POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2879, 19 May 1909, Page 35

POULTRY NOTES.

Br Tekbob.

— The Maniototo Fancieis' Club's ninth annual show will be held at Naseby on June 9. Mr E. O'Reilly is to judge, and' IMr William Eardly acts as secretary. AU classes of lnodern poultry are provided for, j and the prize list is liberal. Fanciers wish- , ing to qu-ilify as true sports wilj make an ! effort to ai range entries for the show, if . only to show their appreciation of che I pluck of a club able to bear up under discouragement such as was met with last? year. i — In giving information to a correspon- ( dent ('"Constant Reader") last week relative to red mite I neglected to give at recipe, as asked, for lime wash. The following paragraph tvill fill the omission : (1) Slake In boiling water half a bus-he! o? lime, keeping- it just covered with wate:during tho i>iocccs. Strain it to remove the pediment that will fall to the bottom, and 1 add to it a peck of salt dissolved in warn* water, 31b of ground rice in boiled water to a thin paste, £lb powdered Spanish* whiting, and lib of clear glue dissolved in* warm water. Mix the different ingredients thoroug-hly, and let the mixture stand -4 few days. When ready for use apply hor.' (2) Slake in boiling water half a bushel of lime, and strain "as before ; add to this 21b of sulphate of zinc and lib of salt dissolved in water. This can be mad ©anycolour desired by adding about 31b of colouring matter of the shade requirec 1 . This will make a good wash for outside work. (3) Slake in boiling water half a. bushel of lime ; strain so as to remove alt &ediment« : add 21b of sulphate of zinc, lib of common ?alt and lib of whiting, thoroughly dib«olved. Mix to the proper consistency with skimmed or separated milk, and apply hot. This can aleo be made any colour d-esired by adding colouring matter. It is not only cheap, but is also a \ery lasting wa-sh for either out or indoor work.

— For two or throe weeks before exhibiting budti nf dark-coloured plumage, and in order to a v oid having to tub them, a daily rubbing clown with the palm of the handwill impart a fine natural gloss and in addition '" steady " the exhibit* for judging. By mixing two or three time& a week a little linseed tea to the morning mash tho clumage is also greatly improved and tho itesh increased.

— Amongst medicinei which the poultrykeeper is recommended to keep always an hand are:— 'Epsom salts: A really grand 1 all-round medicine, particularly in cases of liver, eczema, etc Turpentine : A good remedy for cramp and gapes. Safflron rolled in breadcrumbs also doe 6 duty ire Case of the latter complaint. Spirits of camphor; For coughs and cold*, «.ix drop-? to 40 drops of water gives instant' relief. Carboh'ied vaseline: Nothing excels this for white comb or scurf. Flowers of sulphur : Given in the eoft food greatly aids • the bird* through the moult Oil of mal<» fern : Six to eigh' drop-: in a spoonful of cantor oil is' an imaluable medicine for ' worms. Tinc-ture of iron: A little added to the fowls' drinking water generally effects a cure in cases of leg weakness. Castor oil : A do?s of this and an injection o£ , 6ame into the vent will assist the passage of the egg when a fowl is egg-bound. Olive oil : In casee of crop binding a lictla of this and a gentle kneading of the crop with the fingers removes this irregularity. Friars' balsam : A cleaner and Tiealer in case of cuts ; very u°cful after operationfor bumbl« foot.

— Tho chief causes of egg-binding are inflammation in the ovary, or the oviduct. Very often in the oviduct an egg becomes broken, or the organs are weak and the natural process cannot eatisfaclorily be completed. Foode of too fattening a nature, as maize and rice, are given, so that the eggi organs become lined with fat, and thi? often gives ri?e to the rupture of bloodvessels, and inflammation is set up, which almost ahvjy-s prove 6 fatal. A hen often gets an egg broken by injuring herself in come way, by falling from a perch or by being caught in the fencing and in her struggles to act free may break an egg internally. A dose of castor-oil should be given, and anoint and sponge with sweet oil. It will then be possible for the shell 1 to be brought awa-y. Symptoms of eggbinding: The her. goes repeatedly to the./ nest and runs about with its tail down and head up. If a broken, shell-l^s egg, there is often moisture on feathers behind. Remedies: Bathe vent in warm water and anoint with olive oil. Give a dose of rastor-oiJ.

