A VISIT TO THE CHIEF POULTRY YARDS

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 44

A VISIT TO THE CHIEF POULTRY YARDS

OF NORTH OTAGO AND SOUTH CANTERBURY. II.— THE HOUSING OF POULTRY. ■fhe line sketches explained in the following paragraph are unavoidably held over until next week. IReaders will do well to compare jny notes with the blocks when they appear. Basing my opinion upon what I have seen to be the methods and care of the most success- • f ul fanciers, I have to say that however economically a roost may be built, it must have a (watertight roof, walls which will exclude jdraughts whilst allowing for ventilation near •the roof, and a perfectly dry floor slightly ■jbigher than the surrounding ground. Failing even one of these points, sickness is sure to come sooner or later, and there cannot be the slightest possible chance of winter eggs. With very few exceptions, every roost I saw on my trip was annexed to a thoroughly roofed, covered-in run, with dry dusty material of some kind — either fine sand, road dust, or mould and ashes mixed— on the floor. The covered-in run is, I consider, an essential for first-class results. It should be walled in on the weather side, and wired-in at the front, so that, at the pleasure of the owner, the birds may be penned up in severe weather. A guttering to carry away rain dripping from the roof will be found to help greatly in preventing rain from being blown into the run. By the accompanying line sketches I wish to explain a system of housing adopted by Mr Edwin Reilly on his model farm at Willowbank, Studholme Junction. These houses are scattered abpait the farm at sufficient distances apart to preclude the possibility of one floek — or colony, as he terms it — of birds mixing with another ; and, as there is no intention of penning up the colonies, the idea being to secure their manuring and freeing of insects, etc., as large a tract of ground as possible, there is no wirework needed to form runs. Figs. 1 and 2 Explain Mr Reilly's system. Fig. 3is my own suggestion for the benefit of fanciers in need of an economical fowl house. All Mr Reilly does is to lay two large cases on their sides with the open ends facing each other, and as far apart as the length of a sheet of corrugated iron, or other covering, extended over the tops of both boxes, to prevent their being damped by constant rain or snow, will allow. Another sheet of iron or othei substitute is then placed to form a back on the weather side. The water vessel is placed in the centre of the space between the two boxes, and the perches being placed in the <me box and a nest in the other, all is complete. Fig. 1 shows A dust box with C nest ; B roost box with E perches ; D the water vessel in intervening space ; and F is the sheet of iron at back or weather side. Fig. 2 shows A the dust box with door, or small hole, above nests, through which to extract eggs, ,and 3-inch slab along front on ground to retain dust; B, the roost box, shows' construction and position of perches. Fig. 3 shows the arrangement of boxes for cottage or fancier's garden ; H H being the permanent fences in garden ; F points to sheet of iron stretched across top; G represents a •double-width wire fence extending one width only over inner edge of boxes, and I represents the run. Mr Reilly places straw in the bottom of the roost box, and lays on it two perches 3in by -lin slats, with flat side up, nailed to pieces of similar dimensions standing on edge. At in.tervals — every two or three days — he shakes out the straw, and replacing, sprinkles over it and also the interior of box, with a small -brush of feathers, a mixture of lime water and carbolic acid — one cup of lime, ono tablespoonful of carbolic to a bucket of water; and when he thinks it ,- necessary tc do so puts in clean fttraw, throwing the old stuff on to the heap of droppings previously shaken out. Mr Reilly digs all this manure fnto his garden, and was able to show me vegetables and fruit of every description, and in splendid condition, grown upon it. The advantages accruing from the use of these box roosts on a farm are, I should think, obvious. They are cheap

md commodious, and even if crowded there n^ed be no fe'ir on the score of ventilation ; thry are easily shifted about, and it is impossible to imagine anything moie easily cleaned or put together. Fr<|m the ease with which the back board can be laid down and the roof iron tipped up, it can be seen that where this system of housing is adopted by a fancier, the construction of a door to run would be unnecessary, as by slightly stooping, entrance could be effected by the spree between the boxes.

Another plan adopted by Mr Reilly for housing his fowls is to thrash his oat& or wheat alongside the framework of a house, stacking the straw over it, and leaving the front quite open. In a house such as this he last season housed 150 cockerels, perching them on the ground in the same way as in the boxes, and he explained to me that they foraged over and thoroughly manured five acres of ground around their home. I saw some very piomising wheat and turnips growing in portion of this ground, and though he told, me not to publish the fact, as people would not believe it, I think it well to say that he assured me that from an acre and a-half of this ground he *got 211 bushels of oats. As predicted by Mr Reilly, I find few willing to credit the possibility of getting. 14D bushels to the acre ; but others — and they are 'experienced and thoughtful people, toe — say' they can believe it. They point out that not' only have the birds manured the ground with the highebt grade manure, performing the work on a far more effective system than that ordinarily adopted, but fur- , ther, owing to the fact' that all" insects, caterpillars, and such like vermin would be cleared from the ground by the birds, it follows that a much better percentage of the seed sown would grow. Speaking- of hens as " exterminators," a writer in the National Stockman and Farmer, of Ohio, says: — "As for permanent pastures we have got rid of great numbers of grub worms by moving our poultry — our laying hens — right into the infested fields and setting them to work. We are thus able to turn a nuisance into a profitable product in the form of eggs'. A young farmer said to me recently thai lie wished he had enough hens to place a small flock in every field, with a small portable house for them to shelter in. Last year our poultry completely scratched over and cleaned up three patches in a near-by pasture field where grub worms were killing the grass. I have watched for>a return attack of grub worms this year, but so far they have failed to appear and I conchide that the work of the hens was thorough.''

Next week I shall describe Mr Reilly's system of keeping penned birds, his methods of feeding, and the sorts of birds he keeps, and will then proceed to speak of the other fanciers I met — all in due order.