SCRATCHINGS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1732, 10 May 1905, Page 66 (Supplement)

SCRATCHINGS.

Study your birds. Have a regular cleaning-up day. Keep the grit-box well replenished. Don’t tolerate the presence of lioe. Let the houses be well ventilated but not draughty. ‘‘That tired feeling” never helped to make a name. “Peter Put off” dose not gather ft great many eggs. Up with the lark should be the poultry man's motto. Don’t ever give the fowls a chance to tell you you are too late up. Enthusiasm i.s no good unless it lasts. Keep your shoulder to the wheel. Be prepared for hard graft and plenty of it when you start [poultry keeping.

Get a move on with your building operations before the wet weather comes on.

Plenty of light, either through a window or a wire front, should be admitted into every poultry house. The safest way, the most permanently successful way, for all concerned, is to begin smaJl and grow large, rather than beg : n large and “bust up.” The beginner should be ever ready to learn. A blunder at the start involves more serious consequences than later on. and you should, above all things, endeavour to get started right.

The most common method of securing a change of blood in the poultry yard is by the purchase of a male bird. This is, of course, the cheapest way. But it has its drawbacks, especially where an increase of size in the stock is particularly required!.. The size of the young birds is influenced to a much greater extent from the hen s side, and it is thereby more important to secure large-framed and heavy-bodied hens as the nucleus of the breeding istock. Tiie outlay may be ,more in procuring a trio of breeding hens ci suitable size, shape, etc. ; but, on the other hand, the return will also be greater, fully compensating for toe extra outlay. Where size is less of a consideration, the selection of a male bird from stock {possessing the required qualities should, as a rule, result satisfactorily.

The rapid changes of warm to cold weather, and vice versa, are bound to have a serious effect on poultry, especially where the housing accommodation is poor, and already numerous inquiries have been made for remedies. It woitld be well, therefore, for poultry keepers to use preventative measures to check all contagious diseases. The roosting places are the chief source ci most of the ailments of domestic poul try, and colds are usually the forerunners of many diseases, especially roup, the most serious and most common of all ailments in poultry. Roup differs from a mere cold, in he ing markedly contagious, and, of course introduced by contagion, though fowls crowded, into ill-ventilated houses contract it when others do not. In airy runs and houses the stronger birds of ten escape when others do not. It he gins as catarrh or cold, and will havo been treated as such unless circumstances lead to a belief from the first that the more serious complaint haf been introduced. The catarrh resists simple treatment, soon becomes more sticky, and acquires a bad smell, also increasing from the eyes, which often become swollen or closed. Later the discharge may become almost, cheesy and accumulate m nostrils, eyes, and even throat, but does not form a mein brane in the latter as in diphtheria. The disease assumes many phases ana forms, and, in consequence, there arc* many widely different advertised remedies.

The best general treatment is as soon as thickening and smell of the discharge makes the case clear, to make a mix ture of peroxide of Hydrogen and w atej in equal parts, with which syringe or iswab the' throat, nostrils and eyes, squeezing the matter out first at least twice a aay, until you are able to procure a good roup mixture, isolation and thorough disinfection of houses anu runs with unsiaked lime is necessary. No doubt the disease is spread through the drinking water, which very scon be comeg .pchuted!. It would be wise therefore, to change this at least twice a day, and to eacn gallon of wacer add a piece of sulphate of iron about the size of a pea. Convalescents should be cleansed with Goody's fluid up to the very last and transferred to a clean /pen from the hospital before being turn ed out in tile general run. Begin your treatment by administering .Epsom salts —in the drmkmg water is best—a pacxet to a dozen birds, feed only sort food, and let it be good, with as much green food as is possible to obtain.

The Wanganui Poultry, Pigeon and Cage-bird Association is well to the front with special prizes for their coming show, as the following will show: — Gold medal for Pekin or Aylesbury Duck or Drake, gold medal for Buff Orpington Hose or Single-comb Cock or Cockerel, gold medal for Gold or Silver Wyandotte Cock or' Cockerel, gold medal for White Leghorn Cock or Cockerel, gold medal for White Wyandlotte, gold medal for Indian Runner Duck or Drake, gold medal for Partridge Wyandotte. In addition to this Mr N. Riggie is donating a gold bracelet, to the value of £5 ss, to the best bird shown by a lady, such lady to be a member of any society afliliated to the N. I. Poultry, Pigeon and C. B. Association. The association is also giving in specials some £2O or £3O. Mr Bert Willis is secretary.