POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 35

POULTRY NOTES.

Bx Terrok

— Mons. Louis Vander Snickt, or Bdussele, submitted a paper to the Reading J Conference on " Economic Values of External Characteristics," and although he spoke of breeds of fowls only known byreputation to e\en well-informed New Zealand poultrymen his conclusions are interesting if only because they bear out what experience with breeds familiar to us haa already taught. For instance, he says a comb "hanging ov«r in the hen, with long wattles and white earlobes, as also black eyes and gipsy faces, are attributes of the laying breeds. Speaking of table birds, he praises them for their fine, thin, email combs. Mons. Snickt attaches, apparently, . much importance to early and constant crowing on the part of cockerels. He remarks: "The connection between early crowing, early cle\ elopment of comb and sexual organs of the cockerels, and early laying of the pullet 6 is sufficiently well known to need no further comment." He considers a slow, infrequent crower and a hen-feathered cockerel as equally useless, and remarks that the making a cock crow the highest pcesible number of times in i. be* 6 %a houx is a study and science as nro-

ductive as the science of training a horse for a-jrace. Speaking of /the Sans Queue (tailless) fowl, he . remarks that the suppression or the rjrinp or tail feathers is compensated by production of early meat and eggs. He holds that the production of feathers requires more nourishment than dogs' flesh.

— Discussing the paper, Dr H. B. Greene said he looked upon crowing as an evil, because he thought precocious qualities in birds, in the long run, took away from the aggregate of egg production. He held that

•" precocity must weaken general stamina if you breed for precocity alone " ; but, inasmuch as Dr Snickt's ultimate aim is not crowing, but eggs, perhaps Dr Greene's contention is scarcely applicable as argument.

— -Mr Edward Brown argued that in small-combed breeds the tendency to increased^ egg production developed the size of the comb, but if in breeding for exhibition points (presumably in large-combed species) the comb was developed unduly, a reactive influence at onpe set in, so that there was a decrease rather than an increase in egg yield. — Mr G. A. Palmer, lecturer in pou-ltry-keeping to the Herts and Worcester County Councils, dealt witb the subject " Experiences in Feeding Poultry." He said, inter alia:- "Dietary tables drawn up merely from a knowledge of the chemical constituents of foods are most misleading ; in some respects positively absurd." He says that the first' essential towards successful poul-try-feeding is a knowledge of the action of different foods upon the body, which can_ only be gained by years of experience. It is only when the suitability of certain foods has been proved that chemistry guides us as to the proportions of each to form a fairly-balanced ration. Speaking of oats, Mr Palmer says : " This is the one food I canno. do without for laying stock. There is nothing exceptional in the analysis— -11 per cent, albuminoids, 5 per cent, fat, 57 per cent, carbohydrates— except that the fat is higher than other English cereals, but not more so than maize. The total food units are but 97; there is often as much as 20 per cent, husk and fibre, and they usually cost more per ton than any other grain. Yet the oat has something no other grain possesses. Fowls never get inordinately fat on oats, they produce plenty of eggs, and will keep sound and free from disease up to a great age. I have known fowls fed entirely on oats on general farms where there was a free grase run, and in every case the result hes been satisfactory. This does not imply that feeding era oats alone is economical or suited to birds in confinement, where variety must be considered in a way not necessary for field birds; but the fact remains that oats are the one food which will not injure laying hens if fed to excess." Mr Palmer says something in recommendation of grass and clovers, particularly in the summer months, and holds that meat in some form is imperative. Grit, he says, should certainly be looked upon as part of the food. — With regard to keeping fowls in confinement, he (Mr Palmer) knew of hundreds keeping birds in baokyards, and so long as he could have a covered shed and one square yard per bird he wanted no more. Under such conditions hens were producing 200 eggs per annum, and even more; indeed, men. got more from birds in close confinement in baokyards than even farmers got. It was not necessary to keep fowls on grass runs ; they could be kept continuously for 50 years on bare earth by giving it a dressing from time to time of creohne to keep it sweet. Even chickens could be well cared for in such quarters. He did not believe in road sweepings and such like mixed with straw for litter. He did not want dust on his floors; he preferred hard clay on the floors, covered with litter, but no dust.

