THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE POULTRY RUN

(By

“Leghorn.”)

Look for disease due to overfeeding and to confinements. Sluggish livers are common now, and you will need to be watchful lest your laying hens get off their feed. When you see a hen losing its comb colour you may take it that there is somej thing wrong. Isolate it from the rest of the pen and try to diagnose the complaint. Remember, “a stitch in time saves nine,” and timely treatment will often nip a serious complaint in the bud. The urinary apparatus in fowls is made up cf the kidneys, which are reddishbrown lobular bodies situated in the body cavities on either side of the backbone, occupying the space below the attachment of the ovaries or testicles. Each kidney has three lobes. Attached to these kidneys are white cord-like ducts, the ureters, which communicate with the cloaca (the terminal part cf the intestines). The urine is mixed with the faeces or excrement, in the cloaca, and is represented by that part of the droppings which is white or chalky in colour. The fowl has no bladder. Neglecting to give fowls a continuous supply of water is a serious matter. Dark combs are often an indication of neglect in this respect. Skim-milk is one of the best egg-pro-ducing foods. A good method of using it is to let it sour, pour off the whey, and boil the curd or the milk may be given in liberal quantities for the fowls to drink. During the spring and summer months, the natural laying season of birds, milk may take the place of animal food, but to produce a good yield of eggs in winter an ample supply of animal food is necessary. While food should be in abundant supply, the quality should be as good as possible in the circumstances. It never pays to supply a high-type layer with an ; inferior diet. Many of the samples of foods offered to poultrymen at comparatively cheap rates are dear at half, or even a quarter, cf the money asked for them. Some of the oats are nearly all husk, while many of the meals consist for the greater part of useless fibrous material. It should never be forgotten in buying food that the best is always the cheapest in the long-run even if it costs a little more to purchase it. A writer cf poultry notes on the other side whose nom de plume is “Breeder” has the following suggestions for the novice which are well worth noting:—“You can generally depend that the man who constantly writes about Nature (with a big N) is concealing his ignorance by appealing to a certain class of phenomena. Poultry under domestication, are in quite different surroundings from those in a state of Nature, the wild or feral jungle fowl. The aim of the successful designer of poultry accommodation is in the direction cf sanitation and comfort for the birds whose goings and comings are restricted. To compel unfortunate poultry to pass their fives in the miserable hovels, generally vermin infested—which do duty for the average backyarder—is not in accord with modern professions of kindness to animals. Wet floors, draughty hovels, and yards which are frequently insanitary quagmires cause untold misery to the birds, and manylosses to their owners. Proper accommodation, suitable for our climatic conditions, entails a fair outlay, but it is justified from every point of view. One of the reasons that eggs are scarce and dear in autumn and winter—w-hen the weather is cold and often wet- —is the inadequate housing provided. Here you find the ‘Nature’ champion who does not observe the ways of Nature. Jungle Fowls do not and would not lay in cold, wet seasons. They resort to shelter until better weather prevails. Moreover, they are natives of countries where cold, wet winters are not—only the usual tropical, warm, rainy seasons. Because they have been badly housed in all temperate and cold climates is no reason why that should continue. Birds housed under modern conditions are healththier, hardier, and infinitely more profitable than those kept under the old conditions, due to ignorance and measures.

THE FIELD HEN. ADAPTING LESSONS GAINED FROM HER METHODS. The hen is essentially a ground bird, and had it not been for enemies would probably have never taken to trees, says a prominent writer on poultry matters in an English paper. About farm buildings it will nest in most unaccountable places, such as in carts and other implements, and I have known one to lay and sit on a bare boarded floor, without a scrap of nesting material. In the semi-wild state, when at field houses, they lay and sit on the ground, usually in hedge bottoms, but sometimes in a bunch of nettles or in coarse grass and rushes in the middle of a field. She is as great an adept at concealment as a hare, and in the same way will hide until one passes within a foot of her if onp does not directly meet her eye. Her favourite place is just within a hedge on the ditch side, and it is interesting to watch and study her under those conditions. She usually scratches out a slight depression in the soil, and uses no more nesting material than does a plover. She lays as many eggs as she can cover, and then goes broody. This may take from 14 to 21 days. We cannot suppose that a hen knows that length of time beforehand. When she is geing broody, therefore, it is a fair assumption that the accumulation of eggs in a nest tends to bring on broodiness. The converse is equally true, that the removal of eggs tends to keep her on laying. We find this also in wild birds. A thrush’s usual number is five, yet if we take one away daily and keep the number down to two. she will lay seven or eight before she starts to sit. Nature sacrifices much in the reproduction of species, and her greatest efforts are in that direction. It is obviously in the interests of the race that a bird should be able to lay more eggs if her nest happened to be destroyed or her eggs stolen. The removal of eggs by man, combined with a daily supply of food, has been the chief factor in making a hen lay 200 eggs in a year when her ancestors only laid not more than 30, cr as many as would form two broods in a spring. How many scientists can hold that acquired character cannot be transmitted has always been a puzzle to me in the face of this and many such kindred facts. LESSONS TO LEARN. The lessons we may learn from the field hen are many. She leaves her nest in the early morning to feed. The. eggs are then cooled. She comes back with her breast feathers damp, and so the eggs arc moistened. This does not prove that either are strictly necessary, but it dees at least prove that they are not harmful, and we imitate them in artificial incubation. The hen rarely leaves the nest after she hears the chicks in the shell, nor does she leave until the chicks are two days old, and then not for long. We copy this also, but what we cannot give in an incubator is the contact between the eggs and the living body, and who can say what passes from the cne to the other. It is impossible for the chicks to get much food for a week, as they are not strong enough to wander far before then. This teaches us that chicks require nothing but warmth. The food is provided by Nature in the. remains of the yolk, which has been drawn up into the body of the chick. To copy Nature we must at all costs avoid a chill in the first few days, and later care that we do not overfeed for a week. The earth is the right place for a nest and for the young chicks. We know that eggs will hatch under adverse conditions, but there is one dace in which I have never succeeded 4 and

that is in an iron corner manger in a stable. The iron is too good a conductor, and the eggs must be chilled in a cold night. Eggs do not hatch so well during persistent east winds. I remember one spring when the wind was in the east the whole time, and the hen eggs were often 26 days before they hatched, and duck eggs 33. When fowls are set in boxes on straw the conditions are too dry, yet the moisture in the egg and some conveyed by the hen’s body wi.ll usually bring off good broods. Moisture can be overdone. I once had a dozen hens set in a brick house built on a slope, so that the back wall had four feet of earth behind it. There was an old arm of a canal not more than 20 yards away, and on a slight embankment, and so higher still. The wall was very damp. I set the boxes close to that wall, and although the hens sat well, the result, was complete failure. The next time I drew the boxes into the middle of the house, and had excellent hatches. Thus we see that although eggs will hatch under slightly adverse conditions, they will net when the conditions are wholly bad. Therefore it is best to follow the natural way as closely as possible.