POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 53

POULTRY NOTES.

Bx Tekkoh.

—Mr L. Irvine, of South Dunedin, has a splendid lot of "black Minorca chickens of his own now celebrated laying strains, also a clutch or two from the pens of last season's show winners. He has also a few buff Orpington and Wyandotte chickens of good strains. All are hatched by_ incubators and reared! in brooders of his own make, and his present stock of healthy chicks speaks well both as regards his methods and his machinery. —Mr Reilly, who has just returned from South Canterbury, informs me that he was greatly impressed with Mr Lillico's (Timaru) show of brown Leghorn chicks. Some pullets are already laying, and the imported cock, now dubbed, is in splendid plumage and looking better than ever. — Miss Hayes, of "Centrewood," Waimate, is going into the poultry business extensively, and in an up-to-date manner. She is crossing Plymouth Rocks and Orpingtons with games, and intends next season crossing Rocks with Houdans. Her chickens are progressing well.

—Mr &em - .ge Blair, of Gleniti, Timaru, has about 460 bird's of exceptionally Staywhite Wyandottes, and at the time of Mr Reilly's visit he saw cockerels "being killed for market fit to grace any fanciers' yards. These are bred from imported stock, and, as a flock, present a magnificent sight.

— I have heard a good deal recently of so-called bad luck with hatches and rearing, and, in view thereof, would recommend breeders, particular!}- those whose object is poultry for profit rather than fancy, to make up their minds now that next season less will be left to the chance al favourable weather, etc., than has been the case in the past. Planning should be commenced now for the setting of hens in suitable places next year, not merely in convenient nests, but also in suitable sheds, where they may bo safe from disturbance ; and, weeks before the chickens are hatched, accommodation should be provided for them, which will be suitable whatever the weather may be. The

