and other minerals is not only ineffective but often leads to absolute disaster. It is a mistake to suppose that when we have boiled out or skimmed off all the precious yaluable salts from our food, just heaping on chloride sodium (common table salt) will make good all deficiencies. The systems in hens and human beings, too, need all the salts, and not only that 4 but need them all in the right proportion, and over-dosing with one will not keep animals healthy. Lime is not in quite the same category as salt, but it is necessary to' the system, and when we drain the system of available lime we must find the best way to make good the shortage. That oyster shell does, not suffice I think has been very clearly proved. The lack of lime ,in the human system does not show very quickly, though it does - quite certainly "in time. Perhaps it is the same with the hens, and while they appear to be healthy enough on these farms where a complete clearance is made before the birds are much more than infants of two or three years old (their normal life being from 10 to 15 years), yet I am inclined to believe that the short life and short productive period of the modern hen is as much due to diet as to rapid fgg production. Modem Hen's Busy Life. The old Hamburghs used to lay well up to their 12th year, but they were neither crowded, hurried, nor fed as the modern hen is. I have known at least one hen who laid well into her 13th year, and her diet was oats, house scraps (mainly vegetables), and sharps and cin-' ders, nothing else all the year round, except what she picked up for'herself. It' is .'true that most of her eggs were laid in the,spring and summer, though a good proportion came in late autumn. I have at present a White Leghorn hen which was hatched in February, 1914. and which is still laying her four and five eggs a week. The high feeding for early and rapid production was unknown in the days when "granny" flourished and the appetites of hens were not nearly as large as those of the heavy layers of to-day, and they certainly seemed to live longer and lay longer than the up-to-date commercial hen. Perhaps the combination of'lime and sand in mortar meets some deficit need that oyster shell leaves unsatisfied. Very certainly the hens love old mortar, and they will clear the pointing out of an old wall if they can get at it. So why should we not make mortar one of the "necessaries" to be provided in every poultry yard ? It is always worth while listening to the opinion of the hens. They know so much more about poultry than we do. Interchangeable Poultry Runs. Those who a few fowls in a back garden or on a small section will find the interchangeable run system very beneficial and economical. The idea is to let the fowls run on different portions of the garden, say for three or even six months at a time, and this can be contrived either by means of a removable hurdle fence or by setting the roosting-houses and scratching shed in the centre of the ground and dividing it into several enclosures each of which can be used for the fowls, in turn, while the others are being cropped. Obviously the. former is the more economical plan if the garden and other conditions lend themselves to that arrangement. The value of this plan is twofold. In the first place the fowls are ensured a run on ground that may be described as fresh and clean for if four plots are available, or if the ground can be divided into four, no portion will carry fowls more than once in, say, 18 months or two years. - Then again, the ground will be richly manured , for cultural purposes, and if it is deeply dug when the fowls come off it will bear a heavy crop, especially of the cabbage tribe. The present is a suitable time for digging up a run that has been occupied by fowls since potatoes and other crops were lifted from it last March or April. It should be noted that a small earth ran, such as is suggested, cannot, be depended upon to provide exercise for the fowls in winter, and a scratching shed is a necessary adjunct to keep" the birds active in i inclement weather*