HEALTH OF HENS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19827, 23 December 1927, Page 16

HEALTH OF HENS.

ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESS. SELECTION IN BREEDING. GUARDING AGAINST DISEASE. BY G.H. P>reed the strongest and best birds to produce chicks that will grow fast and develop into layers of largo digestive capacity. Poultry culture as a productive business, for raising chickens for either profit or pleasure—and there should bo both—has become a part, and a very important part, of agriculture. The products of the poultry yard are many and valuable. These products include table eggs, baby chicks, tablo birds, pullets and breeding stock. No matter how large or small tho flock, the poultry-keeper should endeavour to make his work count for as much as possible. In the business of producing poultry products, tho unit of fundamental importance for us always to keep in mind is a " healthy hen." Unless tho laying hen performs her function in an economical and satisfactory manner, tho profit and pleasure disappear from the poultry business. The hen that can go ahead and do this is the healthy hen. That leads us to the consideration of just what a healthy hen may bo, and just how any or every poultry raiser can develop and maintain that sort of individual.

A " healthy hen"- is no phenomenon, merely a normal, natural bird, whose body in all its parts is in good order, and capable of performing the functions which it is to exercise. If disease'enters the flock and destroys this natural condition, and our healthy hens begin to disappear, our products decrease, and our pocketbooks suffer.

I assume that every poultry-keeper is deeply interested in maintaining the health of his birds and in keeping disease away. Sometimes, in our hurry nowadays, we are apt to forget some of the factors that help "s to automatically preserve tho health of our hens while we attend to our daily routine duties Four Prime Factors. Let us consider this matter by grouping the factors which contribute to a healthy poultry flock under four heads. It is well to bear in mind that health and freedom from diseasf should not have to become a special job on a poultry plant, but should be tho result of forethought and good management. There are four indispensable factors which, together, will aid in accomplishing this result. Every bird is endowed by Nature with the ability to ward off and fight the agencies which would produce disease. This we call natural resistance. Some birds have more of It than others.* One form of it at least is what we ordinarily call vigour and constitutional strength. Therefore, the first step in developing a healthy flock of hens goes back into the breeding or parent/ stock. Weak, lowvitality birds, cannot be expected to produce chicks that will grow into healthy, vigorous birds. A great numbe/ of the losses suffered this year in poultry flocks can be traced to a lack of fighting strength inherited from last year's matings. We can correct this in another season by using better judgment and great care in selecting the breeders We can have our characteristics of colour, form, and size in mind, and everyone should, but at the same time not forget that the bird selected should itself be healthy and strong and vigorous. Good size, active, interested temperament, bright eye, full red good bone, alertness, and other well-recognised qualities point out tho vigorous birds. Checking Incipent Complaints.

The immediate removal of any .hens that appear other than strong and healthy is often the most effective method of checking or controlling an outbreak of disease. Perhaps it may be wise to havo an isolation pen to which tho suspects may bo carried.

Possibly the trouble that will occur most commonly in the laying pens during the season of naturally high egg production is prolapsis of the oviduct. This instantly arouses the curiosity of the other birds in a flock, and cannibalism may start unless the affected bird is removed.

This trouble rarely makes the bird sick, unless a haemorrhage occurs. It is usually caused by overstraining, or inflammation of the oviduct, and is generally the result of constipation in the digestive tract, or sluggishness of the blood system. Remove the injured birds, put the whole flock out of doors,, give them green, succulent food, such as grass, sprouted oats or mangolds, and force them to exercise.

A dose of Epsom salts about a month during tho winter months of close confinement acts as a general pre vent itive of not only this, hut other poultry troubles Allow one pound of salts to 100 birds, and give it in the drinking water. Tho laying, healthy hen should be laxative. A constipated hen will not manufacture either eggs or flesh. Importance of Feeding.

Tho feeding of hens during the period of greatest activity is important. Hons aro very greatly creatures of habit. They do not seem to tire of regulation meals day after day. A scratch grain ration, fed at the rate of ten pounds a hundred birds—two and a-half in the morning, two and a-half at noon, and five at night—can furnish the lions with energy. Producing foods force them to exercise and work, if it is scattered in deep litter, and become a necessary part of the diet. Then the dry mash, consisting of equal parts of wheat-meal, bran, sharps, ground oats, maize meal and mes.t-meal, furnishes the egg-production ' materials. All these grains have a distinct purpose in the ration.

• f As summer advances, perhaps some of the flock may be slightly out of condition, and need a stimulant for a limited time. The writer has used a mixture composed of one pound of powdered gentian, oriequarter pound each of ginger and saltpetre, and a half-pound of powdered iron sulphate. Use two or three tablespoonfuls to 10 quarts of mash: Preferably feed as a moist mash about 10 o'clock after the dry mash hoppers have been closed all morning. Continue this for about 10 days. Do not make the use of any tonic a regular thing, for it then loses its real tonic value.

Accompany good feeding with plenty of fresh water. It must be constant in supply, and always clean and sanitary. Here is where many a poultry-rearer makes his most serious mistake, for many diseases are carried on through 1 the medium of the water supply* and lack of health is often traceable to the water fountain or pan. Birds need a lot of water to keep up their body processes.