! mere fact that one has a hano=ome cooi for the hen and a nice lawn for the ei.iets is not enough. There should ai?o be o, slwd in which to place the coop in bad weathei. It is not <*ood for chickens to be continu^-i' restricted," because of weeks of rain or wind, to the limits of a small coop, as they must be out in the open, but with the floor or a commodious .shed to fossick in, bau weather will not avail against them. Recently I have seen adult low Is protected la the best possible manner, and consequently healthy £>nd laying notwithstanding wind and ram, whilst of some 300 chickens kept 1 nearly 200 have died of roup solely because of the lack of such shelter as 1 have described. — In poultry-keeping for profit, profit, and profit only, is, the end in view. It is well, therfore, to remember that profit comes m two ways— by large and seasonable returns, and by keeping down expenses. lhe year of laro-e egg yield is not always the most profitable, tor the reason that feed may ha\e been more than usually expensive. When grain rules high, it may prove a profitable proceeding to serve cheaper food, though at a foreseen loss of eggs; remembering thac the profit is the difference between cost and , product. Another thing to note is that ifc is not the many egg® thac pay so n™ch as the number laid in the dear season. lo have eggs to dispose of in the dear season breeders must begin now, right away, to preI pare. Young stock should be advanced j all that is possible by good feed and suitable ' housing and protection against rough weather, so that they will be strong in the ' laying before the winter overtakes them. ' "Winter will cheek new starters, but nob those well established in the habit, and which are at the same time properly cared 1 j for. Cut green bone, loz per bird, once or twice a week, a fair proportion of wheat or oats boiled in .he mash, the mash well dried up and opened with _ bran, plenty of green feed during the summer (cut clover hay in the soft feed during the winter), will go a long way to promote laying, and to I maintain it. My note of last week re water (one pint I in every dozen marketable eggs) should, of 1 course, be aiways in the mind, so as to 1 ensure v-ssels being regularly re- , plenished, and grit and dry, crushed I bone should be kept regularly be- ' fore growing and laying birds. Hens to I be kept for second year's laying, if fed and ' attended as advised, will moult early, unj less' they do so they will not lay in winter. To "promote moulting, fed early (early as possible after they leave the, roost), and mix a little lmseed in the mash. Keeping fowls off the grass for a fortnight, and then turning them on to it, also helps in this direction. The foregoing remarks anenl advancing; ; pullets to laying torm do not apply io buds intended Sor breeding purposes, for early maturity in regard to these is not a thing to -be desired. Speaking of breeders, Mr j Thomas h\ Rigg, ah American expert, ably 1 explains what is required. He says : — ; "Why is it that it is wrong to .so iced . I pullets "as "to 'induce 'too early maturity and ■ ' too cariy laying? As we have stated before, . ' we now diacuss this matter from the standi point of the fancier and breeder. The i tancier who is rearing the. larger part of his fioek for breeding stock must have in his matured birds full maturity of bone v flesh, muscle, and all that goes to make . up a healthy and natural frame, a body that is the type- in its perfect form of the ideal of the breed or variety he is handling. With the fancier it is not a question ot how I early the pullets begin to lay in «»efalL, He is not striving for early eggs. What _ he wants is a perfect specimen, as nearly as possible, to put into his breeding pen, or the breeding pen of a customer, next sea- , son. He wants these birds to be strong, vigorous, fully developed and 'up-to-size specimens. He will have them if he be a successful fancier. He therefore feeds for development in size and form, not for early maturity. He knows that ir the great plan of creation throughout all the universe extremely early maturity is gamed at the expense of size— not weight, understand, but ! size. The- earliest potato cannot m the very nature of things compare in size to the slowdeveloping late potato which has many more weeks in which to grow. So it is in the vegetable and animal and fowl life lbe pallet that is iorced to too cany maturitymust be dwarfed to some extent. It cannot be otherwise. Keeping in vi&w the fundamental principles, we realise that the tanoier and breeder must, to produce the fullydevelopedl bird at maturity, so feed as to supply eveTy element necessary to the growth and development of flesh, blood, bone, and muscle— the body, the frame o£ the bird, must have- all that it requires in its makeup. Do not for one moment lose. si°-ht of this truth, this fact: That a fowl brought to unnatural early maturity cannot b3 fully developed at maturity. And what are the foodstuffs necessary for the proper devel«pment of this specimen? It has been fully proven that oats in the various forms are the best bone and muscle forming food of iill the small grains. Hulled oats, cracked oat*, oatmeal, and even whole oats are noapproached, when properly fed. It is the hulled and craoked oats that form the best food for the young chicks, the whole oats not at this time, being desirable. It would be unwise, it is true, to give the young stock any oats. Other material is required; in the development of the stock. Wheat and barley and a little rye and corn should be also given. While corn is largely a fatproditcing food, a little of it seems. necessary. But the idea is to feed these bone and muscle making foods largely. These enable the chick to freely supply the wants of nature in its work of building up a perfect frame. We like the dry-feeding system now so generally practised 1 , but we know that, so far as our fowls are concerned, they can be brought to better development at matuTity if we feed one soft food a day. Mind you, on© soft food 1 a day : a dry, soft food. We know this to be a fact in our yards, and we have gained that knowledge by years and years of experience. So we have ground oats, barley, rye, wheat and buckwheat. To this we add oilcake meal. A cake is made of this and fed daily. The oilcake meal keeps the chicks' bowels in perfect order. If a breeder will feed a small; amount of oilcake me-al daily, and keep conditions right in his houses and yards, he will have practically no loss of chicks by bowel trouble. In addition to these fooda animal food in some form should be supplied. The chick requires a certain amount of animal food, not to unnaturally bring it to early laying, but to balance its rations and to aid in development along natural 1 lines. Lean beef and bone are the best of the animal foods offered to use in this proper development of the chick. These must be fed with care ; that is all. The eggrfarm operator can find 1 in Nature as muohl

\id as can the fancier. He can quickly deVelop his pullets and bring them to early ..laying in the fall. It is with him a matter d! business to develop ai early layer as it is with the fancier to develop a perfect breeding specimen. The egg man gets his pullets zo laying early in the fall, and they therefore, with proper care, produce an abundance of eggs all winter. Tell me, pray, would any fancier wish to breed irom such specimens — those brought to maturity before they had been properly developed as to size and form'/ No. No man could build up a race of desirable fowls by so doing. The egg man gets his eggs early, and the hen in two years gives all she can ever give her owner, except her carcase. The properly-developed hen gives not only her healthy and perfect sons and daughters to the world, but as many eggs in due time as does the egg man's forced*o:maiurifcy hen."

