POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3526, 11 October 1921, Page 20

POULTRY NOTES.

By

Tkrror.

'.I. C. li.“ Bumblefoot is nearly always caused by high perches or flying from trees or fences, though sometimes a cut or scratched foot may develop into a bumble foot through the intrusion of dirt. <'ut tile lump crossways, press the matter out, and wash with lukewarm water. Bathe with soft ,-oap suds, to which add liv ■ nr si\- drops of carbolic acid. \ soft p. iihil e should he bandaged on the f ,nt. and kept moist for four or five days, the bird being confined in a small pen. If die lump is hard or cheesy n will be more difficult to cure “Con. : > aid lie: d' r “ IV: dim; nekey chicks: To be successful iii roaring turkey chicks they must lie well looked after, in fact, the oftener you can run round them the better. Feed little and often, and during the early stages you should feed every two hours, gradually lengthening the time as they grow older. Give just as much as they will eat eagerly, and no more. Hard-boiled egg and bread mud's or biscuit meal or oalucal are c inci!: v

' given for the first few days, but you must mind and not give it to excess, or it may cause diarrhoea. You will find it best to vary this f( ed by one of bread and milk, squeezed as dry as possible. Get a good brand of dry chick food, and give them a feed or two of this each dav. Tile more various the food the better the youngsters will thrive. Green food should not be I neglected, and for this you will find nothing better than lettuce and chives. When about a month old ground oats and pollard may be given, and this should bo mixed to a nice crumbly- consistency. Grain may 1 also be given, and for this wheat is best. Poultry-keepers wi 1, I am sure, syra- : pathise with Mr 11. R. Ives, of IVakari, ; a returned soldier, regarding whose poultry ; plant I reported upon some few weeks i back, and who last week suffered a very ! serious loss to his stock and plant by fire. | At about 2.30 a.m. his neighbour, Mr I Charles Goodwin, saw that the chicken- | house was in flames, and gave the alarm ! first to Mr Ives and his wife and then to i the Fire Brigade. It was too late, then, however, to save anvthing. and the concrete chicken-house, four incubators, four brooders. 100 chickens, and about 750 eggs, of a total value of £2OO. were completely destroyed. The place was last seen by Mr and Mrs Ives at 11 o’clock ihe previous evening, when everything seined safe and secure. There wore four lamps in use to heat- the brooders, and it is presumed that the fire must have somehow started from one of these. The fowlhonse was insured in the State Office for £4O and the incubator for £35, and it will thus be seen that Mr Ives is a loser by something like £125. As he has never fully regained his health since his war service the loss is a particularly severe and unfortunate one. Papanui egg-laying compel ition, twentyfourth week, to September 24. ; Leading pens: | Single lien contest (heavies) —J. P. | Drewetf. 8.0.. 149; R. R. Christie, 8.0., i 105. Light—E. .1. Merriman. W.L., 121; W. E. Ward, W.E.. 120; G. IL Bradford, W.L., 118; C. Ridley, 1V.L.,118. Three I birds, same owner (heavies) —Tracev King, S.W., 120-126 123. total 369; 'J. B. Merrett, 8.0., 127 —125 —91, total 345. I Utility (light)—Green Bros., W.L., 124 : 125 —117, total 363. Light—R. W. Coombes, W.L., 127—119—118, total 364; Ivan H. Penrose, W.L., 122 —100 —138. total 360. Ducks—W T. Green, 1.R., 122—121—117, total 360; R. W. Hawke, 1.R., U 0—166 -67, ! total 343. Teams, six birds (light)—Green Bros., IV.L., 638; Verrall Bros., W.L., 605. Returned soldiers’ teams —J. C. Musgrave, W.L., 707; A. H. Adams, IV.L., 671; E. Orchard, W.L., 655. Nearly an average of six eggs per week from the 441 birds. Mr Coombes’ (South ; Dunedin) 3 birds are, it will be seen, still j doing well, and 1 learn that each of these | birds is laying eggs over standard weight : Green Bros.’ three birds, which are iead- : ing this week, it is reported, will find ;t 1 difficult to comply with the weight clause. In this three bird test Mr W. IX. West's ! No. 3 bird is leading with 143, but tile j secretary informs me the eggs are scarcely | standard weight. Mr Drewett’s 8.0. in j single hen test and Messrs Conway’s and j Ross’s 8.0.’s in the three bird test are reported “going strong” with eggs over 2oz from start of competition. —Southland egg-laying test, twenty-third week, ending September 22. j Single birds —Clias. Thomson, W.L., 134; I Tracey King, S.W., 127; D. F. M’Dougall, ; IV.L., 127; .J. White, IV.L., 125. Teams —- • Tracey King, IV.L., 700 ; A. E. Morris, I IV.L., 686; J. E. Anderson, IV.L., 603. I Ducks (teams)—Alex. Peat, 623. | —Soft-shelled eggs are not always clue to lack of grit and shell, but more often, perhaps, to overfeeding. —The Ministry of Agriculture (England) has now a factory m Essex for the preparation of limpet shell for poultry. The factory has been established on account of tiie costliness in England of oyster shell, which mostly comes from America, and has to bear many charges. In 1820 the factory sold IUOO tons of prepared limpet shells, and tile plant is now being enlarged. —Eggs which have travelled need a £4 hours rest before setting iur incubation. Tiie importance of tiiis is better realised by those who recognise that the germ ir the egg is a live organism capable (why not'.') of becoming tired. Eggs which prove rotten when examined after a period of incubation must be counted as having been ferine; if infertile they would not go rotten, but in appearance practically unchanged. This matter demands recognition as a matter jf justice to the seller of the eggs. dome years back i catne across a report by director T. E. Queenbury, of the Missouri egg-laying contest, tUeti just concluded, and 1 thought it good enough to keep by me. It. reads; —“The day a chick leaves the shell it is endowed with all tiie yolks, or ova, or eggs, that it can e\er lay—and several tkousand more. Nearly every chick’s body possesses several thousand ul these tiny yolks, and it is possible to count as many as several thousand m practically every pullet. No amount of feeding, no system of housing, no method of care ami management, however good it may be, will add one more volk to tiie number already piovided by Nature. 'ihe method of breeding, feeding, housing, and care determines largely Hie number of tiny yolks which any lien v. ill |..c a hie to ripen or develop into fullsizcd yolks an.; manuiam .ire into the finished product. Breeding' has more influence over this than any oilier one tiling. Do not gel an id-.a tint you feed a lien to feed yolks and egg., w;o her body. liiii ieed nei iur tiie purpose of enabling her in develop ihe yolks which Nature and bice ;!u;g have already provideo. Alan lias tui. u the june'e fowl, ol in tiii'.!i r file than our domestic proved tiie wdd I wi until we now have liens laying odd eggs in a year, and ION) eggs in a like. ", o!ik a few veinN.it tire never inionded dial in, fi, v 200 or 300 eggs in a year. Bv iueataisud: production to many time, vdi.r ihe y..:1. fowl laid annually, mun lias sho nmod the life and, in inosi case:, luu dccrca-c' the vitality, eotnipured v. nil lua.t of the uiigmni fowl. Modern methods have not only mnvn - "'I the production of a !ite-ume. hut we ar, also forcing the overworked lien to i!"b\a-i' her 15 or 90 .vans’ supply m iwo or three years, as a rule.” ii is quite possible to rear a weak’v elliek"n, but w; at is tile good of doing so’ The result .may be. and probably will, that is'xt si ison you will have not one. bill: 20 weakly chickens to care for. A ids' prospect t hal, -un.lyl If a number of oi'.' ". and it von find it remove ii. It

