FOWLS IN SMALL RUNS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1628, 13 May 1903, Page 64 (Supplement)

FOWLS IN SMALL RUNS

The number of poultry keepers is constantly being added to, especially of those who have only facilities for a few fowls in a small ran. Many beginners make a start in the spring in to the autumn, and there is the adva.nt-‘ age in commencing now that the fowls should be laying, -and should at once prove profitable. Pullets that were hatched even as late in the year as July last ought to have begun to lay by this time. So also should the older hens, unless they are too ancient to produce eggs. The small poultry keeper should therefore find his birds both' interesting and profitable for the next few months, unless they are greatly mismanaged. Possibly the most common form of bad management is that of overcrowding. Ten or a dozen hens are frequently packed into a space that would not hold khree in health and comfort and in which they can barely move, and certainly can get no exercise. The three hens would lay more eggs in the year, and. at much less cost of food, than the larger'number. Next to overcrowding the most usual mistake is overfeeding. Any poultry run in which food is to be seen laying about at all hours—and there are many such —is badly managed, and 1 will probably have diseased inmates, who will produce but few eggs. Two feeds a day are enough for full grown fowls; one the first thing in the morning, and the other before roosting time. Green food is necessary when poultry are shut up. Cut grass, cabbage leaves, lettuce, ‘ dandelion, and many other • vegetables can be given with great advantage, and are easily pro curable. even in towns'. In very limited runs a piece of wire netting bent into the shape of a rack, and 1 tied up about a foot from the ground will make a receptacle for the vegetable food and keep it from being trampled' on and made dirty. A box containing dry earth or sand must be provided, placed out of the rain, in which the birds can have a dust bath as often as they wish. This isi their only. Way of cleaning themselves', and it is essential to their health. Change of diet < is advisable sometimes. Fowls in small runs ought to have soft food for the first meal, middlings and barley meal, or middlings and ground oats, in equal parts, mixed into a stiff paste with hot water. The second feed may be of wheat, or barley, or buckwheat, not given mixed, but separately; one kind of grain for a week or two, and then a change to one of the others.

It is seldom advisable to attempt to rear chickens in small runs, unless they are bantams. They rarely thrive satisfactorily in very limited spaces, and meet with a good deal of ill-treatment from the older birds. If chickens are not desired there is no occasion, to keep a male bird, and any nuisance from cockcrowing is thus avoided. There are many excellent varieties of fowl that do well in small rune. Most mongrels become broody, and broody hens are a nuisance if chickens are not wanted*. But purebreds. such as Minorcas. Andalusians, and Leghorns, do not sit, and are very suitable for the small poultry-keeper. The colours of these fowls, too. do not show the dirt, the blue grey of the Andalusian being very pretty, and the Black Minorca, and the Brown or Black Leghorn. being undeniably handsome. These three breeds lay white-shelled eggs. If brown or tinted eggs are required, the Wyaudottes and Orpingtons will, he the best kind of fowl, but they become broody.