POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3614, 19 June 1923, Page 42

POULTRY NOTES.

By

TERROR.

-Ihe Canterbury Co-operative Poultry lioduoers Ltd. (J. B. Merrett, manage), At i -1 !o- Uei il - on ,he "<-'are and M.uketuig cf Eggs,” as ttll apFeal IO cn-ilhl* lUU P I OUUr - v ke eP«s to maintain o o.m ’ Vgg ", Lci "k r "anted for local con--u.iipti°n and export. it deals with Tho Storing Ali ° °are of the Nests, Diduftry oe 1 “ f e |)o " -:—‘The PoultryPoidtrv The St ‘ w island 60 000 doren 1 ‘ <J ‘! ’, !ls arranged to export It is spending°±;is0 O j , ' on^ on m . September. 1 * 1 X/I pJ in advertising ns non "it has’ iUl<i . , ur .° il .T r J> tea tor eoiisumpwhh ever affilnrem , U,e T '- ( ' h;Ul1 ’ '’rand in \ e « v y i Every menilier Will was* allowed J io°ccpv IZZ - h « W 18, ehildron of interested in ‘hens ’ ” i no,t 1 cr * oss mind (here i • »y rt agree, but lo my -Viz. of the question tried s' It i V? c^^^len ,n country discull ui e Would L, Ml ' SS °", S 0,1 poultry the raisin<» of , . s " l «fquenlly useful in food problems'"an /"'l °L stoclc - for tJ, « involved hold eon,} |; reed, '‘£ problems (livelier o 10r j 1 r My iuJ<l Ihat i" 1 he teaching LH. m tzrj wonder at the wisdom of the “Great D .giier rather than the prurient desires • K , are inevitably instilled into their minds by prudish people. —’jhe extracts are taken from <« s avs written by pupils of Standards V and VI in an Utago country town and entered for the lear-5r "il’ <lu b's selicoj competition last ’• ‘ ’ , ° those that take a great interest in poultry the points are very simple but to tin outsider the hen is just a plain hen which lay s eggs. Among the very interestIn £,, :)ir< J that comp under the name of poultry there are many species—for instance the male and the female. The male birds of the well known species are the rooster who looks afier the hens, the drake who looks after the ducks and the gander who looks after the geese. There can not he much said about the rooster except that lie livens up the .Show with his lively crowing. He is a very proud bird, is the rooster, as he struts about, with bis head up and uses his strong lungs to their fullest extent. I he rooster is a useless bird as he lays no eggs. The only tiling he can be used for is to Ire cooked and eaten for dinner. Some roosters think a lot of themselves and strut about as if they are lords cf creation. Some roosters have a fighting disposition. There are many kinds of poultry, leghorns, While Rock. Minorca, Black Oipingion. New Plymouth Rocks, Red Spaniels, and many others. The white whynedot is a good laying fowl. 'Flic Black Manorkers are good hens. A very pretty bird is the Bantam, which is very small and does not grow much larger. The bantam, a very small speev, lays eggs only half the size of fullgrown hens. Other people keep Dotrils ar.d many ether different kinds of poultry. If you do not know much about the habits of your fowls at first they are very disheartening birds. They do not lie down to go to sleep, but sit on perches with their head under iheir wing. All roosters arc awake at daylight- and asleep at dusk unless some youngster or some animal has been making a row and kept the poor fellow awake. Some people give their hens some kind of stuff called Hen Producer, but I think brand and polar d mixed with hot water is best or oats. They should net be disturbed or chased, - only at mealtimes, unless for some particular reason. Chickens should not be fed with any thing bur chicken food or pollen mixed with water. It is a habit of fowls to cackle, when they have done their day’s work which is to lay one egg a day. The best plan is to have to sets of hens one which lays in the summer and the other in the winter. In about six weeks the egg should be batched. Sometimes very few are hatched because they are rotten. If eggs are being hatched w ithin a month the owner may depend that tho egg- is starved. When the chickens are very young they should be kept very uuiet a s a noise will kill (hem. In a coop where a hen and chickens are kept the wirenetting must have holes as small as possible or the chickens are liable to get out and if there is a cat anywhere near it would probably eat it. In the certain season, Autumn, most poultry moult and loose their feathers. Sometimes when poultry moult it is very hard for them to recover their feathers again. If hens get wet it spoils their feathers and they all come out. When birds are put into the Show they have to be washed thoroughly. A hen is a pretty bird when it is dry. Men who are unable to work are earning their living by keeping poultry and selling the eggs or caking them to market. Old people, or those of old age, take it as a hobby. —Tuberculous Diseases in Poultry.— Scrofula, Ulceration, Canker. Consumption, etc., are all included under this heading. Domestic birds are very subject to tubercle in various forms, and nearly all the organs of the body may become affected. The principal symptoms are cheesy-looking or calcareous growth, or maybe ulcerations, on any organs, such as lungs, liver, mouth nostrils. Treatment, says A'eteiinary Practice, is of no avail, and iln> birds should be at once destroyed, and even health viooking fowl when killed ought to be ex*

