THE POULTRY YARD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 662, 31 October 1884, Page 11

THE POULTRY YARD.

WINTER EGGS. I am glad to find that my remarks have “ set thinking” some of the readers of the Agricultural Gazette ; but I am now thinking that to keep our pullets until they area year old is the very idea which has been set going and kept alive these many years. And even if we keep up our number of laying f iwls by retaining pullets, still there will be many more to dispose of ; so that still comes the question—• What shall we do with our (surplu-) pullets ? Will anyoue suggest—Why, operate upon them, and keep them as capons until the following spring ? I fancj but few of your correspondents will go in for that plan, though if it should pay to keep capon 3 so long I do not quite see that keep’ug on pullets which have undergone the operation ought entirely to fail. “A. A. C.” is right. Keep jouug birds and trrow eggs ; or, to put the words in better form, fet us say, produce eggs when eggs are generally scarce. Where oxen are employed on a farm their labor is cheap, because, though working, still they are growing more beef, and that beef is considered of extra quality, too. With laying, or, shall we say, with working hens it is different ; therefore for every reason let the hens be brought to market young. But now comes a difficulty. We have only pallets, and we find that chickens produced by cockerels and hens, or contrariwise, are more vigorous than the offspring of cockerels and pullets. Then we hear that old or oldish cocks are not desirable, and I bedeve the assertion. But is no small yard, or run, to be found on the farm where a cockerel and some of the best heus may be kept, so that. their eggs may be taken for the production of chTckens ? Even wire may be employed, if a yard, or an outlying cottage cannot be utilized for the purpose. -Does A. A. C.” breed from cocks aud bens of the same age, or change the blood occasionally ? I mentioned the fact of chickens in my neighbourhood, and even in my own pens, being stricken with some sickness of a r-mpy character brought on, as I believe, by atmospheric influence. Well, so far as I can see, the malady is gone. For days the birds looked bad and one or two succumbid, but now they are all right again. Even those which I brought home with me to save their lives, are still going, though notout of harm’s way yet. Their water is of great moment, even though some people think that filth will do for a pig, and any vile liquid will be good drink for a fowl. One mote thought. Where fowls have plenty of earth they may be kept “sweet” —when they can scratch freely, and so deodorise effectually. Fresh earth and ashes are necessary for sanitary purpose?. Has “ A. A. C.” thought of these things ? if so, and provision has been made accordingly, there is but little more to be suggested by— W. J. P. ~ ...