— The late .vlr Lewis Wright, in his book on ''Poul'L-y. 1 ' wrote: "The ]avin<£ h&n should be foj in proportion to what sh-3 is capable of turning into eggs, hence we need to ?ort our fo\\U into a«;es andi laying qualities, and even feed the sama birds differently when in full lay from what we do when resting. A constant watch must be kept on the egg supply and the demeanour of the fowls when eating ; ou^ of a flock forced for laying there are a few which are not laying. These should be at once withdrawn. The more forcing and nitrogenous <be diet the more caceluJl

Kffnst the flock be watched- During the moulfc forcing diet should be stopped. It must be remembered that what is not turned into eggs must have some effect, probably injurious: In a fair-sized egsr to have 2oz to lje produced daily, besides the hen's own needs for life and health ; of- this more than half is water, but there Heing .waste in vital processes .it ought to be reekoneS that loz of- solids is the daily requirement, and this is really all composed of mineral salts, albuminoids, and fat. Part of this supply a free ranging hen may 1 pick up for herself. Where there is not a -Wide range this must' be supplied, and as meat is three parts water it follows •;hat a laying hen only given a living •_ation should have 2oz daily of cut bone or •Jat meat to maintain a constant egg supply." — A . correspondent who "sends me the *ODegoing asks if- 2oz of cut. bone is not too much for a hen. In reply I may explain that a hen giving a constant sujp-ply of eggs would not suffer from such a 'highly nitrogenous diet as a poor layer profcably wotdd.

— A common habit of this season of the, year is feather-eating or plucking". it is about one of the most objectionable vices fowls can confer&et, and it often commences, where the fowls are confined to small .runs. • Another- frequent cause is ./hat the birds are infested with insects, or as the result of birds having some food adhering to their plumage-, and in the atWmpt to pick it off' they get a taste of the weathers. If it Is a new feather it will contain. .a certain amount- <jl~ blood, which helps an acquirement of the habit. Birds kept in confinement should be periodically dusted with -ome good insect powder. (When .dusting the birds p&rtioular care should lje exercised in seeing that the powder is well distributed " around the vent. and underneath the body, for this is •where the lice are found in the greatest numbers. Another cause, and one that is considered ' most - important by many powltry-keepers, 'is the want of salt in the food, for it is the salty taste of the biood in the feather which starts the bird the ■habit. Therefore -it is very important that salt should be added to the soft food every morning, and also to the animal food, vegetables or greenstuff given at noon The salt should be used sparingly, otherwise the fowls wild quickly refuse their food. Another gooc way is to give the birds increased! exercise; make them scratch for their living./ This* can- be done by scattering ••grain among some litter, grass, or straw. This litter should be half a foot' ■deep. Another good idea is to throw a 'handtul of small grain amongst th,e litter after the fowls go to roost, so that they can be kept occupied, until they are ready ~cr be fed. Do not overfeed your birds in. the morning — l^oz of food 1 should be Bufiicien'frj- j but at noon you may tforovr a little 'grain in the litter to keep them" occupied till night. .A turnip or a potato hung up in the yard is. also another method, of exercise for the fowls. If any of the culprits can be detected in the act of feather-plucking you should take them tip at- once and place them by themselves in a pen for a i^eek, by which time they will have forgotten the habit, and at the end of that'- time, if they resume it, the only remedy is to kill thejm. : ' * ' — That small runs are the most suitable for egg-producing has been proved again and_ again ,in the Commonwealth. Of couise the "birds require more" attention when kept in small flocks, but the result more than compeiisat.es for the extra trouble. An American writer in *•!■*«■ Farmers' Voice; puts the oos^'<">ii as ■ > ' „■.«. — "It; seems natural ' • :he fz ■ ''a^p full rang**. TL-e" n •• =eems •< t lint ro a roaniinff life s. c rh«\ ' <i pck up such food as sii"-- u*ir fa <- . but it entail too mr>ch -x- ' <-.c. li. i<--" is in eating to live rati-c- i ian °aii: z '"r 3frg-produc)ion. Pc-rsc' i ! i ,lam a y.tMl believer in yarhna h<.'ii-> I think, and -i has been rm, etpinonce, that, at " least 30 ', par cenr. ntoro <~s= 3 ca/i be had by co ! doing. Yarding of hens has other advantages. It is one of the surest ways, i and about the only way, of determining i exactly how many eggs are laid, and feeling sure that ail the eggs are gathered each day. I attribute a good ess yield in winter largely to the care the hens get. In winter hens should be jrhen a ■warm house, be fed regularly, and supnli^d with warm drinking water and warm food in the morning." — The appearance of the several parts of a fowl being dissected for post mortem examination.should T>e as follows: — ' Liver.— Bilobular — i.e., two-lobed. the right lobe being bhe largest; firm, of natural size, and of a uniform chocolate-red colour. Gizzard. — A hard, flattened, oval, muscu-lar-tendinous body; externally of; a deepish r-e<3, fihacUvd * off into Wuisll-irr^n. and. finally,- white tendinous structure, internally containing a horny corrugated pouch covered with epithelium, and of a yellow or green colour.

