POULTRY JOTTINGS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10633, 5 July 1920, Page 2

POULTRY JOTTINGS

SUBURBAN SOME USEFUL HINTS. It is surprising to find so many suburban poultry-keepers still having small cramped housee for their birus with small unprotected .yards attached. There oa every thing to be eaid for confining the birds an a fairly deep open-framed shed and doing- away with the run, oitogether. The birdo'are then always dry i and clean, and a bi|r virtue is that the eggs may be gathered in clean oondition. The warm, sheltered conditions also cause a large number of eggs to be pro- 1 duoed in the cold weather in the same ■way that the cow which js kept in a warm shed at night will giye more milk than it would do if it were kept outside in. the paddook. The benefits which in every way are associated with the keeping of large numbers of hens in a shed need no demonstration, as throughout Australia many men are making a Rood living with fowls kept dm that way. What I want to do to-day is to direct ths attention of the suburban poultry keepers—'those people who keep only a few the virtues of the closedshed method. The old method is to have an open yard, which in wet weather becomes very often and usually a quagmire, and which generally has to be traversed in order to gather the few which are laid. The'hens become muddy and dirty, the eags are dirty, and the conditions generally are ansanitayr to a degree during wet weather. All those bad conditions oould be avoided by the erection of a. small shed. It should face north, and have a netting front on that eide. Across the nettinp; to the full width of the shed a shield of iron or other material should be fixed in order to break the wind. In the shed should be placed a thick litter of straw, and dry horse manure, a perch fixed at one end, with a neat foot off the floor; a water pot a foot off the floor, a tin or other vessel, also raised off the floor, containing small, sharp stone grit, ehell grit, and charcoal. Those things axe all that are required. Because . facing north the sun can shine into the shed for a large part of the day, and the nest box, water vessel, and grit box should be raised off the floor so that no latter mar be scratched or kicked into them. Fowls will lay well under these conditions, the, eggs will be clean, and may be gathered with the least amount of discomfort, and the conditions generally wiill be 6andtary. Thelitter in the shed will absorb the droppings, and periodically—say, every two months —it can be reinoved, when it will make excellent manure for the garden. A drawback to the ohed method at the present time is the high cost of material, But the handy man could erect a ehed at the minimum of cost, and the advantages are so pronounced that whatever tho cost it i» probable that the erection of the shod would be justified m the long run. ■.