— Dear Terror, — Just a short note with reference- to my raising of chickens this season. In the first place, I have had very bad luck, as you will see from the numbers given below. I had" a setting from Mr C. H. Hunt, of Clinton, white Leghorns, in . September ; and how it is, or . was, "I cannot account for it, but they were nearly all dead in the shell, not fully matured. I fcatched two, but one died. I wrote to Mr " Hunt, asking if he knew the cause, as I suggested they may have been the. first eggasafter the hens being penned 'after the show. He acted very generously to me, md forwarded another setting, for which I thanked him. This action cannot but give a oustomer every confidence in him, as he showed a desire to do his best to en- . sura success. The first four settings I got no chicks, and I have only a small percentage this season. Of course Igo for eggs in winter— in fact, all the year round. I have seven of Mr Hunt's second - lot, but the^ only cockerel got drowned in the well.— l am, etc., H. Wilkie, Waikaia. •—Mr H. Wilkies's hatch record for the Season. —

Chickens. .. -63 — I have to thank Mr W.ilkie for his let- - ter and "record, for coining as they do, generally speaking, from a most successful Breeder, one whom I can warrant will not 3*e discouraged by one year's non-success, they are. instructive in the sens© that more may be learnt from misfortune than uniform eo-cjlled good luck. Having seen several strong clutches this season from Mr Hunt's eggs, I feel convinced that the egga supplied by him contained good, strong germs, and that their dying in the shell mt Mr Wilkie's is attributable to some local cause. "Dead" and "addled" are both proofs of fertility. Broken eggs ~ left a few days in the nest, setting hens at first jign of clucking (the temperature not then being high enough), setting hens on wet lods in damp weather, on dry nests in dry irindy weather, and many other causes which could not be charged to Mr Wilkie are reasons of poor hatches. Finally, there Dave been numerous cases of poor hatches

this season. — Tebbob. "" — Scanning the pages of a copy of the New York l*ioduce Review and American Creamer, I came across the following ' particulars regarding the Puget Sound Poultry Company, of Seattle, given by the secretary of the company, which should prove interesting to many readers of this week's notes. Secretary Evans says: — "The purpose of our company is simply to raise, young chickens and fresh eggs for Seattle, and other markets of the State, daily. The plant proper <wifl consist of : two large buildings. The •brooder plant will be 840 feet in length in •. the form of a horse shoe. In the basement tof'the building will be located 30 incubators, each' with -a 'capacity for 300 eggs. This .will give 9000 eggs in daily incubation. 'After the plant-has been running 90 days we- will have' a capacity of 300/ chickens for market every morning. . When the chicjeens- . - -are hatched they are first taken to the nursery, where they are kept 30 days. Then 300 of them are placed in the first pen. There are 60 of these pens, and each morning the brood is moved up one pen, and a iiew brood of 300 taken from the nursery to the first pen. By the end of 60 days after" coming from the nursery, the first lot have reached the last pen, and are 90 "days old, and fit for the market. Thereafter every morning the game number of developed young chickens will be ready. The. second building is known 'a* the eggliouse. It is built of the same material, and after the same fashion as the brooder. It will be 527 ft in length. It will have two 4ft' aisles running through the centre. t)n each side of these aisles will be 30 pens, making 60 in all. In each of these pen* there will be 50 hens, giving us 3000 highgrade' Leghorn layers, which we figure will feive us daily 200 dozen eggs for the market. In this, building, besides the eggs, storage and provision rooms, there will be ma-chinery-for the purpose of aiding in the product. The eggs for incubator will be from. 800 high-grade Plymouth Rock hens. At all times visitors will be able to, see 35,000 chickens from one day to 90 days old under tone roof, which will be the largest henery in the wo.rld. ' We will begin the consfcruc"tion of the plant at once. • —In introducing the foregoing- information by Secretary Evans, I promised that it should prov© interesting reading. It certainly is that, *nd, further, it is suggestive of excellent jnethod and foresight ; and exemplifying as it does in a remarkable degree that cockBureness which is so characteristic of the American, it is also highly amusing. Readers Will notice that Secretary Evans does not hesitate to count hie chickens before they >re hatched. Before a nail has been driven -he foresees visitors to the plant inspecting £5*060 obipkenfi— hiab-^rad© Laghorn3—to bj)

