POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1853, 27 May 1887, Page 8

POULTRY NOTES.

THE BRAHMA FOWL.

This disappointing bird has apparently still a few friends left, and one of its admirers makes the following remarks on some of its alleged good points, in an article on the breed, in a Home paper. Whatever this bird may do at home, we doubt whether even its most ardent admirers here would claim for it credit for starting to lay at six months old. Our experience has indicated 11 months as being about the proper time to expect some slight recompense for the immense quantity of grain it has converted into manure. The Home writer says :—: —

Often we hear of Brahma pullets laying at six months old, but we never found this to be true of those hatched in May (corresponds to November in New Zealand). We would recommend them to be fully eight months old at the time they are required to lay, and there won't be much disnpp'ointment. Old Brahma hens lay better than pullets if they are under three years old. But a little pains is needed to get them into laying condition at the proper time.

There are notoriously good autumn layers, which means that they usualty moult late, and lay none in winter ; for no bird which moults in the cold weather can lay for a good while. The proper plan is to allow' each hen that is to be kept over winter to hatch and rear a brood in June (December) or July (January). Keep her closely cooped and not too highly fed while with the chicks, and she will moult early and lay in October (April). If Brahmas are got to lay in the beginning of winter they are not likely, if well cared for and fed, to stop till spring. Brahma crosses are rather better than the pure breed ; and when the cross is chosen, we recommend a Brahma cock to be mated with brown Leghorns. The pullets of this cross will grow into fairly large hens, with all the hardiness of the Brahma and the free laying qualities of the Leghorn, without any of the defects of either parent. It has not the great foot feathering which unfits the Brahma for wet ground, nor has it the great comb of the Leghorn, which suffers, so much in frost. I have found these pullets to lay earlier than purely bred Leghorns; but I would make sure, by having them hatched by the first week in April (October). I had this cross hatched in May (November), which laid the following November (May), but it is not well to depend on such late birds.