POULTRY NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22720, 5 November 1935, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

By Terror.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS “B. S.” (Dunedin). —The blood spots in the eggs are primarily due to the hen being in an overfat condition, in which state ruptures of blood vessels are apt to take place. “B. S.” will understand better if he reads the paragraph headed “Over-fat Hens,” which appears below. “T. B.” (Matakanui). —I have no doubt but that the trouble with your fowls is caused by intestinal worms. Park, Davis, and Co., put out O-A Worm specially designed to destroy intestinal worms, including tapeworms in chickens, adult fowls, and turkeys. These capsules are stocked and specially imported by Mr H. L. Sprosen, chemist, Octagon, Dunedin. Another much recommended remedy is tobacco dust. The quantity to give is 2oz or 3oz to every 50 fowls, loz to lioz to 25, etc. The dust should bo steeped in hot water prior to mixing the mash. Omit the previous evenings grain before giving the tobacco dust and two hours after feeding the meal give loz Epsoms-salt in each gallon of the drinking water for the remainder of the day.

Mineral Salts It is explained by Mr H. R. Lewis, who is an authority, that in these days of high production the supply of mineral salts in the grain used and in milling by-products is insufficient. It is now known that the presence of the various salts are necessary for the carrying on of the vital processes. The most essential mineral foods are water, salt, lime, and the phosphates. The purpose of these mineral salts seems to be the maintenance of a balance between each other and a regulation of the various vital functions that constitute life. The various reactions in the body, which we know as digestion, breathing, heart beats, etc., are also due to stimulation of the various tissues of the body bv dilute solutions of tlie various mineral salts, and it is thought that this is due to the fact that these mineral salt solutions carry very delicate electrical charges which cause this stimulation. It is reasoned out that the exchanges of these various electrical charges, which wc might liken to the effect of tiny electric batteries, are the cause of the vital life functions already mentioned. Ihe mineral salts in the body arc either a end or basic in their reaction, being pretty evenly divided in this respect. In other words, there are two classes of mineral elements or salts in the bird’s body, one being just the opposite in behaviour to the other. With regard to salt, lime, and phosphates in the poultry food, Mr Lewis says:—“Salt is coming to be used more and more in the poultry ration, its two primary functions are to increase the palatability of the ration and to aid digestion. In the former case it is true in birds as it is with us humans that any food must be palatable in order to be tasty and efficiently digested. A slight amount of salt in the dry mash of the laying hens increases palatability. Then, too, since much of the process of assimilation is brought about by diffusion, it is a well-known fact that salt present in even a. small amount is a. valuable aid to the diffusion of the liquids through this membrane.”

Lim* Lime—Mr Lewis explains that “the sbelT of an egg is composed almost entirely of carbonate of lime. Compounds of lime are used extensively in building bone, and are found in a limited extent in other tissues of the body. The common sources of lime are oyster shell, limestone grit and dry ground bone.” Phosphate. —“ Somewhat less than 4 per cent, of the bird’s body is mineral matter consisting almost entirely of phosphate lime. Phosphate is also especially belptul in the ration iu bringing about a greater digestion and assimilation of foods fed. Some bone ash or phosphoric material is supplied in the nature of granulated bone, bone meal, cut bone, fish scraps, as well as certain grades of meat scraps. These inorganic or mirfernl constituents are especially important in the ration.”

Water Mr Lewis says: “It is through the water content of the bird’s ration that body temperature is regulated, the digestion and assimilation of food is made available, and the body parts are kept distended, and that the digested food material is transported throughout the body structure. Watch the water vessels. With a constant supply of clean fresh water the fowls will not suffer if a meal is occasionally missed; it may be good for them to miss a meal, but it is never good for them to he short of water. The greater part of an egg is water; remember that! ” Over-fat Hens When a hen is overfat the arteries, the membraneous, elastic and pulsating tubes which convey the blood from the heart to all parts of the body, become weakened and are much more liable to rupture. One in the head giving way causes apoplexy; one in the liver may cause death by hemorrhage. A hen in this condition is liable to burst an artery during the strain of laying and he found dead on the nest. When one of the minuter capillaries of the ovary ruptures a email spot of blood may leak into the yolk. This also is probably done whilst the hen is laying, and the rupture may close itself until the strain is repeated. This accounts for small blood spots found after the hen has laid the eggs. A blood spot in the white means that the weakened vessel is in the walls of the oviduct. Now it is the more easily seen how these troubles may be avoided by judicious feeding.

Eggs and Public Health A League of Nations publication places eggs along with milk, green vegetables, and fresh fruit as part of a diet “ now known to be essential as a safeguard against malnutrition and disease.”

£IOO Per Acre Receipts from Poultry

From a report of a survey of 201 smallholdings in Scotland, published recently, we gather that the average receipts ranged from over £IOO per acre on large poultry holdings to under £lO on mixed holdings. Family earnings up to £IOO were produced on 69 buildings, between £IOO and £2OO on 56, from £2OO to £3OO on 36, and more than £3OO on 29. The largest value per acre obtained was from market, garden, pig, and poultry holdings.