bred from 900 high-grade Plymouth Rock hens ! Of these, 3000 hens will be reserved as layers, reckoned to produce 2400 eggs daily for the market — i.e., each hen is to lay at the rate of 292 eggs per annum ! The Americans are tr.uly a great people, and the American hen a great producer, but the regularity with which Secretary Evans expects to advance 300 chickens daily from, pen to pen to the killing stage is surely marvellous — enough so, I imagine, to warrant the suggestion that he knows nothing at all about the difficulties to be encountered. — Ducks cannot digest their food unless grit is supplied, and those who are fattening birds in confinement should particularly note this fact. If diarrhoea is noticed, a change of food should be quickly provided. All green food should be young and fresh. Ducks should be killed directly they are ready, as they quickly lose weight again. They should be provided with fresh litter in the fattening coops daily. — "Breeder," the poultry scribe to the Adelaide Chronicle 1 , makes the following remarks bearing out what has been over and over again maintained in this column. He says : — ' 'If you are beaten in the show pen, one way to gain supremacy is to buy every bird your . adversary has, . and his methods and makings into the bargain. The other way is to breed batter and better birds. To buy his best birds is not to ensure by any means that you can breed good stock from them, and in practically every case, unless they are of the same strain as your own, you will fare worse- if you introduce even the best of this new blood into your yards. As remarked, you should also buy his methods and maiinge. I have known breeders when selling out to either kill or reserve certain inferior-looking specimens. These are really the gems of the collection — the birds which breed the winners. Few breeders care" about selling such birds, and few buyers have the senser to secure them." — Speaking to "utility" men, the same writer says:— "The proper method is to obtain the best specimens of the breed you require, even if the price is very high, so long as you are sure of what you buy. "Never Tray a pig in a poke' is excellent advice to a pig-dealer, and 'Never buy a fowl unless you are quite certain of its history' should be the maxim of all poultry keepers, especially the beginners. Too little stress k laid on this important matter, and its non-observance leads to much disappointment. For example, we want to breed layers, and proceed as follows: — We find out who has the 1 best reputation for a pure breed of -layers, and we get offers of his best guaranteed layers to breed from. A recognised breeder will not imperil his name Iby selling birds not in accordance with the description given, but at th© same time he has a good demand for his birds, and asks -fairly good prices for them. Buy from such a man, and you -may exnect to get equal results"^ you adopt simifar modern methods. ,The foolish breeder will go to an apparently cheap man,' whose birds are dear at any price, and are, as often as not, bred by someone else and not of the strain represented. This man can sell a yard full of fowls for the price the expert, reliable breeder asks for a trio, but you will get but little satisfaction in 99 cases out of a hundred. My advice to those who cavil at fair prices is — "If you want mongrels go to the auction, but do not buy the oast-off refuse of 'pot breeders" yards and think you own representative birds." — Cleanliness (says the Agricultural Epitomist) is, no doubt, next to godliness in all things, and in poultry-keeping it is one of the absolute essentials to success. No half-way measures suffice; the poultry quarters must be kept clean, or trouble will follow. This may not be in the shape of disease, but it will be in the loss of eggs and profits. Make a thorough house cleaning in the poultry yard,' if not already done. Then with the chickens- housed warmly, and in clean buildings, there will be less disease than usual. , ' — If there is plenty of waste food about the kitchen that the maid would otherwisethrow away it would pay a nervous invalid to keep a few. Say, five good layers, with one good cockerel. It would be nice to have an egg or two just warm from, the nest every morning. I have an old-fashioned notion that a really new-laid egg, which, when, boiled and die top cut off, shows the milk, is worth half a dozen "fresh" or French ones. The kitchen waste is thus turned into eggs and flesh ; and with a few handfuls of oats at midday and eventide, with good grass and gravel runs, perfect cleanliness, and plenty of water, "yon •have a blessing with these five fowls. Besides, you have a fancy or fad, and that in itself will help to euro your weak nerves and your acid dyspepsia more certainly than .all the physic in- the apothecary's shop. — Exchange. — The habit of feather-eating is most difficult to cure, and may be due to several causes. It is most common among _bh'ds in confinement. Sometimes the presence of inseot9 in the feathers accounts for the victim allowing his mutes to pluck him, the doing so allaying, to come extent, tbe irritation caused by them. In other cases it. is merely the result of idleness or depraved appetite. Freedom is a> most important matter, and making the birds work for their living. Those plucked should be anointed with a strong— lather made from carbolic soap. In America a bit is sometimes fixed in the mouth of the plucking hen to stop her doing so, and it is desirable to remove every culprit. — Egg-eating is a habit for which no reason can be assigned. A blown egg should be filled with a strong mixture of mustard and cayenne pepper, closing up the crenings with gummed paper. Leave this in the nest, and if the culprit gets her beak into it, she will obtain a dose she will not like, and may amend her ways in future. ■Sometimes the habit is caused by want of shell-forming materials, and a good supply of grit should always be at hand-. There aro boxes -made for egg-eating hens in which the egg passes out of sight as soon as laid. — Hens are sometimes found to be oggbound, by which is meant that they Are unable to void the egg. This may arise from some derangement of the egg organs, to the hen being too fat, or to an abnormally large egg. As a rule, the injection of a small quantity of salad oil relieves hei 1 , but if that fails she should be held over a, jug of steaming hofc water, co thai thft Bteam may enter the vent. Warm treacle, in which some chopped grouneel has been mixed, is also, good^ and a dose of castor oil will be of service after the egg has been passed. Cave must be taken not to break the egg, ot a fatal result may folio w|.

