POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 32

POULTRY NOTES.

Bv

Terror.

SHOW OATES. The following show dates for the 1928 shows were allotted by the South Island Poultry Association at its annual meeting:— Otautau and District Progressive Lcasue May 9 and 10. ' Nightcaps, May 18 and 19. Christchurch Poultry, P.C. and C. Club June 7,8, and 9. Wahnangaroa Poultry Club, June 8 and 9 Dunedin Fanciers’ Club, June 14 and 15 South Canterbury Egg and Poultry Society (Timaru), June 15 and 16. Westport Poultry Club, June 22 and 23. Ashburton Poultry, P. and C. Club, Friday and Saturday, June 22 and 23. Taierf Poultry Club, Saturday, June 23. Balclutha Poultry Club, June 29. Waimate Poultry Club. Friday and Saturday, June 29 and 30. North Canterbury Poultry Club, Friday and Saturday, July 6 and 7. Granity Poultry Club. July 6 and 7. Hokitika Poultry Club, July 10 and 11. Oamaru Poultry Club, Friday and Saturday. July 13 and 14. Tapanui Poultry Club, July 14. Invercargill Poultry Club, July 17 and 18. Kaitangata Poultry Club, Wednesday and Thursday, July 18 and 19. Lyttelton Fanciers’ Club, Friday and Saturday. July 20 and 21. Gore Poultry Club, July 27 and 28. Temuka Poultry Club, Friday and Saturday, July 27 and 28. Greymouth Poultry Club (reserved dates), July 27 and 28, or August 3 and 4.

“Satisfaction,” New Plymouth, writes: “As a reader of your paper, especially poultry notes, which appear regularly every week, I should be glad if you will kindly inform me, per medium of your valued columns, if the undermentioned ration is, in your opinion, a good and well-balanced food for egg production. I may state that my birds are at present either in full moult or recovering from

same, and in some instances well over the moult and fully feathered. The latter and those Dealing completion seem somewhat listless and indifferent about their feed, be it mash or vrain. I have examined the birds and ho not find lice or any ailment about them, with the exception of face pale, htc. I note the droppings are very soft, and at times dark, watery, and red. I keep the house well cleaned out every and feed the grain :n litter in dry shed. Some of my birds which are in full moult, and laid, exceptionally well as pullets (they are now one-year hens), are the most active workers. I should be very grateful for your advice on this matter also. The ration referred to is in the proportion of 2001 b pollard, 351 b bran, 31b fish meal (or meat meal), 31b blood meal. 2511> maize meal. If this is not of correct feeding value, perhaps you would kindly supply a recipe for egjr production. I give the hens a. liberal supply of silver beet for green feed, and Epsom salts as advocated in your notes. Thanking you in anticipation.” I advise “Satisfaction” to make the mash two of pollard to one of bran by weight, or, as it comes to nearly the same thing, equal parts by, measure, and to leave out the maize meal. Otherwise the ration mentioned is about right. Give the fowls Douglas mixture alternate days for two or three weeks. It consists of, say, of sulphate of iron. 4oz sulphuric acid, and Hb cream of tartar to one gallon of water. Dissolve the sulphate of iron and cream of tartar in water, and then add the sulphuric acid. Give one teaspoonful to each gallon of drinking water, or add it in the same proportion to the water used in the mash. At this time of year, when moulting, some birds in a flock usually go about listless and indifferent to their food; and a tonic such as recommended usually puts them right. I fancy your birds are a little overfed so far as carbohydrates are concerned, and more bran will balance the ration to what it should be. The final scores at the Darling Downs (Queensland) egg-laying competition show a millet belonging to Dlr R. C. Cole leading in white Leghorns with a score of 302, Dlr D. Hampson's pullet being second with 290. In black Orpingtons a pullet the property of Dlr R. Burns led with 326. and the second bird, belonging to the same owner, scored 268. Why are eggs scarce in late autumn and winter? Obviously it is because spring and summer are the natural seasons for reproduction, and incidentally for the production of eggs. How them do some breeders continue to get so many eggs from their birds out of season? Obviously, again, it is by. so far as the birds are concerned, maintaining the conditions suitable for reproduction throughout the year—warm and dry housing, warmth-producing food, meat or milk as a substitute for the insect life of spring, and dry floor litter to scratch in for their grain to make up for the loss of outdoor exercise. Attend to these requirements and you will get eggs the year round if you are a regular attendant on your birds.