is no good trying to cure chicken maladies, unless the cause thereof discontinues. There is an old saying about putting ail your eggs in one basket. This “wise sa ' v ’ may do applied to beginners in the poultry business. Many make the mistake of putting all their capital into a business of which, at least, they have but jnperfect knowledge. The result may be failure, ul| d n v:ce who started off full of bv. himself stranded. Commun'd’ ■ e.-.p. rimeiiting with a, lew i,J ' • ' - i in'u heavy stocking at the on is , can’t make a profit from ICb ;. . will certainly come a cropper ii . ... ... i. t with a. 1000 to 1509 lien farm. • —’J ho recipe for the wash that t-lie American Got eminent uses on lighthouses ai J similar buildings that are exposed to the elements is as follows: -Slack naif a bushel [ of lime in boiling water, covering the receptacle during tne process in order to keep nr the steam. .Strain the liquor through a line sieve. Add to this a peck of salt that lias previously been dissolved in warm water, 31 b of ground rice, boiled to a thin paste and stirred in while hot, Aib of Spanish whiting, and lib of glue, previously dissolved by soaking in cold water in an ordinary" glue-pot. Add sgai of hot water to the mixture, stir well, and allow to stand lor a few days, protected from dirt. Tiie Jin lewasfi should be applied hot, and should, therefore, when possible, be kept in a. portable furnace. The mixture can ; be coloured by adding ochre and other colouring matter according to choice. change says:—The devclopemeut of the breastbone, as well as the rest of tiie bird, is dependent upon proper feeding, care, and management. Generally a crooked breastbone indicates xnal-liutrition at some period of growth or some lack in constitutional vigour. While it is possible that some heavy birds do develop crooked breasts from roosting very early on narrow perches, we believe that m neatly every case the crooked breast bone is a sign of impaired constitutional vigour from one cau.-.e or another. We have had chicks from Mediterranean, American, and Asiatic varieties roosting on board edges and vines, and any old roost they could find, from their early brooder days, and very few 7 of them ever show a crooked breast. We are satisfied whatever other folks’ chickens may do, that in our experience wo never get crookeif breastbones without some constitutional cause for it. The early roosting- is not the cause. One might as well claim that wry tails, roach backs, and other deformities result from sleeping or resting on the floor. When y-cu get bone deformity there is a reason. Of course, in some cases accident or mechanical injury may be the direct cause of deformity, but generally when there is bone deformity like crooked breastbone attributed to early roosting, you can safely look for something wrong in the breeding, brooding, feeding, and care. The characteristics of a good laying hen, says a Home writer, are vigour, moult, pigmentation, quality, and laying condition. Good layers are further defined as strong, active, healthy, gentle, and contented. They should not moult before April 1. Pigmentation refers to colour-shanks and beak pale, ear lobes showing no yellow. In seeking quality, observe that, the skin is soft, fine, and velvety; breastbone thin; pel vie bones straight and flexible. To be in laying condition, the abdomen is soft and flexible; vent- moist and expanded; body depth from four fingers of more; width of pin bones, at least, three lingers. By body depth I fancy the measurement of the abdomen from end of breastbone to the vent is meant. Again, I imagine that in speaking of pigmentation what is meant is that there should be no yellow pigmentation in shanks, etc., after a considerable term of laying, but the brighter the shanks, etc., are when the laying season starts the better. Reilly's Central Produce Mart (Ltd.) report : —Very small yarding forward. All lines met with the usual keen demand experienced at this season, particularly ducks, one small line forward realising exceptionally high prices. Turkeys are keenly inquired for. Eggs: Market steady; Is 5d to Is 6d per dozen. On Wednesday hens realised 6s 6d to 11s iOd, cockerels 5s i to 9s 6d, ducks, 14s—all at per pair; turkeys. Is Id to Is 2d per lb.