POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3415, 29 August 1919, Page 51

POULTRY NOTES.

By Tehbok.

P. T.—Potatoes are good food for poultry. They do well on them, but it is not an egg-making food unless meat soup is added. A mixture of potatoes.—potatoes forming the bulk, —meat soup or meat-meal, bran, and pollard will suit your purpose. It will be better still if you can add some chaffed lucerne. "Worried." —I am giving information below on the subject of blood spots in eß"Ss—ln connect'.on with my remarks on intensive poultry keeping and the- photo which appeared in tlie illustrated pages, the name of the young lady referred to is Miss Dodd, 392 Anderson's Bay road. The Early Elimination of Surplus Cockerels. —In the Journal of the Board of Agriculture, February last, M.r R. C. Punnett, F.R.S., M.A., Professor of Genetics, Cambridge University, says, amongst other things, that a barred .Plymouth Bock hen mated to a black Plymouth Rock (or black Leghorn, for that matter) cock will transmit the barred character to her male offspring only, and all her daughters will be black, and be recognisable as such - at hatching. He says, further, that the same type of inheritance is also exhibited in the characters of silver ground colour as opposed to gold. Many breeds exit in which silver has its counterpart in gold—such examples are silver and gold-pencilled Hamburgs, silver and gold-laced Wyandottes, etc. In all these oases silver behaves as a simple, dominant to gold, and,' in all, the silver hen transmits, if crowned by a gold cockerel, silver to her sons and gold to her daughters, and here again the colour of the bird is already betokened in the down, and consequently the sexes may be sorted out at hatching. The importance of this to breeders in a large way is. great, for the saving of food by the elimination of, say, 1030 cockerels out of a 20C0 clutch directly they are hatched instead of having to feed them for several weeks till the sex can be seen must be considerable. Of course, as all the pullets preserved in this way are crosses, they cannot in their turn be used to similar advantage in the breeding pen, so that it will still be necessary to continue small breeding pens, if only to procure strain* witn which to repeat the crossing next generation. Mr Punnet says that silver-grey Dorkings behave towards brown-reds, such as brown Leghorns, in the name way that silvers behave towards golds, the brown striped chicks being pullets, and the silvergreys the cockerels. Fifrther, since the striping in the down is dominant to some of the down colours of gold breeds, the difference between the sexes at hatching is equally well marked when a silver-grey hen is mated with a cock of certain gold varieties. A cross well worthy of attention, he says, is that between silver-grey hens and a Rhode Island Red. In regard to the foregoing it is a question worth considering whether tli3 saving in feed to be effected by the immediate rejection of a large number of cockerels may not counterbalance the fact that the crosses referred to are not, after all, those from which are obtained what are known as best egg-producing strains. Such crosses (first cross) will lay well, and probably as well as white Leghorns of first-class laying strain, but even if they produce a few eggs less, the saving in food owing to the elimination of surplus cockerels in the way suggested by Mr Punnett should gain them favour from, those who keep poultry solely for market purposes. Another advantage in breeding the crosses mentioned is that in every case they would, after the first, and best, year's laying, be fair marketable birds, bringing a much better price than Leghorns would do. I am not advocating the cross, -but am merely, as it is my duty to do, handing on to my readers what is no doubt valuable information, coming as it does from such a source as it does. Personally, I should say that an important point in respect to this question is that the selected cockerel to be used in crossing should come from a noted egg-producing strain; for it is generally admitted that the father is of great importance —i.e., greater tlian the mother in transmitting the quality of high egg-production to pullets. Reilly's Central Produce Mart (Ltd.) report; —Poultry is urgently vyanted, exceptionally high prices are obtainable for all lines of good table poultry. The railway is carrying poultry for all consignors, and wo will bo pleased to supply crates to those requiring the same. Hens realising from 7s to 10s per.pair, cockerels from 8s to 12s 6d, geese from 18s to 22s per pair, and ducks 10s to 12s. Turkey gobblers and hen turkeys are in keen demand. Full supplies oi eorr« have been coming on to the market during the week, and sales are being made on a Ijasis of Is 5d per dozen. Those having consignments can send them forward with confidence, feeling sure that this price, will be obtained. Messrs Fraser and Co., produce merchants, auctioneers, and commission agents, 146 Crawford street, Dunedin, reports: Eggs: Market steady; fresh is 4d to Is l£d. Egg Circle e<rgs Is sd. Poultry: We held our usual sale on Wednesday at 1.30, and the following nrices were realised: Hens—l2 at 3s 2d'. 15 at 3s 3d, 7 at 3s 6d, 20 at 3s 7d: cockerels, 3s 6d to 4s fed; ducks, 4s to 4s 9d; geosc, 4s to 5s 6d; turkeys—hens Is 3d, gobblers Is 5d per lb live weight. BLOOD SPOTS IN EGGS. Several causes may exist for dark spots in eggs. The most serious is gangrenous ovary. This disease is very rare in this country, but in America they once had an epidemic of it. All hens whose, egirs are repeatedly spotted should be isolated until the cause is ascertained. Usually it is caused by over-feeding, over-stimulation, or the excessive use of condiments. Sometimes the spots ere solid, and sometimes more like a stain. Inflammation is the cause, no doubt, and generally this condition is due to a forcing diet of some sort. To get rid of the spots dieting is necessary. No _ meat or spice mustbe given. Feed on grain for a timo, and give some cooling medicine and plenty of green food, such as lettuces, and specially dandelion and young nettles (the latter boiled). When blood spots are in the yolk they are caused by some slight rupture and consequent hemorrhage in the ovary,

but when they occur in the white, the rupture has taken place in the oviduct. In either case over-stimulation or direct violence is the cause. Chasing or rough handling- may, of course, rupture small vessels. These parts are full of such, and when a hen is in full lay all such tiny blood vessels are working at full pressure. But once again, over-stimulation, by spices, moats, forcing meals, or overfeeding, is the more probable cause, and the treatment is as advised in the other cases where a forcing diet is found to be the exciting cause. . . There is in the yolk of an egg botli iron and sulphur. If the yolks in "a given pen of birds are pale (it usually occurs to birds in confinement), give them a plenteous supply of green food. The absence of this is the most probable cause of paleness of yolk. Also add some sulphate of iron to the drinking' water, and a little flowers of sulphur to tho food. The latter is not absolutely necessary, but the treatment indicated seldom fails. If the birds are given iron in tho form of a pill it will be best to give each bird two grains of carbonate of iron. But it is easier to add it to the food or put the sulphate of iron in the drinking water. Zinc drinking vessels must not be used for the administration of medicines, for chemical action is often caused by the contact of some medicines with the zinc.