amined lor evidence of this disease, and if present it should not be used tor human food. All carcases should be burned. Bacteriologists have rarely discovered the tubercle bacillus in eggs that have been laid by tuberculous bens; but it may be advisable to abstain from hatching thorn. A capon is simply an unsexed male bird, corresponding to the steer or the wether among live stock. By this operation of caponising the nature of tho birr! is changed, lie becomes more quiet and docile, and takes on flesh rapidly. lie makes more weight on the same feed, am} the flesh is of superior quality both m flavour and texture. hatched chicks (1522) were packed and shipped by Mr Bradley, Langford, Vancouver Island, to Moose Jaw, Bask. This is a four-day journey by boat and rail, and the chicks arrived in good condition. Crowing in Cannon Street. —On Friday last (says W. I’owell-Owen in the Feathered W orld) Cannon street seemed to be a-crowing and a-blcwing. The Exchequer Leghorns and Barnevelders were up before the Poultry Club for daring to breed true. In other words, the P.C. councillors were judging specimens of the two breeds on a table in the basement at Ihe London Chamber of Commerce. Exchequers came out of the hat first, and we saw the proud father, followed by one of his wives, and then the son and daughter. One has always to submit to the Poultry Club when asking for a breed and standard to be recognised four specimens of ihe above lines—i.e., an adult cock and hen, together with a young pullet and cockerel. The Exchequers were accepted by the P.C., and all who saw tnem thought them to be a smart-looking lot. Over a hundred members were looking forward to the event, and Secretary Mr Bloom took all the afternoon writing'postcards to members regarding the result. A writer in the Farmer and Stockkeeper (England), in comparing natural and artificial methods of hatching, says: ‘I suppose far more chicks are hatched eac , y e ar by natural than by artificial methods. I only- know of one large poultry farm where hens are used exclusively; still, rorii e ’ S ct that, year after year, some are hatched and reared by hens. Put the cost of a 100-size incubator, a 100-size brooder and a hover to follow at about and depreciation will cost aoout ±,2 10s per annum. Then there is the cost of oil for lamps of all three, with .ic* 1 one should get four hatches out durmg the spring months. If one rears 60 clucks eoen time, which is quite good, the * i,i cost somewhere about 4d each fnJ ™ 1 f ! , d reav > saying nothing about food and laixtur which are the same in* eituer method. We are assumino- f! la + t i le various appliances are worked by an effiedre -di - e ->T r , ier,C f d pou’tryman or the results might he half that. The same -^ r bv°, f iCkS T^ 11 b ° hatched a!ld reared by 26 liens. I am putting this high enough as I have dene it many "times whh tf Ihe coops were made of bacon boxes ro'™ ti' ;:iS t >. 2s no "). and six wire i uiis to put m front of the coops the 7°™*** ch icks, also home! ‘La a L? s each, so the cost is about the s i. p J e hen s time is worth nothing, as Z Q ,a -’ s muf h letter about August when go!d.” are S ° arCe > aud the rest" does her du7i-T°-= n ° fc f‘ ve rnasb or Zrain to ducks o>before then”* 086 B * t ° aeh ° f water “ -ho Large fleshy and heavily-feathered E; oPiterb'Su” 11 “” d «■" capital heahF ‘!i " ‘ hc found to maintain capital health and promote rapid growthl o vdered cassia b-irk 3oz, ginger 10oz, gen..li ioz, tarbonate of iron soz. Mix the overv J f r ’- an *l ivC ° nc teaspoonful to every 10 birds m their soft food. , dl:easC:i amongst poultry are dur to a deficiency in the rations of tho ncces--ary vitanunes, and the deficiency may be V lO ™ us « o trouble to some, few Ifirds in a flock, and not to all of ihem. It is a °r constitution. (Edema of the vvatt.es, hmhrr-neck roup, bacillary white diai rhcea are all said to be deficiency msoases. Yeast extract sold as marmite and cod-liver oil are recommended as cures 1- ceding plenty of green leed should be a preventative. Hollanu before the war kept 8,000 000 ! ead p , oul !/y „ „ The number gradually dwindled to 3,000,0C0 by the time of the Armistice. At the end of 1922 (he number was between seven and eight millions This is without counting the 250.000 laying clucks m the vY atari and and several thousands of geese principally in Drenthe. The increasing enthusiasm for poultry-keeping is still further shown by the creation of co-opera-tive egg societies, amongst others at Rorpmond, with ISS branches, where about 40 million eggs are sold. The Leeu warden Society has 12,000 members, and the sales riso to about 25 million egrgrs; Arhkin reaches 22 millions . Other societies exist at Enschede. Oostburg, etc. Reilly’s Central Produce Mart (Ltd ) report-Fair yarding of poultry; prices for lions distinctly firmer. Tho tipplies to cockerels. An exceptionally heavy yarding of t ucks, and prices, if anything, v, pro easier. Eggs have been in full supply, and prices have again receded; to-day 2s per dozen is the host price obtainable for stamped and guaranteed, Is 9d per dozen for cased, ar.-d Is 6d per dozen for pre served. On Wednesday we sold: Hens at 3s 4d. 3s Bd, 3s lOd, 4s 2d. 4s 6d, 4s Bd. 4s lOd, ss, 5s 2d, 5s 4d; pullets at 6s, 6s bd' 12s; cockerels at 3s, 4s, 4s 4d, ss. 5s 6d, 6s Bd, 5s lOd, 6s, 7s, 7s 6d; ducks at 4s 10d’.. 6s —all at per pair.