Export. The British Australian and New Zealander states: “The trade in Australian eggs imported into this country continues to flourish. At recent sales in Glasgow, Liverpool. Hull, and DTanchester all the parcels offered were snapped up at higher prices than the London market was offering for any eggs, and 25s per 10 dozen were attained in manv instances. These were higher prices than those for Dutch, Sopth African, and Argentine eggs, which were competing. British importers had made arrangements with the shipping companies to land some of the eggs at Hull, Glasgow, and Liverpool, and it is generally recognised that this was a yerj 1 wise move, as the eggs do not suffer from transhipment, and higher prices are obtained. The trade is emphatic in saywig that Australia should not only ship more, as the demand exceeds supnlv. so far. but insist that a good part of the eggs be not sent to London, but direct to the above-mentioned ports.” Prices are higher in winter than in summer, so that it pays then to get even a few eggs from your birds. At anv rate a few eggs partly pay for th 0 feed and attention. By providing the condwitions referred to in the preceding paragraph and subject to judicious culling having taken place, the production should be actually profitable. It is so on numerous well-conducted plants. At the Mount Gravatt (Queensland) Poultry Clubs egg-laying competition, which terminated on March 31, two records for that test were established in the light breed section—3o2 standardweight eggs for an individual pullet and 1571 for a pen of six pullets. Canada’s Poultry Population.—As a side line adopted by new settlers, poultry keeping in Canada is rapidly becoming a prominent industry. In 1927 there u'ere 7,840.000 hens and chickens, 547,383 turkeys, 192,361 ducks, and 176,406 geese. The estimated money value is £1.424.200* Lupine Seeds Are Good for Fowie.— The “ Encyclopaedia Britannica” says: “ Lupine seeds are eaten by the poor (in Egypt) after being steeped in water to remove their bitterness.” And again: “ The lupine of the ancient Greeks and Romans was probably L. albus, which is still extensively cultivated in Dlediterranean countries for forage, for ploughing in, and for its flat, round seeds, which form an article of food.” “ So it is certainly safe,” says a Home writer, “to use. Like all other legumes, it should be used in moderation, and. either boiled or ground, it might form 10 per cent, of a fowl s total food.” A few lupines growing in a poultry yard provide shelter for the birds in the summer months, and, now, when the birds are moulting and the lupine pods are cracking open and the seeds dropping, the birds, where lupines are growing, are finding a food, at no cost to the owner, which is highly nitrogenous and consequently helpful in the growing of new feathers. Have you an isolation pen? An isolation pen should form part of every pullet plant. As soon as a fowl becomes ill remove it to this pen and treat it at once. The trouble with too many is that they wait till the disease is in its advanced stages before they commence treatment. The outcome of delay in thip respect is often the spread of disease and the loss of several birds. An Egg Within an Egg.—Dlany people wonder why occasionally they find an egg within an egg, and to show that there is nothing new about the business it need only be mentioned that poultry writers

of 200 years ago referred to it. Professor Salmon, onetime (if not now) chief of the United States Bureau of Animal Industry, explains the matter in the following terms: —“The production of an egg within an egg is easily explained. On account of irritation of the central portion of the oviduct albumen is secreted without the presence of a yolk. This albumen is pressed by the contractions of the tube downwards to the uterus, where a shell is deposited upon it. In the effort to expel this small egg irregular contractions are induced, which force it upwards for a certain distance, where it meets a yolk surrounded with albumen, or a second mass of albumen without a yolk, becomes embedded in this soft albumen, and a membrane and shell are formed around the whole. The compound egg thus formed is usually the normal size. These abnormalities, which have excited much wonder in persons ignorant of the physiology of egg production, are in reality very easily .understood, and the experienced poultryman will draw the conclusion from their frequent repetition that his flock is being forced beyond the limit of safety.” Professor Salmon in the foregoing has not explained how it is that sometimes we get double-yolked eggs—in some cases each egg separately shelled, and yet one within the other. I (“Terror”) have seen one instance of this, and know of two eases in which, on hatching, each egg produced two birds. lu one case 13 ducklings were hatched from 12 eggs (one being outstandingly a donble-yolked egg), and in the other case after one chick emerged from an abnormally large Orpington egg, another, properly shelled, but small, egg was seen inside with a chick breaking out. This last-mentioned chick was shown by the owner (Mr Reilly, of Studholme, and now of Dunedin), and won firsts at every appearance. Abrasions or superficial wounds of the skin or mucous membrane—scratches or skin rubbed off in shreds—are not often serious injuries unless allowed to become fouled with droppings or diseased matter. If neglected abscess or ulcer may result. Treatment: Bathe the wound with warm water. If the wound is dirty cleanse thoroughly with soap and water. If there is much inflammation keep the wound in a hot water bath for half an hour. The water should be as hot as can be borne by the hand immersed above the wrist. After bathing, dry and apply either the powder or ointment following:—Powder: Powdered boric acid loz„. salicylic acid 3gr; dust on wound after cleansing. Ointment: Powdered boric acid Idr, vaseline loz; use as ointment after cleansing wound. Keep the injured bird in a clean coop with no roost, bed with clean litter, tand dress wound daily if necessary. This treatment may be applied to all ordinary superficial sores, cuts, or scratches.

Don t give tea leaves to poultrv, as they are positively dangerous to their health if used to excess, and are of no feeding value whatever. On the contrary, they contain a quantity of tannin, which is poison.