D.TJOK HINTS. Ducklings cannot stand tiift v&ja of &

Approaching a penh of ducks at night with a lantern will soon create a panic Good, sharp building sand is the best grit for ducks. It should be mixed with their soft food. The black streak on .he bills of Pekin ducks is more noticeable during the laying season. Handle ducks by the neck, and never by the legs or wnigii-. Never allow the fattening ducks in bathing water. A simple and" yet excellent fattening food is composed of two parts oornme-al, one part bran and 15 per cent, beef scrr.ps. When the ducklings are five wr<ks of age it is a good time to j-ick cut tl>os<? desired for breeding purposes. They should be yarded separately and fed differently to those to be fattened for market. A duck must have water about 'ie eyes daily, or it will not thrive. Sufc if a t; r>k of sufficient depth is provided for the ducks to sink their heads in the watei clear cut of sight, then they can do without tte pond or stream. When this is not Joi;o they gum up about the eyes. ? Ducks thrive on a sandy &oil. The ducks will mafee their own nests. The duck yards should be partly shaded. Give water the first thing in the morning. The older the duck the less nervous will There are practically no contagious diseases in the duok family. For hatching the duck eggs should be strictly fresh ; egg& a week old do not hatch so well. - , „ ■« 1 A trough of cracked oyster shell and alco a trough of coarse sand should be constantly before the ducks.

— 5 * .s „, §8 §8 S s 1904. H W P, fuly 21' ..13 2 6 5 iugust 7 ..13 2 7 4 September 6.. 13 — 5 8 September 8.. 11 — — — September 17 . . 13 — 6 5 September IS ..11 — 5 5 September 20 . . 11 — 3 3 September 30 .. 13 . — 2,2 September 30 .. 13 — „-2 2 October 9 . . 13 2 — ' 2 October 10 . . 13 — 11 October 18 . . 13 2 1 — October 18 . . 11 - — — 11 October 25 ..13 — 4 3 CNovember 2 . 13 1 4 13». 3». 13 1 — — T3 V i 1 1 2 3 9 3 1 t3 2 1 7 • 9 11 8 4 7 12 200 10 46 " 52 liess killed .. «» ~ ..' .» .. 14 ♦• »• 78 14