POULTRY FARMING IN SCOTLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22866, 28 April 1936, Page 16

POULTRY FARMING IN SCOTLAND

In New Zealand districts where poultry farming is a pleasant though sometimes not a very profitable business it is interesting to quote what an Auckland girl spending the winter in a beautiful Highland glen in Scotland says about the attention which has to be paid to poultry during the short days of winter. "The farmer's wife has to be a very early riser and gets up long before the sun rises," she writes. " One of the first things she has to do is to attend to the fowls, for in the dark, short days of winter they go to roost about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and if they are to be profitable must be fed very early in the morning, many hours before sunrise, which does not seem to be much before 9 in the mornin<r. Not many houses have electric light in the country, and kerosene is the main standby for lamps and lanterns. With a lantern the housewife goes to the fowlhouse to feed the birds. It takes a little time for fowls to get used to the artificial light, but it is wonderful how they adapt themselves to it when they sec the grain being scattered for their morning meal.. Then there h the early hatching of chickens, and the arranging of this is also done by the light of the lantern. The Scotswomen are ideal hen wives, and soon get to know the likes and dislikes of their broods. They are never really repaid for the time they put into their work, but it is part of the daily routine, and in such a cold country it is wonderful the results they get from keeping at their tasks as they crop up."