The Farmstead.

Southern Cross, Volume 8, Issue 31, 24 November 1900, Page 6

The Farmstead.

HINTS FOR BREEDERS. Pekin ducks are the most prolific layers. The Dorking is the king of table fowls. Average eggs weigh about eight to the lb. Sunflower seed makes good food for poultry. Kill off old hens ; they are not profitable. Peed on plenty of green vegetables or grass. Fowls kept on sandy soil must be supplied with grit. Fresh water should be given daily in the poultry run. Wyandottes and Orpingtons are good all round strains. Pekin and Aylesbury ducks crossed make the best table birds.

All fowls are subject to a common cold, shown in the usual way by more discharge from the eyes and nostrils.

In suburban districts where oyster shells are easily procured there should be an abundant supply kept in the poultry pens. The shells should be crushed.

Where only a few fowls are kept, and they are properly managed, there is no difficulty in selling some birds and eggs to pay for almost all the food they consume. Regulate the quantity of grain for the evening meal by the condition of the stock. If they have a free run they require very little grain if eggs are the object. A fat hen cannot make a good layer. Where a large number of birds are to be reared, and more especially it early in the year, a chicken house is indispensable. Chickens can, in one of these houses, be reared with greater ease at all seasons, as they are completely protected from the bad weather, and the attention given them is very much more comfortable than when they are outside. Rot only so, but the chicken house can be used as a place for hatching, and, after chicken rearing is over, for fattening or as an ordinary fowl house.—Melbourne Leader.