POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2520, 2 July 1902, Page 58

POULTRY NOTES.

Br Terhok,

— Up. to date the entries for the Dunetlin show have come in very freely for all sections. For poultry tho entries are more numerous, so far, than ever before. ■ — The Taicrl show takes place on the 4th ond slh of Ihis month. It is to be hoped that the trouble l>":wcen the club and the association reapci-K'.iv proper date for the fixture will not militate against the show.

— The Hastings Poultry anil Pigeon Society have decided to hold their annual fchow on July 9 and ]0. — Readcra will have noticed that though Mr 0. Grant's silver W vandotte pullo-t s>«t first prize at Christchurch. the olub specials v.-ero not awarded to him. Mr Grant's explanation of this is in the form of a complaint of unfair dealing on tho part, ot the Christohureh officials, who took advantage of a mistake of their own in making out the membership ticket in the name of A. Grant instead of that of the exhibitor, Mr U. Grant; the rule being that specials can only be competed for by members of the club. I understand that as an alternative the specials went to Mr Claurkson. Upon inquiry I learn from a reliable souiee vi Christ-church that the club's explanation of the circumstance will be. somewhat as fol lows: — "When it came to allot tho club tiophies it waa found that Grant Bro«. were not eligible for competition, owing to one only being a member of the club, instead of bo*si, a«» is the rule with all partnership*. Only the night or so before the show Messrs Grant Bros, wrote to our secretary pointing out thai instead of being A. C. Grant's the birds were the property of A. and C. Grant. If it had been possible, I have reason to believe that the ofchet- brother would have been made a member, so as to have made them eligible : but there being no meeting, the show being the next day or so, and our rules providing that every .member must be elected by ballot, it was impossible. 1 ' My correspondent continues: — "You will understand tlie difficulty the club had before them. I have no hesitation in saving that if it could have legally made the brothers members it woulc l have been done. The trophies, T learn, were not awarded to Grant's bird, but mig'nt have been if they had been eligible to compete." M, Grant's pullet was claimed by Mr F. Rogen at £10 10s. — Dear Terror, — I must confess to a little disappointment at your treatment of my previous letter, and it was a bit ungenerous of you to hint that my remarks were not entirely unselfish. lam not built that way. My main object was to draw attention to the necessity of inducing thoso in authority in poultry show matters to ta l :e steps to wive Minorcae from going the way that Sppni'h have gone and Langshans are rapidly going, through breeders and judges sacrificing the short-legged, full-breasted type to a long-leprged, breastless type, now ouito out of favour with the public. Let me supple-merit what I said in mv proMoua lotUr about Spanish with the following extract from the Australasian in re-

