POULTRY YARD

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12507, 24 July 1926, Page 19

POULTRY YARD

SOME UTILITY NOTES IMPORTANCE OF GOOD FOOD HOW QUALITY AFFECTS THE BASKET ] 1 (By Geo. H. Ambler.) ! Tlu? whole question ot' poultry fcedJnu is u mutter oi .siqqilyin;; tile birds with sutli'ieni tood lor their bodily ■ needs and for production. ligi; ' i production comes hist. One must ; . first of all supply everything that : is necessary to maintain the bird’s ; body, or tiio eggs will he short. The ; | more one looks into the question of ' feeding the more one finds there is ' to be learnt in it. Although I i : have been about thirty years in the ; corn business I find there is constant- | Tv something fresh fo he learnt m j 1 poultry foods, ami during the last j few years the scientific advance made ■. isn them lias been remarkable. Possibly too much is said nowadays 1 about analysis without sufficient con- ! sideratiou being given to quality. A point which is generally overlooked bv poultrykeepers is that at different 1 periods of the year the requirements '■ of poultrv vary, and unless the lieccs- : surv athuvaurcs are made for such variations, there is sure to he trouble. ! The whole essence of successful feed- , ing is to meet the birds’ require- j Oients. I G\V'i|\c; THE OLANITTY OH j FOOD. j The “rule of thumb” method of gauging the amount of food necessary for a bird is one which is generally used by the average poultry-keeper, but one must watch and see the effect of the food on the birds and bn-.v their condition is being maintnined on it. It nil comes hack to “what is the condition of the bird?’ If she is laving and her condition is low, she will verv soon stop, and the pnultrvkeeper wib have to build her no. which takes far more time than it does 'or Her to lose it. This is a ooint which must be carefully watch'd. as it is always a long job getting c. bird hack into'condition. j QUALITY IN FOODSTUFFS. j All foods are not the same. There ! are different qualities as regards their nourishing value, ami some have far more digestible nourishment than others. Raisin stones and coal dust have j excellent analysis, but. of course, no i one would think of feeding birds with ; them. | DIGESTIBILITY OF OATS. j Take oats for example, a great, dif- . ference exists m their nourishing qualities and digestibility. The best , test is in regard to the amount of : wa-tc. In some samples this amounts ! to 1-3 to °0 i>er cent., and the un- j initiated may*think that they are giv- I in.r the correct quantity of food, but their birds are not getting sufficient , nourishment. It comes back to nour- ; ishment every time, and the poultry- j keeper must judge, the nourishing value ; rather than the price and bulk. To . fudge oats one must look for the waste I in them, how much straw and bow [ liiauv husks, without kernels. The , weight, will indicate their quality, and : if one gets 501 b to the bushel instead j of 11 or 121 b, one is getting a good | article, because a large quantity of i waste lias been taken out. It is a very : hadv policy to go by price alone, and j it must be remembered that food is . the raw- material for the egg factory. j The husk is indigestible, and unless ground very fine the birds cannot extract anything from it. ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION. The present day incubator, now so reliable lias every advantage over the broody hen, in that it is always ready at any time to perform its work and , will, if needed, work from one year’s j end’ to another. Numbers of people have their early breeding season in- j terfered with through being unable to ! secure broodies early enough, and as | it is always essential to obtain early : hatches, my advice to all is to pur-; chase a good incubator of a reliable i make. j The outlay is more in proporuon to ; the number of liens that could be ob 1 tained for tlie same expenditure, but ; the machine is more reliable, will not . abandon the eggs, and goes steadily on producing chickens to the delight of ; the purchaser. A machine of one hun- j dred egg capacity will do the work of J eight broody liens, which considerably i reduces labour, and whereas a lien ■ mav break her eggs, harbour insects. ; and trample on and kill several chick-; ens in each brood, the incubator ha* the advantage over all these accident*. \ Never buy cheap machines, as they aro • certainly dearer in the end, give ais j enormous amount of trouble, and ar*», generallv unsafe from a fire point of ; ■view, whilst hatching results are usu ; aily unsatisfactory. j A good incubator on the other hand j will do its work successfully, hut it is important that it should be placed in , a suitable position if the best results i are to be obtained. Select an outbuilding or a room free from vibration, as this is to a largo extent the cause of “cripples” and “dead-in-the-fihell. Ventilation is absolutely necessary., but a direct draught on to the machine must be avoided. An earth* brick or cement floor should he used. Machines without legs should be placed upon a F.tout frame, made of quartering, liav-j ing two boards for the machine to 1 stand upon; this allows a free passage { ox air to be admitted through the ven-j tilating holes at the bottom of the in-j cubator. A most imj>ortant point now ; js to get the machine quite level, ; whv-h mud be tested with a true spirit; level. The necessary heat should he j obtained in lM hours after eggs are j placed in the drawer, leaving them to j rest a day before turning. This opera-! tkm h performed twi"p daily, its pur-! peso being to prevent 1 he embryo from j to the shell. : Never remove the drawer right nut j of th” machine. Ibis done being im-j portent to the *uc<ess of tbo hatch, j For the hr-t, twelve ds.vs Die egg. re-, quire no other airing than they got j fluririq tlm time taken in turn'll;' them. Mv pxjmnr m O proves Hint the j bt -at in the machine pet' ten low. t-I"* j eqps and drawer also lose a [treat, deal , of warmih whilst the eggs fake in aedj absorb too much moisture. So ni'iny I believe in nil-ini' the dips from five to! fotr-on nrinntcs once if not twice a day.) bni. wlv-n snob is the rate the machine > will take some two bom's to attain the ; required boat aenin. and this aoc.ounts, for so no- nv ebb kens living i’ l the she? 1 ; 10, to ibo last, but are too weak to| break thrnnph. After Hie twelfth day; nir the ep-'s five minutes in the morn, j imr and for ten lnim to; dnrinp the la st. four dai s | Ivips must la t.ostod on the seventh duv. and air rlenr mss removed. The jifu-tile and ad' ll '-] eirqs pive off no Huai the-rdiv i:a?11■ ■ iii[i a biirnifnl effect uu tiio others. Testing is til so of