Intestines. — Greyish-wh'fre,

Egg-producing organs, when near laying, redemble a bunch of fruit of various sizes, the smaller being round, the larger oval. Oviduct. — Creamy "white. Kidneys. — Redtlieh-browr and lobulated, extending along the spine. Spleen. — A dark, purplish body under the gizzard.

Testicles. — Bluish -white of flesh colour, about the size and shape of a horse bean or kidney bean when inactive; otherwise considerably larger.

Lungs. — Salmon -like or pink . hue, oceasionaJlv mottled.

Heart.— Deepish red. without fat- marbling, often tipped with fat at "the apex.

Heart Sac," or Pericordium. — White, transparent, and containing a little clear fluid.

Throat. — Of a pale pink colour, and tree from deposit.

Crop. — A membranous sac formed by enlargement or dilation of the lower portion of the oesophagus or gullet, externally corresponding in colour to the surrounding skin, internally smooth, glistening, moist, and free from patches, congestion, or discolouration.

Brain. — Two white lobes (free from cloi or effusion), termed the cerebral hemispheres, divided by a longitudinal fissure, behind" which ie situated fche cerebellum (little -brain), a single lobe of a greyish colour marked by tranverse furrows.

— In no way (says an American journal') does the farmer show his obtuseness and stubbornness more than in the way he manages his poultry. He won't be without poultry. " Not for the world ! " The farm would not be a farm without poultry, and ho keeps poultry purely and simply -at times, it might appear, out of sheer sentiment. Ask him how many liens he has. He does not know . How manj cocks are jvith them, uselessly eating their heads off?

He cannot say. Do the poultry pay? " Nay ! "' he cannot say. At times he thinks they don't. He tells his wife he gets nothing out of them, and she is euxe they actually lose by them. They paid so much for corn, and the hens never laid an egg till eggs were 18 for a shilling. Well, how old are the hens? What sort are they? Are you on for eggs or table birds? Have you pedigree layers? To all which questions he answers that he knows not, looks very much as if he wishes to goodness you would take off. Some of- the younger sort will be interested, and ask a few questions, how you make this and that out, and then go back to their farm as determined as ever to. give interest in poultry as wide a berth as possible. In any other calling or business such indifference would spell idiocy, and tooner or later ruin. Of course, if the former throws down the glove to us, and says at once : '" What is that to you? If I like to keep from 50 to 100 hens at a- loss simply to look at. and give a lot of trouble in feeding, cleaning out after, and marketing the produce, who shall say me nay? " Then we are, of course, only too willing to admit that this is a free country, and he is well within his Tights in co doing. But we know the farmer and hi* instincts, born of continual bargaining for every pennyworth he buys and sells, and no matter what^he may say we know That, in, some remarkable way, he is laying himself open in the poultry keeping to the grossest delusion, self-deception, or whatsver you like to call it; in a word, that he is thoroughly satisfied on no actual ground of testing the matter carefully of a gain which, as a matter of fact, in the case of those who have all food to buy at present rate of carriage does not, and has not for some time past, if ever, and will not. under present charges and present farmer methods, v-ver exist. The consequence is that the farmer will find himself by-and-bye quite unable to keep a few hens for anything else than the expensive gratification of having what he knows to be a freshly-laid egg for his breakfast table.

