POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1880, 2 December 1887, Page 8

POULTRY NOTES.

Management of Chickens. The thermometer standing at a high degree, and the poultry seeking the shade (being apparently too lazy to leave even for food), warns us that the young birds want especial care and attention, as well as careful feeding. Plenty of shelter now is absolutely necessary, as it often happens that many of the late-hatched chicks do not feather so quickly as the earlier ones. Many of the former may be seen running about with hardly a feather on their bodies. Exposed as they are to the searching sun, the skin seems to get parched, becoming red; the poor little things look anything but pleasant or attractive, and they do not grow as they should. Put them in a cool, shady, moist run, under trees, their appearance is soon changed, and they speedily shoot their feathers. Another matter, too often overlooked, is with regard to the drinking vessels. These should be placed in a cool and shady spot, the greatest care being taken to keep them thoroughly clean and sweeb. or, better still, the birds may be allowed to drink from a running stream or brook. This was what Mr Henry Lingwood's birds did when he was winning every prize, and selling birds at £50, £60, and even £100 each, and it is what Mr Breeze, as well as other successful breeders are doing at the present time. Clear, cool, fresh water is as indispensable for poultry as it is for man. Milk is also excellent, but it soon becomes sour, producing diarrhoea. Given the first thing in the morning, we know of nothing that helps to push chickens along so fast as sweet new milk. Ventilation is also too frequently over looked by many breeders, who, however, are most careful as to the sanitary arrangements of their own household, and who would never think of allowing, say, three or four children to sleep in the same room with the doors and windows closed. They will, nevertheless, allow the floor of a small, ill-ventilated fowl-house to be covered with delicate chickens, and when they find the birds suffering from a running at the nostrils, refusing their food, and eventually dying, they are at a loss to account for their want of success in rearing, If the breeders have any doubt as to the evil effects resulting from overcrowding aud bad ventilation, they should enter one of these houses early in the morniug, when the sickening smell that will reach tneir olfactory organs will at once remove it. Overcrowding causes more deaths and sickness amongst young chickens than all other diseases put togecher, and yet it is most difficult to make people believe this. Now is the time, before moulting commences, to get rid of all old stock which are no longer required. Far better to dispose of them, even if they have to be killed, than to keep fchem till the autumn. Every foot of ground is wanted for the young stock, as well as all the attention that can be given them. Kill off the chickens that show any serious blemish, for by this time the less promising ones can be picked out, and used for table purposes, forming a delicious morsel. A persistent and ruthless war must, too, be made against insects, both in the house and on the bodies of all birds. Limewashing is, perhaps, the best means of killing these inside the house, taking cate that all crevices and openings in the boards, &c , are thoroughly saturated. With regard to getting rid of those infesting the bodies of the birds, if the fowls are supplied with a dust bath they will generally keep themselves free from them ; but if they ueglecb to do so, a little sulphur dusted amongst their feathers will cause a sudden departure of the tormentors. Chickens suffer a great deal from insects, especially when the hens are cooped up without obtaining any chance of a dusting, in which case the sulphur is most beneficial. If on the neck feathers of the chicks a number of nits are found, these can be destroyed by anointing the feathers with oil or lard.