POULTRY NOTES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5832, 24 February 1906, Page 16

POULTRY NOTES

EGGS IN* THE DEAR SEASON. Tlio present is tho "off” season to far ns poultry is concerned. Thcro aro no shows, the breeding season is quite over, the old birds are now looking very seedy, and tho young stock are not old enough to enable mo to tell their good qualities. Above all, thcro is no money to be made, ns there aro no buyers of eggs for setting. neither is there any demand for birds for slock purposes. If the breeder is fortunate enough to have good layers, thcro remains the one redeeming feature that eggs for the table are going np in price, and for a certainty they will not look back, but keep on rising, and will doubtless reach tho usual 3s per dozen ns in years gone by. If one could only keep np a good supply of eggs for the next five or six months n fine profit could bo made, but, unfortunately, as the prices keep increasing, tho supply of eggs correspondingly diminishes. The question then occurs. What is tho best wav of keeping up n fair supply? One thing that can bo done is to push on tho forward pullets by good feeding. Keep them by themselves, and give a plentiful supply ‘of animal food, in the form of moat, green bone, blood meal, or art ideal meat meal, which is now obtainable at reasonable prices. At tho same lime care must be exorcised in this mutter, ns too free a use of animal totals will cause trouble. Tho quantities to be given all depend on which form ef animal food is used, as they vary considerably in their annylsis. Tor instance. lean beef comes out at 20.5 albuminoids, green bone 20.2. dry meat meal 71.2. Danish meat meal 4C.G2, blood meal 76.37. As three ounces of moat or bone per day to ton hens.'combined with the usual meals of bran and_ pollard, and wheat or oats, is a liberal allowance, it necessarily follows that tho more nitrogenous foods —such as the artificial meat or blood meals —should bo given in proportionately smaller quantities. Green feed must also be given in as liberal quantities as possible. lint over feeding must bo avoided. Not a particle of food should remain lying about. Stale, sour soft food in particular must bo avoided. For order of meals for forcing egg production the writer would prefer crushed grain. left in the litter over night so that the birds could get a feed at daylight. obtaining oxerciro at the same time, as the crushed grain, being in small particles, would give greater work in finding than whole grain. At II or 12 o'clock give tho mash, and about -4 or 5 o’clock the oroning feed of grain, after which green feed, ns this is tho time fowls seem to enjoy it most. If a good supply is available some could also bo given during the day. but if steamed lucerne chaff is used in the mash, the fowls-will not bo so greedy for green stuff. The old hens should bo treated differently to the pullets, and this all depends on whether they are sitting or non-sit-ting varieties. If tho former, they will bo in all stages, from lean to qnito fat. according to whether they have been sitting, lavin'- or rearing chicks. In the case of any that aro extra fat and inclined to brood it will bo found best to lot thorn have a spell on the nest for two or three weeks. Two-ycar-old hens and early pullets—especially if they are of a known good laving strain, and aro laying well—should bo kept going, but others that are not laying should be penned off. and reduced to half rations, say, one feed only per day of oats for about three weeks, to produce an early moult, then feed them up gradually on nitrogenous foods—with the object of getting eggs at tho dearest time. A little sulphur may he added to tho mash when tho new feathers aro growing Tho hens could bo treated in batches in this manner. Say pen off ono lot now. and a mouth Inter pen off another lot which have stopped laying, and when the first lot aro fairly laying put a cockerel into the pen with the object of hatching some April chickens. If Mediterranean breeds are kept, it would pay to got all that are not laying into es early a moult as possible by adopting tho treatment above described.—" Silver Grey” in Perth "Morning Herald. ’’