POULTRY NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22908, 16 June 1936, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

By Terror,

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS "Show Bird."—No, it is not permissible to use colouring matter, nor to remove feathers. With a careless judge it might pass, but as a rule judges are on the look-out for such practices. However, it is a matter of skill and some experienced financiers can pluck feathers from legs and a wrong-coloured feather from the body, do a little colouring and remove side-springs from the comb in such a manner that detection is far from easy, but even the cleverest fakers are sometimes found out. Faking birds intended for show does not pay in the long.run. If the bird earns a prize some innocent" may buy it at a good figure and bye and bye regret doing so, not because he discovers what has been done to the bird by the early reappearance of the defects which have been removed, but because when he breeds from it, the defects appear on some, if not all of Hie progeny. A buyer who has been defrauded in this way warns everyone else against the faker with the result that he loses custom.

Egg Records and Degeneracy Jn the course of a series of articles on many aspects of breeding for high egg-production, Mr Y. Watauabe (Australia) speaks of the "Slippery Slope oi Degeneracy " in terms which should prove impressive. He says: — " It does not take much imagination to realise what happens when stock is selected with too much regard for .quality and high egg-production. .The refinement which is so desirable is carried to a point where degeneracy set» in, so that the leg-bones are, as they have been so often described, like tissue paper, and there is an abnormally racy looK about the head, which is smnll except for an almost wild looking, over-exag-'gerated staring eye. It is the ability to retain one's sense of proportion and the ability to keep the physical characteristcs of a strain normal, that are so difficult to preserve year after year, so that refinement does not turn into degeneration. On the whole it is necessary for a breeder to keep a certain number of hens rather on the coarse side in order to mate them to males of quality, so that the next generation may be comprised largely of those ideal fowls which are refined without being degenerate."

There Is No Stopping Still One of Nature's laws is that stock revert back to mediocrity if no steps are taken to maintain the quality attained, by careful and continual selection. Any per80n who tells you that his stock were originally from a celebrated strain is very likely to be deceiving himself as to their present value unless he has continued the work of the original breeder by careful and knowledgeable selection. The egg-man who does not see some improvement in the quality of his pullets every year is standing still.

Beware of Mice and Vermin Sitting hens sometimes destroy their chickens when they hatch out, mistaking the movements of their bodies for the mice which have nestled under them tor the sake of the warmth—at least, this is the opinion of a North Island poultry scribe. Sitting hens, I imagine, break eggs und kill chickens when brooding because of their restlessness due to being irritated by vermin, body lice, flens, etc. There should be no opportunity for mice to invade a nest occupied by a sitting hen, nor should a broody be put to service till she and the nest itself have been thoroughly freed of vermin of every kind. The best of broodis will sometimes foul their nest, and, in such circumstances, the only thing to do is to wash the eggs at the first opportunity. Ihe chief danger to avoid is chilling the egg. and to this end the washing water should be at 104 degrees, or just hot enough to bear the hand in comfortably. When broody hens arc fed on maize they produce as a rule hard stools, with the result that they are easily removed and the eggs only slightly, if at all. soiled.

The Minorca

The Minorca is an excellent town and suburban fowl, and when properly attended to bears confinement in small runs remarkably well, and if provided with grit, plenty of green food, such lis cabbage, lettuce, grass cuttings, etc, they then prove most prolific layers of larce, white eggs, and will frequently do so throughout the winter, if well fed and kept in a warm and sheltered position.

Grit and Crop Impaction Dr Bayon, in February 21 issue, has rendered a groat service in connection with the rearing of chicks. Ho points out that when on range the broody hen teaches chicks what to eat, when and how to pick up food, which no artificial brooding apparatus is able to do. He suggests that the reason why chicks on free range can swallow without harm grit, little bits of glass or sharp china chips, etc., is because on range, together with these they pick up soil, very fine sand, and other bulky material with little nourishing value, and this acts as a pad or buffer, which keeps the gizzard contents loose and movable so that they easily reach the bowels and are rapidly passed through. , Only those who have taken the trouble to examine the crop contents of buds, old and young, realise how much is swallowed when at liberty that no one would think of giving. Crop impaction fo lows upon unnatural conditions, and leads to mortality, as so many know to their cost. Who Benefits?

Agricultural marketing schemes are turning out none too well for the producer (says Poultry, England). Ihe trouble with all such schemes seems to be that the producer, the one most of all concerned with them, is the last to be considered. Take the National Mark bcheme for eggs. The original idea was that eggproducers should eend their eggs to the packing station, where they would be tested, graded, and stamped with the hullmark of quality. The packers were then to obtain better prices for these strictly graded eggs, and having deducted their small charges, pass on the proceeds to their suppliers. It has not worked out like that at all. Producers were quickly denied any share in the profits accruing from good salesmanship by the getting up of a national mark producer's price. This price is not sufficiently above the general level to be acceptable to producers after the station charges and deductions have been taken off. They are worse oif than if they sold through the old channles. Another thing; the present-day insistence on the strict grading of our eggs.to a very high standard of size is benefiting only the middleman at the expense of the producer and consumer. I am sure the ordinary housewife is not particular about a sixteenth of an ounce in the matter of weight provided the eggs are of really new-laid quality and appear normal in size. The people who really benefit from the severity of the national mark size grades are certain packers, who nay the producer on that basis, and, after degrading their eggs, sell them to the public under an easier standard, and docket the proceeds. This is being done on a large scale, so that a scheme which was intended to give the consumer a better egg, and the producer a better return, is actually enabling smart business men to make extra profits at the expense of producer and consumer alike.

Reilly's report only a medium yarding for this week's sale, values beiug fair for most lines: —Cockerels—s at 2e, 1 2s 2d, 1 2s 4d, 1 3s 2d, 2 4s. 1 4s Bd, 5 4s lOd, 31 os, 6 oh 2d, 15 6s, 1 6s 6d, 18 7s. 5 8s 4d; hens—4 at 2s 2d, 90 2s 6d, 12 2s Sd, 13 2s lOd, 47 3s. 13 3<s 2d, 16 3s 4d. 6 4s. 2 4s 2d, 1 4s 6d, 3 4s lOd. 2 ss, 6 5s 4d; bantams—2 at Is; drakes—ll at 3s, 1 4s, 34s 6d, 34s lOd. 7 5s 2d, 2 5s 4d, 1 5s 8d; pullets—B at 3s Cd, 4 4s 6d, 7 5s 6d, 6 6s; all at per pair; 12 turkey gobblers, 9d to 9id per lb; 7 turkey hens, 9d per lb.