great service, as early in the season, when eggs prove infertile, one can I trace the fault to the correct pen and I remedy this. . I The temperature should be l.Ud oc- , grees during the first week, UliF, dill - i ing tlic second, and finishing off tho i hatch at this. ; 7>o not open the drawer more than twice daily, and then just long enough I to remove those hatched into the drying chamber. After all an incubator is only a machine, so that the attendant must use common sense if he wishes to obtain good results. THE EGG MARKET STOCKS IN THE DOMINION ! AN INTERESTING RETURN. ! Ail interesting return has been furi nished to tile Minister for Internal Af- ! fairs (tho Hon. R. F. Bollard) by the ; Government Statistician (Mr Malcolm ; Fraser) on the slocks in cool stores of ■ eggs and egg-pulp in the Dominion. | '‘The position of stocks of eggs and I egg-pulp,” said Mr Bollard, ‘‘is of equa | interest to both poultry farmers and | dealers in their products, as well as to ifiin consuming public. It is of vital imIportance to know how much is in the. ■ country when considering the question of | export. For some years past, statistics i of stocks of eggs and egg-pulp have been j collected by the census and Statistics Of- ’ fice ns at certain specified dates, and this I year June 301 h was added to these dates. | in view of the importance of tbo question at this stage, if is considered advisable to make known, immediately, the position as 01. June noth last. Figures collected are as follow, March 31st stocks being quoted for comparative purposes: JUNE 30th, 1926. I Nortli South DoraiLsland. Island, nion. I dnz. doz. doz. I Eggs in shell ... 930 8,925 3.855 lb. lb. lb. Egg-pulp 212,162 182/180 391,542 Frozen whites... 240 476 722 Egg yolk MARCH .'list, 1926. North South DomlIsland. Island, nion. dnz. doz. doz. Eggs in shell ... 15,990 31,993 47,983 lb lb. lb. Egg-polp 458,820 327,747 78G.567 Frozen whites., 432 910 1,342 ligg y.oik r— tea/