£2OO Refused for White Leghorn— The University of British Columbia has refused an offer of £2OO for Maisie, the famous white Leghorn hen which established a worjd record by laying 351 eggs in one year. Last year the sale of stock originating from Maisie brought in £2’ 7 25 Pedigree Tells After All.—The American 1 rofessor M . A. Lippincott has shown that the effect of mating pure males with many generations of pedigree breeding behind them, with low-grade, mongrel hens was to raise the productive stand-ai-i -’ n ? ac h sucpe ssive generation until within three or four years it compared favourably with that of pure stock. With such an object lesson who cannot afford to ignore the value of properly bred pedigree stock as a factor in commercial poultry farming? Why You or the Other Fellow Should Keep a Few Head of Poultry.—There is hardly a city or suburban lot, a small or large farm, unless the land is positively wet, on which a poultry house could not be elected that would go a long wav towards paying the rent or the butcher oi grocer. At least it would furnish the family with fresh eggs—a luxury impossible to obtain of the average grocer or provision dealer. In additional would furnish out-of-door employment to the shut in boy and girl, would provide an outside interest for the head of the house who might otherwise take up more expensive diversion. It would teach the boy business experience in keeping accounts and train his mind for the detail of larger responsibility. The regular proj.ding of feed and water and the pleasure of picking ur> the eggs and getting spending money through his own efforts would do more to make a man of him than any experience of city life., business college, oi school could bring him. In addition it would develop his interest and love of the lower animals, and broaden his mind and tend to make him- unselfish and to think of the comfort and needs of others. It would give to the shut-in t worker nn insight into a very profitable business, and the experience with a few birds would prove a valuable asset in building other houses under more favourable opportunities, providing a method of shaking off the restraint and isksomeness of labouring for others, and lead to an independent existence out of range of the boss, overseer, or superintendent. It would also provide out-of-door exercise and recreation, and a chance to make a living for the invalid whom the city has thrown out as a weakling, who. with the out-of-door employment, would soon become one of life's earnest workers and helpers; simply the opportunity is lacking. It. would provide the housewife with spending money that she would otherwise be obliged to ask for. and when she once got the birds she would find that they added very little to her daily tasks, and a few moments out of doors is- really a relief from the indoor confinement otherwise unbroken. It would provide the farmer boy with the means to help out—or if a few more were built, to pay bis entire college expenses, and he would always have at his fingers’ tips a business to turn to. The men who succeed to-day are the ones whom necessity required should pay their own way to a greater or less extent; in short, that learned from experience just how many cents there are in every dollar. It would show the small farmer a way to double his income with little

or no more expenditure for labour, and provide the added returns that would make his undertaking a success instead of the other thing. It would show the large farmer that the most profitable crop he can grow upon his many broad acres is poultry; that nothing returns so much for the grass they eat as growing chickens, and for the grain they eat when fully matured as these same fowls. Don’t wait until you think you have an ideal location for poultry keeping. The birds will thrive under the most adverse conditions if only kept dry and in pure air, with proper feeding. Start with a dozen hens, and increase it as your opportunities open for you, but start. Reilly’s special mammoth poultry sale advertised drew consignments from Albury in the north to Riverton in the south. In all 1152 birds were penned. Quite a number of the hens and pullets were specially good birds, though, as usual, quite a number of the pullets were very small, late-hatched birds. Cockerels: Especially white Leghorns came forward in large numbers, and the bulk of them were sold.for killing. On the whole everything sold remarkably well. Hens fetched from 3s 8d to 21s the pair, pullets 5s to 255, cockerels 4s 2d to 425, and ducks 4s 6d to 15s.

DUNEDIN UTILITY POULTRY CLUB. TJ I6 annual meeting of the Dunedin Utih ty Poultry Club was held in the Y.M.C.A. Rooms on Thursday, April 26. with a good attendance of members. The balance sheet showed that the club had concluded a very successful year’s work. The membership of the club had increased considerably. Among the new members some very keen poultry enthusiasts proved good members. The club deft 1 ' 63 |° thank who so willingly assisted the club during the year, including the ecturers, supporters of the club who so liberally contributed towards the club’s funds and special prize list, the press tor their valuable assistance whenever it was required, and also our Government Poultry instructors, Mr F. C. Brown, chief, an £( -Mr Cussen, his able assistant. i « e subscriptions for the year are to be s M for all new members, and the usual 5s for all present members: ladies free. • A hearty vote was accorded to all retiring officers. The election of officers for ti- incoming year is as follows:—Mr T H. Dalton, life member; patrons—Messrs qu m i M 'nF r ?? er - E - Oswald Reilly, P. k hacklock, T. F. Macpherson H. P. Harrey. and John B. Waters: president. „ J- Jowsey; vice-presidents—Messrs R. W. Coombes. R. H. Millard, F. G. Hansen, J. Rattigan. William Hollowav H. L. Sprosen, and James Sanders; secretary Mr A . E Poulter; committee— Messrs Milham Collie. C. Bartlev J Crooks, A. C Goodlet. H. Halford. J A S - M re p. White; reporter, Mr William Holloway. i me( 7 tin - s in the future are to n? held every fourth Thursday from Mav 31 when the first meeting is to be held. Ah members who are able are asked to assist in the erection of the beches and pens for the coining June Show. Quite a number of good suggestions were reveaV* 1 by thC lnconiin ff committee for the A hearty vote of thanks to the chair brought the meeting to a close.