— For the information of a correspondent, I may say that the Hogan system enables one to pick out the pullets which will lay well, and as a consequence to find those which cannot do so. It enables the poultryman to ascertain at an early period the bird that Nature has intended to produce plentifully — i.e., the bird that must lay if ordinary conditions are provided, but it does not warrant the supposition that her offspring will do likewise unless she is mated with a male which will stand the test equally well. What the Hogan system shows is not the cause of the laying, but the effect of previous matings. If all the pullets are equally good, th Q n it may be concluded that the indications shown by the system are the effect of the judicious mating: of the immediate na=t generation, and if only one pullet is found, then it must be a case of reversion or thiow-bark. For instance, suppose you take a breed like black Spanish, once noted as good layers, but epoilt as such by breeding for many generations for exhibition points only. Neither cockerels nor pullets would stand the Hogan test ; but, as is well known, cross a cockerel of such a strain with hens of another breed and you get pullets almost certain to lay well. Apparently tlie fanciers' birds, though not good layers, have the laying faculty inherent in them, though dormant. It is there, though pent up. and only waits favourable conditions to burst forth. The cross supplies the needed condition, and consequently, though the mated birds might not have stood the Hogan test, the pullets will, indeed must, because if they are to be good layers they muet be built for the purpose. My correspondent may now understand what I mean when I say that the indications found by the Hogan system are the effect of mating-, and not the cause of the birds being good layers.

— The yolk of the egg whicli the chicken takes into its body just befoi'e hatching is a provision of Nature to feed the liitle one in its early hours of life. But this yolk is not always absorbed or utilised by the system, and to the fact that chickens do not in some instances get the benefit of this store of nourishment is attributed many weaknesses of chiekenhood. In America, where white diarrhoea is one of the greatest problems of chicken-raisinpr, a, pood deal of stress is laid upon the fact that chickens so affected do not absorb the yolk. A medico, however, writing on this aspect of the question in the Reliable Poultry Journal, says that " this is only another symptom of coincident condition. I have dissected a lot of half -grown and full-grown roosters, some healthy and some a little off, but all marketable, and in fair order. In these birds I found variors and sundry interefcting remnants of the yolk or sao containing it.. A large percentage had in them solidified remains of the yolk, eirher attached to the intestines or free in the abdominal ca> ity. This pro\es that non-absorption of the yolk alone ie not of sufficient ioijKH'tsmce to cause

a fatal disease. We dress a good many chicks of our own raising, and we frequently find unabsorbed yolk in them, both hen-hatched and Incubator, and from flocks th*t never had a sick day."

—At Gandersheim, on the Hartz Mountains, Germany, a schoolmaster's hen recently laid her 1000 th egg. To celebrate the occasion the street was gaily decorated with flags, while in the evening the health of the hen was drunk by the schoolmaster's friends at a supper, the principal dish at which consisted of a gigantic omelet. Yet (saye the New York World) scientists have gravely told us that the ovary of the hen cannot possibly yield more than 600 eggs in any one hen's lifetime. Also, many breeders assert that a hen is no good for laying after it is two years old. That German hen must have been quite aged when she laid her 1000 th egg, unless, indeed, she was related to some of the marvellous producers in the East that think nothing of laying 365 eggs in 365 days. • — Reiliy, Scott, and Gill, Central Produce Mart, report for the week ending Saturday, the 7th inst. ; — The past week has had more activity in the poultry market. Large supplies hxve come forward, but the demand being gcod we were able to clear tine whole of our consignments. 862 birds, at slightly higher rates than those ruling last week. At our sale on Wednesday hens sold from 3s to 4-s ; young cockerels, 3» 6d to 5s 6d; ducklings, 5« 6d to 6s ; goslings, 5s 6d to fes 6d ; ducks. 5e to 5s 6d ; and geese, 5s 6d — per pair. Turkey gobblers brought 9^d and hens 6d per lb. Eggs have been in great demand, a-nd large supplies reached u-3. We had no less than 5 cases from Tomuka, 15 from Waimate. 8 from Morven, 12 fTom Oamaru, 4 frota Windsor, 12 from Ngapara, 14 from Herbert. 22 from Tapanui, 14 from Waiwera, 16 from Wyndham, 13 from Bluff, and 5 from BalHutha, besides single cases from various stations, and were able to secure our" consignors lid per dozen to Friday, and then rose the prico to Is per dozen. at which price we cleared the balance of our consignments. We strongly advise consignments. — The judges of the heaviest dozen hen's eggs at the Gore show on Tuesday were 6tartled at a collection turning the Fcale at an extraordinary weight. The idea of counting the number of eggs struck one of the judges, and the count disclosed the minor fact that there were 13 eggs.