ference to the Langshan classes at the last Victorian Poultry Club's show, which came to hand since I wrote: — "Longshans were a comparatively weak class, but a few nice birds were shown. Breeders in past years have raised these fowls on rather Lanky lines, and this fault is responsible for their fall from public favour and their replacement by the Orpingtons." I do not wish in the least to ignore fancy points, but I wish the fancy and utility to run in the same groove, and deprecate T?hat I term quite minor fancy points — such as colour of eye, for instance — outweighing in a utility breed so material a point as general build ; and while on the subject of eye I may remark that in my experience light-eyed birds are generally more alert and active titan those with dark eyes, and as a rule the most active birds arc the best layers and foragers. Minoreaet are too grand a breed to be deteriorated by injudicious judging and breeding, and I hope that if you agree with me in what I have said you will do what you oan to stay the run after comb and legs. — I am, etc., Dcckwing. In reply to "Duckwing," I am sorry he considers I was ungenerous in my remarks upon his last letter. I did not intend to be so. I a^ree with him that the tendency to breed birds with abnormal charircteristics is most deplorable, but so long as the judges encourage the practice by their awards at shows it will, I fear, be continued, unless some stronger influence than prize-winning attracts the fancier. Tho Spanish, for instance, which is now bred with so much white in face that it cannot -see tho judge who stands admiring the voluminous folds which obscures its sight and makes it de-pende-nt upon hand-feediug. v. ill by-and-bye t;a\e its face extended to the roots of its tail, aaid still take prizes, unless breeders for cg£% recognising that it possesses a latent (not now operative) laying power, offer sufficient inducement to fanciers to correct their ways and breed back to the original type. I believe this state- of things is already coining about, for I know of several poultry farmers who arc anxious to gee active Spanish cockerels wherewith to obtain crosses. As regards Spanish, I may say it is. pretty generally believed that crossing is the readiest way to again achieve losulli such as the breed was* at one time credited with. Minorcas are not now co universally regarded n.« tlie most prolific layers of large-sized eggg as they used io be, too much effort having be«n put into the growth of largo, beefy combs and wattles— so large, indeed, that birds are ur comfortable whilst carrying them. This evil would be overcome, I fancy, by judges passing pullets that cannot sec out of both . eye? owing to overhanging combs, and ' cockerels that cannot extend their necks owing to tho weiprht carried. Orpingtons (a newly-mad© bird.) are, to my knowledge, as yet- not in this category. As to my correspondent's allegation that light-eyed black birds are the best layers. I fanoy this would be hard to prove. I am sure— and I hope I shall not offend in saying sc— that if "Duckwing" had a black-eyed specimen of any of the black breeds he would not complain. All other points in the birds bein<? equal, I do not think there is a fancier • living who would exchange a* darkeyed Orpington, Minorca, or. Langshan for a light-eyetl one. For my own part, lam prepared to forgo another point in the exchange. . . —Mr Robert Wilson, of St. Martin c, , Opawa, Christchureb. who took first with Leghorn cock and cockerel at his local show, kindly supplies the following information as to hits results during the- past eeason. ±iw letter, though rather lat? in the day as a reply to my inquiry at tho end o» the hatching season, is none the leys acceptable. H<? says— "l bad a grand lot of chickens, : both purebred from Mr Li'lico's imported, ! and also bred from my own hens and the imported cockerels, and my cock and the imported hens. The latter I preferred, but all are more or less good. I had about lUU chicks in all, and scarcely an unfertile egg in tho lot, and about 90 per cent hatched. I reckoned that I would just about take everything before me; but there is an old srying that you cannot count your chickens until they are hatched, and I found that I could not count on thrm even after they were hatched. A ferret found his way in amongst them, and in three nights kil'crl I bZ for mo— some of them, six months old. J felt inclined to throw up tho fancy altogether, I -was i>o disgusted; but I had a few left. I looked well after them, and was lucky enough to win fir.it in cocks and cockerels at Christchurch. I think Mr LilKco nhould have beaten me .in cocks, but I ] fairly won in cockerels. The cockerel wa; claimed in the show. I don't. think I shall show ivnywhere this season-. F.or one thing, I am very busy in my bushiest, and can scarcely spare the time: and another thing, my birds that are left do not please me as 1 would hko, although there are a few good ( or.e3 amongst them. I hop" that you will have a goßd fliow in Dv.n^hri. and that it will prove a financial miccc- 3 ." — The \alr.e of charcoal nuibt not be underestimated. It is of much h-lp in keepmy fowls in health and r r< >°" tjn ? lootciics3. Feed it powdered m tho food two or throe times a week. Chicken? for market will fatten faster if fed charcoal, it has been found Charcoal is not a medicine, strictly speaking. It is an absorbent, and as fuch takes up the poisonous gases in the fiystem and carries them off. It is- practically harmless in any amount, and if> something olso which it of equal benefit to -the syfetem of human beings. j — The man who take? up a hole in his belt, and handles his poultry as tne up-to-date breeder docs his purebred cattle and horses, will ture to come out on top. Consider welF over what breed you" intend to keep, and then stick to thejn. Whatever breed you fix upon, always u*e the best males and females in your stock pens, and, other conditions being favourable, you will have a flock of fowla all of one colour, type, ( and far more pleasing to the eye than a ■ flock of badly-bred fowls. When you have a I breed that is good in colour and type, be { sure and fcoe that tho egg production is i kept up to a good standard. Fowls that are [ kept up to a nrst-ela«» standard odour, type, | etc., are only useful for thr> show pen. To be profitable, thfir cgg-prodnction must be kept up to a gocd standard, as well as those of other points-. — Sharp Practice. — The following trick is reported to have been played by a large poultry company of "excellent repute." They purchased 300 duck eggs, and, before placing in the incubator, tested them. The result was startling, to cay the least. Over 100 of the eggs had dead ducklings in them ! The seller did not calculate on the eggs being tested before hand, and placed old incubato; eprgs in with the good onep. Had the party buying placed the eggs in the machine and then tested on the eizhth or tenth ,

day, he would have anticipated a good hatch on the strength of the dead ducklings, or if experienced enough to see that they were dead, would have thought the eggs fertile, but possibly germs weak. Moral: Test all eggs bought, -before setting. — Control of the Sex. — In the new edition of "The New Book of Poultry," by Louis Wright, Appear the following remarks upon this question, interesting to breeders: — "A point to be considered in regard both to the time for breeding snd the composition of the breeding pen is the sex desired in the produces concerning which the breeder has on an average with, of course, numerous exceptions in detail, some measure of control. Of course he will rather desire pullets in pullet-breeding peas, and vice* versa in most cases. As a rule also, cockerels re- . quire quite a couple of months more growth to bring them .into full feather for exhibition than pullets do, especially in the larger breeds, which take longest to mature. In small breeds, ohickens mature more quickly, and cockerels arc less behind ; thus a breeder likes to get his exhibition cockerels out earliest, and large cockerels earliest of all. Now, amongst the larg-er Asiatics it has generally been found that a vigorous cockerel u<ated to three or four adult hena in winter produces a high proportion of cockerels in the early broods, tSm proportion diminishing later. With an adult cock mated to three pullets, more predominate, though sometimes, if the male is unusually lively, cockerels will be numerous there also. If there are more pullets than three or four, and the eggs are fertile, the pullete are usually in the " majority ; but here, also, there are usually more cockerels in the earlier breeds than Ir.ter. When young or adult stock is matect together, the result is impossible to predict save that experience seems to 6how that the more vigorous the stock and the fewer the females, so long as evil is not produced, the greater on an average the proportion of cockerels. Of the small breeds we have little personal experience, but the bread results will probably be on the whole similar, with a somewhat higher numbt-r of females to ore male. In regard to the larger ones, however, such facts suit the breeder very well, as he can easily get a few of his early moulted hens ready for early laying, while\ a cockerel will ensure him fertile eggs ; while his pullets and older stock birds will come on later for his other champions, and provide progeny not weakened by too early breeding.