POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3419, 26 September 1919, Page 51

POULTRY NOTES.

Bv Tub hob.

Diarrhoea in chickens: Probably the cause may bo that the chicks have been feeding on stale food. Of course, you don't give them stale food, but unless they eat all that is given them at once some remains to sour, and, if subsequently eaten, causes diarrhoea. The chicks' soft food should be placed on a board or old piece of oilcloth, which can be lifted out and shaken when the birds have had a satisfying meal. Sometimes diarrhoea in chickens is "attributable to being kept without water for a time, and then allowed to drmk too much; and. of course, water exposed to the sum and allowed to got stale will speedily cause trouble. Give the chickens some dry rice and a little raw meat, and stop the green food for a day or two. In bad cases give each bird two drops of ehlorodyne in a teaspoonful of tepid water twice a day till improvement is seen. Fowls should-be prevented as much as possible from drinking from stagnant pools, as it is by such practice they get diarrhoea and the ovar of parasites which ultimately develop into worms with which fowls are often infested. Here, of course, is another reason for attention to water vessels specially provided for the fowls. Oil of turpentine, 10 to 15 drops, in a teaspoonful of olive oil, given every' other day till the trouble is cured, is said to bo an effective remedy for worms in fowls. The best way of giving it is to allow the bird to go eupperless to bed. The next morning administer the oil, and about a couple of hours afterwards give the breakfast, which should consist chiefly of well-scalded bran and a teaspoonful of Epsom salts to enough food for every two birds, being dissolved in the water, and dry the whole off with the very white middlings, so as to make it as palatable as possible. For the rest of the day feed as usual. Chickens require food rich in framebuilding material, and that of the easiest digestible kind. Fattening food is not desirable, because that tends to undue weight and hinders bone construction, so necessary at this pcr-iod. The hen or the artificial brooder maybe relied upon to provide the warmth necessary to the chickens during their first few weeks of existence, and it is when on their own and able to roost that their'food ration should_.be richer in carbonaceous or fuel-providing, warmth-giving constituents. Be particular, above all other things, about the nature of the chickens' food" during the first few days, for a mistake at this period of their lives will prevent the chickens taking hold of life and beginning their growth as they should do. Don't leave them more than 24 hours without their first feed, and don't start feeding sooner. Feeding too soon or after too long a delay are both wrong. Feed every two hours as much as they will eat clean up, and give the first feed as soon after daylight and the last feed as late as ■ possible. Any of the chick-feeds (mixed grains) now on the market are suitable for the youngest chicks; a little flaked oats is also good, and a very little cut-tip meat or cooked liver is much enjoyed and is beneficial. Don't forget to provide green feed, suitable grit, and" fresh water, and clean out and air their sleeping quarters daily. After a hen lias been frightened it frequently happens that a shell-less rgg breaks in the egg-passage. Wh.en this is the case the fowl may be seen standing very erect, with her tail down and head up. The feathers are usually wet behind, while the other part of her plumape looks very rough. If not attended to fowls often die when this occurs. They are usually found dead on the nest, and the cause of death is frequently put down to egg-binding, when it is really the skin _of the soft egg left in the passage; this irritates the fowl and causes her to strain, as she cannot pass it. This causes a rupture of the egg organs, and often of £ho body, too, and is tho cause of tho laying hen being so large and down behind.

The most common cauees of egg-eating

aro as follow:—(1) Insufficient nesting accommodation. Birds crowd into tho nests, and an egg is broken and eaten. (2) A scanty supply of shell-forming material. A soft egg is laid, broken, and eaten. (o) Over-stimulating food may cause the laying of eott eggo, especially by young birds, with the same unfortunate result. (4) Nests too light or placed too low enable birds to sec eggs lying in them. They satisfy a natural curiosity by pecking them. (5) Lack of occupation duo lo insufficient scratching facilities. The idle birds peck an egg and eat it. (6) The introduction into a pen of a bird which is already an egg-eater. She teaches the others by example. Having once discovered the delights of egg-eating, in any of the abovementioned ways, birds soon become addicted to the •vice.

