POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2402, 15 March 1900, Page 44

POULTRY NOTES.

Bt Terror.

— A poultry farm at Frankfort-on-Main, Germany, said to be one of the largest in the world, is conducted by a woman, Fraulein Spatz. She has recently visited America, and has invested in a number of American poultry appliances, including incubators. The farm she manages is said to include 10,000 acres of land. -

FATTENING -BIRDS

Birds should not be fed at all till they have been in the fattening pen some few hours — long enough to get hungry — and while they are being fattened must have only soft food, no hard corn being admissible. The floor of the pen should be made of strong laths or strips of wood, so that all manure may drop through, and the pen thus remain clean. The pen should have a movable front, reaching nearly to the top, bo that when it is fastened up, the birds are almost in the dark. The fixed front behind this movable one should be barred ; either strips of wood, or rods of wire, fastened vertically. For fattening foods, no doubt, the best are ground oats, buckwheat meal, maize meal, and whole wheat meal. At any rate^ the buckwheat meal should form an item in the process. Some add suet and other fatty substances. These, no doubt, contribute to the fat of the birds, but not so much to the flesh, and in fattening fowls, as it is called, the true object is not to lay on fat, but to develop plenty of good, wholesome flesh. Take care that no stale food is left; this applies to the feeding of all animals or birds, but particularly to youiig chickens and fattened fowls, as soft food left about turns sour, is injurious when eaten, and gives the birds a distaste for food. No care is too great to take to scrape away or remove any soft food left over. The water given to them must befresh and clean. — "The Poultry Book."