HOW TO MAKE FOWLS PAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3100, 13 August 1913, Page 33

HOW TO MAKE FOWLS PAY.

Bv Buff.

In these times when “table birds” are so expensive it is not difficult for the amateur poultryman to make fowls pay, even if one has only a limited amount of apace in which to keep them. If one has room for two moderately-aized yards white Leghorns should be kept in one and buff Orpingtons in ' tho other—tho white Leghorns, because they arc such capital layers, oo that, as far as eggs go, they are the most profitable of all fowls, and rho buffo, because, although they have not a good reputation for laying, they arc by far

ihe best mothers, and are also most excellent table birds. , , It is not advisable for the amateur to buy expensive purebred birds, and neither is it the least necessary to - ' th is purpose, as the common birds will serve just as well. lake two yards, in each of which there is room for 20 hens and one or two cocks, and fall one with white Leghorns and one with buff Orpingtons. Of course, Hie same scheme may be carried out with 10 or even fewer fowls; but I take 20 as a sufficient and handy number for my illustration. Feeding.— The fowls should be fed first thing in the morning on the house scraps, with the exception of tea leaves, which ought on no account to bo given to them. If there are not enough scraps (about 3oz per fowl is sufficient), pollard should be stirred in with the scraps until the amount desired is reached. At dinner-time a few handfuls of wheat should bo thrown to the fowls, and well scattered round the yard. One very small handful per fowl is plenty for this meal. In the evening a little sharps, with about 6oz of dried blood, mixed together, ought to be given, the rest of the meal being made up of wheat. Of course, wherever pollard is used it is understood it must be mixed with a little milk or water —not enough to make a sticky mixture, but just enough to make the sharps stick together in small lumps. There should always be a pan of fowlgrit in the yard and green stuff, such as the outside leaves of cabbages and other vegetable waste should be supplied at least every other day. unless, as is seldom the case., there is plenty of grass in the runs. —Sitting Hens and Rearing Chicks.— It is beet to set the pons about August, when eggs are plentiful, and therefore cheap, when eggs do not bring much on the market. Sitting is the buff Orpington’s department. There will always bo several fowls obliging enough to sit. when they are wanted —in fact,‘ the buff’s chief fault is that they sit too much altogether. Being large hens, they will easily cover 15 eggs if the nest is a good shape. A large handful of grain twice a day is enough for each sitter; and they must, of course, bo supplied with water. It is advisable to set two settings cf white Leghorns and four of buff Orpingtons. Say between 15 and 20 white Leghorns are successfully reared, it is beet os soon . os the chicks are old enough to lay to sell some of the older fowls, replacing them with the chicks. At least 40 buff chickens ought to be successfully reared from four settings, and when these birds *" are about two months old (thev mature very quickly) they can be sold in the fowl market for from 3s to 4s n pair, and as thev are in great demand for the table, will pay all trouble and exnense taken in rearing them about four times over. No fowls more than three years old should be kept, and a new cock for each breed should be introduced every two years. Chickens should he fed four times a day ■with either oatmeal mixed with a minimum quantity of milk, or with bread or crusts soaked soft in water. At three weeks old they may be fed three times a day. and grain us'-d for the midday feed. When six weeks old the can be out in the yard and fed with the older fowls. When ihe chickens are ready to sell it is best to choose a date about a week before a show or races, even if one has to keep them a few weeks longer, because table birds are ip such demand at these times that they will fetch from 6d to Is per pair more.

It is host to sol! eon's as they aro collooted, exeent when they aro vory clman. and then it i= hotter to prcscrv- them. so as

m winter. when they aro soiling-“wo!!, the * houeoho'd oan uso preserved on os. ary] <V few that t.ho fowls aro laying may ho sold at the h'"h rates then current. From this it can bo soon that both nrofit and pleasure can ho combined in this simple manner of making fowls nav.

[August, is a good month to set eggs, hut it is not because they are then cheap and plentiful. If eggs happened to bo scarce and, consequently, dear in August, it would ertill bo right—in fact, more so —to set them then to ensure winter eggs. Many experienced poultrymcn set eggs earlier—i.e., at

the very dearest seasons,, as they know that the early layers are generally the best and the most desirable to reproduce. With regard to buffs as table birds, “ Buff ” pays them a well-deserved tribute; but if the amateur can afford it. ho or she will do well to pay a fair price and obtain some of a good laying strain, for the commoner birds do not “serve just as well.” There is quality in utility strains as well as in show stock. — Teukob j N.Z. UTILITY POULTRY CLUB. At the ninth egg-laying competition of the New Zealand Utility Poultry Club the total of the 54 pens for last week was 1510, the aggregate total for the 17 weeks now standing at 17,976. The beet records were bysilver Wvandottes—namely, those of W. O. Sail (Oust) and S. H. Scott (Onchunga). with 33 eggs each. R. A. Lazarus (Hutt) heads the list for the best total to date with 458, followed by Wm. Scull (Christchurch) with 451, and C. I>. C. Eggers with 450 eggs, hire J. Mills’s (Dunedin) white Leghorns have a total of 31 for the week to their credit, while the total for the 17 weeks amounts to 386 eggs. At the fourth egg-laying competition for clucks the total of the seven pens for the last week was 142, making the aggregate 1404. The best records of the week were by the Ilorctaunga Poultry Club’s (Silverstroam) pen with 31 eggs, and T. Dowthwaite’s (Avondale) pen with 30 eggs.