The Formation of Eggs.—The ovary of a pullet is nlkd with ova—in different stages of development—embedded in a mass of tissue. A mature ovum, when it is ready to escape from the ovary, consists of a light yellow body (the -actual yolk of the egg) enclosed in a delicate membrane and having at one point a sightly darkened spot or disc, When the ovum escapes from the ovary it passes into the dilated portion of the oviduct and travels on downwards. The white of the egg, which surrounds the yolk, is socrcted by glands situated in the walls of the oviduct, and surrounds tho ovum as it passes through it. Another set of glands a little farther down tho oviduct secrete the substance that firms the shell. When first deposited around the egg the shell is quite soft and slimy; but when tin ovum reaches the lower dilation of tho oviduct it remains there for 12 to 18 hours, during which time the shell becomes quite hard. After thi3 the fully-formed egg', surrounded by its shell, is expelled from the dilated portion of the oviduct by violent contractions of the walls, JSld passes out through the cloaca and is laid. Tho shell is hard before it reaches the outside air. If it be soft when laid it will never harden. Oatmeal for Chickens. —Probably the best way in which to supply chickens with oatmeal (coarse or fine) is to make it into cakes, which can be crumbled after being baked. The thing is to know just how to make the cakes! Cooking oatmeal into porridge —preparing it with as much care as if for human consumption—is also serviceable. If tho porridge is thick and i 3 allowed to become cool is can be mixed with fine bran and sharps—very little of the former —which will remove much of its "stickiness." Otherwise you can break it down with a fork and add separated milk, .and in such a state it will be relished by chickens. Some poultry-rearers soak coarse oatmeal in, cold water until it swells to its full extent, and then givo it to their chickens. My great objection to using oatmeal as a dty food is that chicks are apt to take so • much that their crops become packed, and then, after a drink, the food cwolls, and crop trouble follows. I certainly prefer to have oatmeal made into cakes cr porridge. —ln selecting birds as breeders, don't forget that tight-fitting featheis, with wings clipped up' tightly denote the possession of a strong constitution. The loose-feathered sloppy-looking birds plainly tell you that they are weak. —ln poultry operations no waste should be permitted. **lhe table scraps of the ordinary house will go a long way towards feeding a half-dozen hens. The scraps should be covered with water, thoroughly boiled, and mixed with bran and pollard. Than a mash of this sort no better egg-pro-ducer can be obtained.

Directly a sick bird is noticed it- should bo removed and isolated, and the water vessel to which it had access thoroughly scoured with boiling- hot water. In pouitrykeeping "prevention is better than cure," and don't you forget it.

Don't let the poultry manure Ho id'e. As fast as gathered it should be spread out on/ the ground, and a week later dug in. In my experience there is nothing better for raisins- strong-feeding vegetables, such as cauliflowers and cabbages.

When you,, want to stop a fowl from flying, don't cut its wing. Instead, pull the four or five outer wing feathers. Ihis will ca'use the bird to become lopsided, in which condition it cannot fly, and the method is preferable to cutting. ■ —ln saving seeds you -don't take them from every flower. You gather them from the best blooms, of course. Why don't you do the same things with the fowls? They are not all good layers, yet the ordinary poultry-keeper takes the eggs as they come . and raises chickens from them. How may you distinguish the good layers? Weil, the best method is to run up a few single nens, but that is a bit out of the way for the ordinary man. But there are other means of finding out. One is to go through the birds at night. Those with full, hard-packed crops are good layers. And there is an infallible- method which may be adopted. It is to mark, the hens which have been laying during the cold weather. They are the ones, and should be bred from in August, September, and October. The small man knows the hens which laid well in May, June, and July, o;-, if he" doesn't, he ought to know. Messrs .Frasor and Co., produce merchants, auctioneers, and commission agents, 146 Crawford street, Dunedin, report: The egg market is steady. Case eg/js. Is 5d to Is li£d ; Egg Circle eggs. Is 6d. There is a <rood dem-ind for all classes of poultry. The following were the prices realised : Hens, Ss to 3s 6d; cockerels, 3s 6d to 4; 6d; clucks, 4s toMs 9d; geese, 3s 6d to 5s — all at per head. Turkeys—Hens, Is Id to Is 3d; "gobblers, Is 3d to Is scl per lb live weight. reports: A much better yarding of poultry came forward for our sale on Wednesday. Trices are still very high. We had a very good yarding of cockerels and a large quantity of ducks, pullets, and hens. Turkey gobblers and hens are scarce and difficult to procure. The following prices were secured for our consignors:—Ducks, lis, 13s, and 15s per pair; hens, 5s Pd to 9s 6d per pair; pullets from 5s 6d to lis 6d per pair; cockerels, 7s 6J to 12s per pair. Hardly sufficient eggs are coming forward to meet our requirements, and prices for stamped and guaranteed are firm at Is 6d nor dozen; we have made sales at Is 7d. We have confidence in recommending consignments.