— Many fanciers have doubtless seen cases of the peculiar nervous disease, meagrims. The Belgians call it torticollis, which means turning about. It appears, from the following interesting article b;- Dr Riga, in Le Martinet, that the complaint can appear either in 1 the functional or organic foriii. When the fcrmer. it is curable : but when proceeding from organic disease it is far more serious. He says: "Torticollis is a nervous aftection. characterised, by disordered m 1 involuntary contraction of the muscles which carry the bird's head. There is defective co-ordination in the voluntary movements. The bird constantly jerks ito head .iri-J twists its nack about and vainly endeavours to pick up its food. The disease can. be either orgaaio or functional; when the latter the trouble is often caused by worms in the intestines; othei causes ate general debility occasioned by overworking, etc. This complaint can affect atl kinds r it can also be reused by the bird drinking water which has lain in leaden gutters. Sometimes the- disease takes the worst for'n of convulsive fits, during whicu it is extended on the ground., struggling \iolently. These may happen often, and so cause de ith. In mo< cases, however, the di&pa-e is permanent, the bird >\> contimially moving its head from right to left, and sometime- turning irs head right round. For example, if the bird wishes to drink, jt is only after mvoh. trouble that it is able to g?t its bead to the fountain. If it tries to it pT.iim pick ip <"he grains only aHrr many .Arr»p--..i-.. A rr»p--..i-. Thi ie the chiei ■~a-o:. -. v' i>nd« vt r ni.k°t\ with thi^s disease become s-n wasted."' T;ie Rev. \\ . F. Ltiu'o ovc \n hi- aiMger tnrew a bird affli" -(I up apram-t the- vail oi hi? loft, th" ieiu!t bo.nt* c etirc. This is the only c if- 1 iai i<"-iii where a cure has beer "'fected by any means. - — The Framlingfoam Agricultural Co-opera-tive Society (Kent) despatched last year to various markets 2,190.097 eggs of the value of about £10.000, dud pa.id to the senders afc least £2000 more than they used to obtain when they dealt individually with egg dealers.

SMALL HENS AND LARGE EGGS.

One of the mo-t scientific ai tempts yet made to get at tho laying value of certoin breeds of hens ha- j"<=t been completed at Reading-. The breed? experimented with in this year's trial were the varieties of Leghorn, one of the two most popular sorts in the world. The following i-s ike estimated profit and Icsa account: — w_ % o » r5 on %'V Breed. Hatched. k'W P^33 » a s <i Dani.=h Brown Leghorns 1907 12 0 7 9 Danish White Leghorns 1907 12 1 7 1 Danish White Leghorns 1906 11 S 6 8 American White Leghorns 190 Cll 10 610 English (Exhibition) "White Leghorns 64 14 Two striking results emerge. It is found once again that the heavier the bird the less the egg-production. The English birds in this ease were more than lib heavier than any others. Of the first four varieties on the above list the lowest average for a pen- was 142 eggs a year per bird, while the slb English birds averaged only 76 egg* each. A yet more striking result comes out in the consideration of the weight of the eggs laid. The Danish brown pullets yielded nearly six times their body weight in egg& during the 12 months, and each egg was up to the standard weight of 2oz. The English birds did not lay twice their own body weight, and a third of the egg 6 were under the 2oz standard. The Danes have arrived at thia r?sulr simply and solely by breeding especially for this purpose. The ideal they have reached is the little hen — which implies the smaller feeder — and the big egg. [With regard ro the foregoing, an English Leghorn-breeder points out that the teat was not a fair one for the Danish fowls were in their first laving year and the English :n: n their second. — Tereor.]

INOCB A TOR MAR YET,

—Chick*: Hatched by "Hen Oil" and Magnetic Tablets. —

An extraordinary step in the artificial incubation of eggs is the result of som" years of labour on the 'part of Mr E. V. Bo} r es, .-(, young Njrth London chemist.

Xc ha* discovered that " soinet'iing " :h» lack of which from the time of the Egyptian> downwards htis qualified the suec -»■? of nil art'fk'ial incubation.

With th--- knowledge that tho perspiratioi and its complrx constituents of ;i eittinir hen are important factor? to a succes&rui

hatch, Mr Boyes secured a quantity of the perspiration of a l&rge number of hens feverish with the maternal instinct, and commenced experimenting. He found on chemical analysis that it consisted of a fatty matter, moisture, and an ethereal substance of acotio odor, with a little dust or dirt. Further experiments have resulted in his now offering the poul-try-farmer a novel article of commerce in the 'orm of " lien oil." He claims that by putting a little of this curious concoction into the moisture tray under the egg drawer in the incubator it will be automatically evaporated and diffused by >.he internal heat, and will do all thp instinctive work of a sitting hen. But this is not all. Mr Boy-ec has invented a tablc-t which will pro\ide the lifeless inoubator with "' animal magnetism.'' The tablet ako is placed in the moisture tray, and as it dissolves gives rise to a continuous non-varying current which aids in bringing forth a larger percentage ot healthy i hicks than >s at present obtainable. Both the "hen oil" and the tabloid will be put on the market in the. course- of a few months — World's News. <