Turning Eggs During Incubation H, P. Hamilton, B.V.S. (Toronto), who is a distinguished pathologist, speaking of egg turning during incubation, does so in the following interesting manner. He writes: “ Different men, different ways; and probably different machines, different methods of ‘running’ them. “However, during the first 24 hours the embryo develops those parts which afterwards become some of the leading organs of the body, namely—the head, the viteline veins, and the neural fold and groove. “After a period of 36 hours’ incubation the first blood vessels, the heart, and the first blood itself are formed by the vascular or gut-fibre layer. “All the blood vessels do not come from the vascular layers, nor is the whole of this layer taken up only with the formation of the blood vessels. “ For the embryo, the third day of incubation, whether under a hen or in an artificial appliance, is a most critical period. “If statistics were gathered concerning deaths in,the early stages of incubation it would be found that a larger percentage occurred about the third day. “ I know that some poultry rearers advocate the daily, turning of eggs from the commencement oI incubation, but such a procedure is antagonistic to the fundamental principles of incubation. “ The fact must not be lost sight of that the germinal vesicle docs not enjoy the travelling propensities so often attributed to it. “Hence, whether the method of incubation be natural or artificial, to disturb (or cool) eggs before the expiration of the third day of incubation is very apt to have detrimental results. “ It is an operation aimless in character and absolutely unnecessary.” Plucking and Stubbing by the Wax Process Heading of the American methods of plucking and stubbing by the was process a correspondent to a Home paper points out that a misleading impression has been created. He says:

“ In the first case, the birds are killed and immersed in a bath of wax, which is heated to 150 degrees, then each bird is held under the wax for 15 seconds, and afterwards held up by special clips until the wax ig thoroughly set and cold. “ It is stated that this part is important. since any attempt to pluck while the fowl is warm would tear the flesh. It is not indicated that the entire process is going to occupy a minimum of one hour or more, for each bird, during any normally warm weather, before it is ready to be plucked. “ Furthermore, no information is given concerning the influence of the warm wax upon the flesh of the birds which have to be marketed the following morning. '“Greenness’ is quite common during this time of the year, and a hot temperature can do anything but intensify the, possibility of the flesh going green. “Also for market requirements the birds have to be tied or shaped. It appears very evident that this is going to prove a matter of some difficulty, as it is quite clear the birds are plucked a long while after “rigor-mortis” has set in. “ There is no question that attempts to pluck by wax have been made, and in America very elaborate and expensive machinery is necessary to obtain any success whatever with the method described. “In fact, taking the time and moss involved in attempting to pluck and stub by wax, there is no question whatever that for the purposes of English market requirements it is not only too slow to serve the average producer, but lias a

considerable number of snags which make it of questionable use for the British poultry producers’ requirements.” An Australian Poultry House Mr Harold Hart, an English poultry man and contributor to Poultry (England), in comparing Australian and British methods, speaks of the housing favoured by a Mr C., an Australia poultry mam He says:-y* “tfl’he predominating material in the construction of Australian poultry houses is corrugated sheets. Mr C’s houses are of simple design, open-fronted (facing north), and stand 7ft high at the front and 6ft at the back. The houses are 111 ft from back to with a good projection over the front of the house. “Actually, two Bft galvanised sheets arc used from front to back of the roof, ahd this, allowing for ovelap and front projection, gives an inside back-to-front measurement of 111 ft. This roofing material allows of a slow fall to the roof, thus giving plenty of head room inside the house. “ Mr C.’s floors arc of concrete, and he uses neither droppings-bourds nor litter. He claims perfect health for his birds, and maintains that he lias proved over a long period that tin's system is not in any wav harmful. He cleans out when the floor is covered to a depth of a foot or more with broken-down and dried poultry manure, and always leaves) an inch or so on the concrete. The birds dust themselves in this ‘ litter,’ and no insects arc- found in

it. If there has been an exceptionally heavy rain, and this has driven in, then the front part of the houses is cleaned off; but in the main the floors are cleaned off at intervals of some months, and the manure is bagged and sold as abovestated. " Mr C. houses his birds much thicker than the average breeder here does, and I calculated that he allows only some 2ft 9in square of floor space per bird. He also has them much thicker in the runs, and told me that my runs, in which I place not more than 40 birds, are about four times the size of his runs, in which he puts 100 birds. “ He has these small runs because it enables him to keep his birds more up together, and thus save labour. He has plenty of land, but states that large runs waste the attendant’s time, and arc not used at the far end by the birds —which I have found to be perfectly true.” Reilly’s Report.—Owing to Labour Day intervening only a small yarding of birds was received, the prices being satisfactory:—Hens: 1 at 7s 8d; 12 at 6s 4d, 26 at 6s, 6 at 5s lOd, 15 at 5s Bd, 4 at 5s 6d. 1 at 3s 8d; cockerels —1 at 7s, 0 at 4s 2d. 1 at 4s, 2 at 3s lOd, 1 at 3s 6d, 6 at 3s 4d, 3 at Is 2d; chickens —20 at Bd, 20 at Od, 27 at 4d, all at per pair; 1 hen and 10 chicks for 10s Od, 1 hen and 6 chicks for 6s Od.