POULTRY NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23591, 30 August 1938, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

By Terror

Answers to Correspondents “ Worried ” (Ravensbourne) — Your two pullets are suffering from a form of paralysis, brought on either by a lack of green stuff, lack of sufficient sunlight, or damp, dark premises. The remedy is: See tiiat the conditions are altered. You will know what is lacking in respect to the causes mentioned. Fowl paralysis is regarded as a deficiency disease due to the lack in the diet of some elements essential to health, and green food, and sunlight supply what the food is deficient in. Dr H. P. Bayne, who is a recognised authority, claims that he has cured fowl paralysis by force feeding with lettuce cut up fine and forced down the throats of the sufferers. Lettuce is favoured rather than other green food, I imagine, because it is delicate and easily digested. In addition to the lettuce you should give 2 per cent, of cod liver oil in the mash to the whole of your birds till all signs of paralysis have disappeared. According to the number of your birds mix 11b (1 pint) of C.L.O. into every 1001 bof mash. If you have only a few birds, then add 2ioz or five tablespoonfuls to each 71b of mash.

What Capital Required to Start a Poultry Farm?

No one can actually say what capital is required to start a poultry farm—so much depends on circumstances, and the farmer himself. One authority says. “Roughly speaking, £1 of capital is needed for each head of laying stock. It is also a rough estimate that each laying hen is worth from 5s to 7s 6d per year profit and in exceptional cases 10s. With care and good stock an average of 170 eggs a year can be got Some very successful poultry establishments have been built up with a capital under £ 100. It would be better to start with a batch of laying pullets and bought in day-old chicks. Experience counts for a great deal in poultry farming.” I may add that there are many poultry keepers owning large flocks and doing good business who started with a hen and_ chicks and grew by making small additions from year to year. Such as these will say. that no capital is required to start with as the fowls create the capital needed for each year’s extension and additions

A Pearl in an Egg A lady lost a pearl pendant when visiting her daughter. The other day, says Eggs (England), one of the daughter’s pullets laid its first egg, and inside it was the missing pearl! Vigorous Selection Vigorous selection purifies the species from those individuals which are unfit for the conditions of their existence. Vigorous selection tends ,to the survival of the fittest. The Liver Filters the Blood The liver and kidney filter a fowl’s blood. Little can be wrong with a fowl without the liver showing the effects of it. It may be very light brown and badly enlarged when the blood is thinned by some disease; in inflammation there is often a sheath ot coagulated blood round it, and the liver is pale brown and much reduced in size; an enlarged, greasy liver often develops when the fowls are fed a too fattening ration; the liver will often tear easily from the same cause; nodules will form on a liycr from tuberculosis or from an infectious animal organism. Artificial Lighting Poultry-keepers who have been using artificial lights in the laying sheds should not discontinue it too suddenly or the flock may moult. Stop the lights when there is sufficient daylight to replace them. Feed will also help to keep up the layers’ condition, Cock-fighting Seventeen men, convicted at a Westmorland (England) Police Court recently on charges of cock-fighting, were fined a total of £350. plus £l7 posts Oil Gland

This gland, on the back and near the tail, supplies oil on a fowl’s back for preening its feathers. It sometimes becomes blocked and swollen, and in this case should be bathed with warm water containing a little washing soda, and pressed until the oil runs again

Feeding Chickens There are the market-prepared foods for chickens and for later on. These foods are in dry form, and consist of various mixtures of ground grain, bran and pollard, etc., termed as dry mash, and there are also grain mixtures of various sorts. To beginners particularly, these ready-to-use foods are very convenient, as they are carefully mixed and contain the proper ingredients, such as it might not be easy to obtain separately. In addition, one cannot go wrong by giving a separate hopper of dry bran, bold, broad, sweet bran, which, in addition to a large extent of digestible protein, contains mineral salts of great value, including phosphates. Crickens must have clean water always, and the careful breeder will see that they learn to drink Young and tender, sappy green food, such as lettuce, mustard, rape and any succulent growths, are sources of many valuable mineral salts of vital importance to the well-being of the chicks.

Green foods are the principal sources of most of the important elements so necessary to health. Remember, ullfed chicks that are checked never grow into first-class adults. Cut Losses Early

Birds that have been badly affected with any chicken trouble, if subsequently reared, should be specially leg-banded so that they may not be used as breeders. In fact, it is most desirable to dispose of such birds even if quite cured, because the trouble is likely to break out again. Such birds should be killed, and no * marketed for sale with the chance that they will be bred from. Advance Slowly

The tendency of some poultry keepers is to go too fast, and get into positions where they are confused by the variety of little problems pressing for solution. It seems the hardest thing in the world for enthusiasts beginning to specialise in this line to heed the repeated warnings to go slow When poultry are kept merely for custom, and no special efforts are made to increase the flock, naturae and surmountable causes and conditions cooperate to keep the numbers about the same from year to year, and the question of looking after a large increase hardly ever arises. But when poultry are kept with a purpose, and for the greatest possible profit under existing conditions,, everything,, influencing the result sought must be adopted and adjusted to it. There are: so many contingencies to consider that an experienced poultry man rarely budgets for a large increase in one season. The novice who does so rarely succeeds in doing more than make such advance as the experienced poultry man. copaiders it wise to project. Not infrequently he fails to maintain his originals numbers simply because he undertook more than he was able to do and also look after 1 every detail at the, right time in the right way. A common mistake that has caused much loss is for the novice to start some new ideas of his own conception and quite opposed to those that have been usual practice and have been well proved, Ideas may be culled from books written in a foreign country, where con-

ditions are quite different from those here, and which, if tried, generally end In loss. Gapes Gapes are troublesome, as they infest the land, and if not checked will continue annually to make appearances. There is no difficulty in recognising this complaint, as the birds stretch their necks, and try to cough. The gape worm fastens itself in the trachea, and irritating the bird causes it to stretch its neck and cough. These worms multiply quickly, and if. not checked may suffocate the birds They reduce the vitality of the growing chickens very quickly. They (the birds) hang about coughing and lose their appetites. There is no doubt Ithink, but that the best cure is the old-fashioned one of dipping a feather in turpentine and inserting it into the throat of the bird. The feather which has been dressed, leaving a top on it should be twisted round once or twice. This dislodges the worms, which can then be coughed up. It will be found when the feather is withdrawn that many of the worms will be found adhering to the tip. Where there has been gapes, the birds should be removed to fresh ground when they are cured. The infected ground should be dug over and limed. It should be given a. long rest and certainly not used for chicken raising for a long time.

Reilly’s Report.—A fair penning of birds for our weekly sale, comprising mostly cockerels. Values for table birds were quite satisfactory. Hens: 2 at 8s 2d, 3 7s 6d. 3 7s 4d, 3 7s 2d, 12 7s 22 6s Bd, 4 6s 6d, 4 6s 4d, 10 5s 6d, 2 5s 24s Bd, 4 4s 2d, 2 4s. Cockerels: 2at 16s, 214 s, 210 s, 29s 6d, 8 9s, 2 Bs, 2 6s 6d, 2 6s 2d, 8 6s, 6 5s lOd, 4 5s Bd. 21 5s 6d, 3 5s 4d, 4 5s 2d, 12 ss, '2 4s, one copkerel at 12s 9d. Pullets: 6 at 10s, 4 Bs. 24s Bd. 33s 6d.,' (All at per pair.) Turkeys—Hens: 5 at 10id. 8 10d per lb. Gobblers: sat 10d, 2 IOJd per lb. ’ ■ ' '■: "-'v.