THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 18969, 16 June 1923, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE POULTRY RUN

(By

"Leghorn.”)

Entries for the Invercargill Poultry, Pigeon, Canary and Pet Club’s annual Show, to be held in the King’s Hall on Friday and Saturday, June 29 and 30, close to-day.

Red Mite.—A poultry woman furnishes an admirable tip in regard to red mite. She uses a piece of rope Bin longer than the perch, and tacked beneath it. Tin cans, such as jam tins, are fastened at each end of the perch, in which kerosene is kept. The ends of the rope arc allowed to hang in the tins, and thus absorb the kerosene. The supply of oil must be maintained. The idea sounds distinctly good. A device which will be a great boon to poultry-keepers, doing away as it does with the continual attention at present necessary to incubators during the brooding season; has been recently obtained by several members of the Levin Poultry-keepers’ Association. This is a patent contrivance which automatically regulates the temperature of the egg-chamber, and whereas under usual conditions it is necessary to attend to incubators two or three times per night, the new device is adjusted once a weeek and requires no further attention. It would be quite easy to breed poultry if like always produced like, but this does not always follow. Good layers can breed poor layers, and do so, and breed perhaps a quarter of their progeny as good as themselves, and three-quarters decidedly worse than their parents. On the other hand they may breed a few a good deal better than themselves, and these birds are invaluable to the breeder. When a pullet, under test, lays better than her mother did under the same conditions, we have the key to the whole situation.

The beginner is often at a loss how to proceed for the best, when the frosts that must be expected just now have their grip upon things, says “Moorfowl” in the Waikato Times. The person making the rounds should, every evening, look into the houses and see that all the birds are snug and perching is too dim a light within the sleepnext boxes or in a corner on the floor, these should be placed alonside the others on the roost before finally shutting them in for the night. The usual cause of not perching is too dim a light within the sleeping compartment, and thus it is a good plan to leave the outer doors ogen until the round is made at dusk. On very cold mornings the drinking water should have the chill taken off, but that is all. It is a mistake to feed more liberally than usual at such times, as this tends to make the birds stand about wretchedly afterwards, resulting in bad circulation, and in large combed birds—a tendency to frostbite. 1 would prefer to give the birds three small feeds daily, the first two to consist of dry mash —opening the hoppers for a couple of hours first thing in the morning, and for, say, half an hour at noon; also give green feed along with noon feeding. At 3 p.m. I would give a grain feed thrown amongst the scratching litter, and consisting of wheat, clipped oats, cracked peas, and maize. Never give whole maize.

SELECTING PULLETS. It will doubtless be of considerable interest to note what that well-known and highly successful breeder in England, Mr Tom Barron, has to say on the subject of selecting pullets. He writes as follows:—If you wish to send birds to a competition and you have bred pullets from a certain hen, or pen, as the case may be, get your pullets together and pick out the ones that are near laying, and the ones that have a sprightly, healthy appearance, tight feather, etc. The following points will then be found useful: — (a) Sharp bright eye. (b) Rather narrow head and eyes projecting from the skull. (c) Fine texture of comb and not too large. (d) Short stout beak and rather short head. (e) Short thin neck. (f) Long back and wide across the wings. (g) Breastbone short as possible; the shorter the better layer. (h) Rather short legs and fine fat bones. (it Good width between the legs. (j) Good wide cushion. (k) The longer the distance from the breastbone to the pelvic bones the better layer. (l) You ought to be able to get the width of four fingers between the breastbone and the pelvic bones for a first-class layer. (m) A wedge-shaped appearance when the bird is stood erect. (n) The bird to have an angle of 40 to 50 degrees when stood upright, sloping from front to back. (o) The pelvic bones straight, thin, and well apart. (p) The tail carried rather high. (q) Medium-sized bird, but not too small as it may be here where the small egg comes from, so that layers should not be too small.

EXHIBITION REVIEWED. AN EXPERT’S COMMENTS. To a Christchurch Press representative recently Mr P. Furness, who was the principal judge of poultry at the show, gave his impre£? sions of the exhibits. Mr Furness is well qualified to speak authoratively, as he comes from a family well-known in the poultry world, his father, the late Mr George Furness, being the originator of several varieties of bantams, more particularly modern game bantams. “I think it an excellent show,” said Mr Furness, “the planning and general arrangements being splendidly carried out. I was particularly struck with the single tier pens, which are very seldom seen at Australian shows owing to the difficulty of securing a hall equal to the dimensions of the King Edward Barracks. One of the noticeable features of the show was the publication of marked catalogues within a very short space of time after the awards had been made. “The turnout of old English game was a revelation to me, particularly as regards the male portion of it. They arc an extremely level lot of superior quality. How the exhibitors were able to produce ‘such fine birds from some of the hens exhibited is a mystery to me. As a matter of fact there arc only one or two good hens in the show, whereas there are about a hundred good cocks and cockerels. In Black Red cocks there are some wonderful specimens, and in the cockerels one exhibit got a special prize for being the best male young bird of any breed in the show. Duckwings and Piles produced some nice classes, some of the latter being better than anything 1 have seen in Australia. The blue chequer cockerel which won the first prize and specials is one of the best four coloured specimens I have ever seen. Old English Ban tarns, however, are a long way behind those of Australia in quality, the majority of them being too large and loose in the feather.-. Brown Leghorns, taken as a whole, are quite a nice class, the honours going to th.males. With regard to the White Leghorns, however, I can only describe them as disgrace to the show, and the exhibitors as a whole. Minorcas are a grand set, good birds being shown in every class. The win ning pullet is as good as anything seen foi years. Anconas are nice in type, but they lack uniformity of colour. White Ply mouth Rocks arc a good section, the win ners being of good type, and the Black Orpingtons are very typical, the winnin, hen being excellent in shape and colour. At though there was only one exhibitor i Polish, the birds were quite a treat to se. being of good quality and well shown, j was favourably in|pressed with the Silvr, Wyandottes, which made a capital showin; the females being much in advance of tl males. In this section many good bir failed to get into the prize money owin to the keenness of the competition. Th winning silver pullet is the best bird in tl. show, and is one of the best I ever handle White Wyandottes produced birds of even

quality throughout, the winning cockerel being the best of them. Although there was only one exhibitor of the Sussex breed in the show, this is a class of bird which most people ought to see, because it is absolutely one of the best all-round breeds in

existence. If it were more widely cultivated in the Dominion it could not fail to attain greater popularity, being a good table bird and a good layer.” Speaking of the Magpie pigeons exhibited, Mr Furness described them as being a creditable lot, the winning black hen and young black hen being capable of holding their own in any company. With regard to the toy dog classes, the judge said that undoubtedly the best sections were the Pomeranians. Two highclass specimens were the winning dog and the champion chocolate bitch.