POULTRY NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 16

POULTRY NOTES

Laying strains of tho various breeds can bo founded by careful selection and breeding, and the poultry-keeper who wishes to keep up the busines will do well to make a study of egg production in his flock.

Commence breeding from any one breed or yar ety, and do not make a change until you have given your chosen breed a fair trial. There are peculiar features about every breed, and difficulties that can only be overcome by experience. Success may be gained by persevering even when the issue looks very doubtful.

The French breed of fowls known as Faverclles have obtained much popularity in Great Britain, and they have also been kept with good results in Australia. Their quick growth and white skin and flesh render them great favourites with, the epicure, and they are likely to become a favourite breed in Victoria for table purposes.

Every poultry-keeper should have on hand a supply of simple remedies for the common ailments of his flock, so that tho remedies may be available whenever required. A slight tonic will often bo sufficient to check a disease that may have fatal results if. allowed to develop. Immediate attention will save many lives among the feathered stock.

Strychnine is one of the best remedies for leg weakness in growing stock. It should not, however, bo used without strict accuracy in making up the quantity for each do°o: a chemist should always be entrusted with the compounding ofUi© mixture. One-sixteenth of a grain is the amount to be given to each fowl, and it mav be repeated every second day for eight or ten day*. * Purebred poultry, roared from unrelated stock, of good constitution, and brought up under natural conditions, are quite as h*»rdy and far more suitable to the requirements of the general poultry-keeper than are the mongrel or common barndoor fowls. The idea that purebred stock are not hardy has long since been dispelled, and purebred stock or birds bred from two pure breeds should be kept on every farm.

M. Emil© Merwart, Secretary-General of French Guiana, has incurred a grave responsibility by forwarding to the Jardin cles Plante in Paris two pairs of ventriloqu’al # fowls. Tho accomplishments of these birds in the direction named are as being remarkable; but the popularising of the variety sugg p sts possibilities which would be terrible. The idea of be’ng aroused from slumber by the notes of a ventriloquia! rooster, and being unable to ascertain his exact whereabouts when the boot-jack is handy is bad enough, buc th© prospects before a breeder who is searching for strayed chickens in long grass are simply appalling. One of the trobules in connection with poultry-keeping in confinement is the presence of the parasitic insects, lice, etc., with which they aro' so frequently attacked.. Especially troublesome are those creature© during incubation 1 and upon newly-hutched . young chickens, whose thriftiness they greatly decrease, even if they do not kill them altogether, Tho simplest way to guard against the ; r ravages is to dust the old fowl with black brimstone powder (the sulph viv iron of the chemists). At th© time of setting, both the hen and .the nest of eggs should be well dusted with it. and when th© young chickens appear, the hen and they, too, may both be treated again j with it, lifting the feathers of the older bird so that it should penetrate to the 1 ekin. A handful or so occasionally put in the dust bath would speedily account for the disappearance of these troublesome parasites without any danger of harming the fowl.