THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 19172, 16 February 1924, Page 11

THE POULTRY RUN

(By “Leghorn.”) A Melbourne writer a few weeks ago said of Hamburgs:—“No breed on the show bench has made such strides during the last two years as Hamburgs, both silvers and blacks, making large classes of choice specimens.” A poultry keeper in St. Martins has a game hen, which laid in a nest up a tree and hatened out four chicks. It is the nature of fowls and especially game fowls to resort to trees, bqt laying and hatching in trees is not oiten heard of. there arc many breeds of poultry, pigeons and cage birds, and all have their attractions. It will be better for the fancy when more breeds arc cultivated to d greater extent, and also when breeders are a trifle more tolercnt of the taste of others. Do not fancy that your birds arc the only “pebbles on the beach.” The growing birds should not on any account be overcrowded, or trouble may be expected by way of vermin and disease, me profits to be made from poultry largely depend on the management the birds receive during all stages of their development. Any set-back received during tne growing period is never caught up. Beginners 111 poultry keeping must rememoer first and foremost that unless we coniL.ne stamina with good breeding all the best breeds in the- world will fan us. lhe stamina of the famous white leghorn has been neglected over ana over again, and by persons who consider- they are good biecGers. The leghorn is only famous as an egg producer and when she fails to prove she is a layer it is time to quit her. Therefore, to make the white leghorn a profit-earner we must be sure she is from a laying strain, and also that she has a very strong constitution to stand the drain on her system in producing payable quantities of eggs We sec to-day strains that were once famous lor stamina and eggproducing powers barely holding their own, and in some cases the breeders and founders of these strains are hardly heard of. Why is this? someone asks. Many and many a similar question has been asked. But it is quite simple were we to look behind the scenes, it is a case of not enough care being made in the selection of breeders each year, and of breeding from too young a stock, or else from plaj - ed-out layers.

I Some years ago several consignments of Australian poultry reached this market ? (says a London exchange), and 3 realised s satisfactory prices and gave promise of a regular business being established, but this I was not realised, in order to stimulate . this trade, Mr D. Sproat, one of the lead- ? ing poultry dealers of Smithfield, is sailing 5 by the Ormonde and will visit Adelaide, r Melbourne, and Sydney. He thinks that a young chickens and ducklings, if packed 1 according to English requirements, would 1 meet an excellent market during the winter. lie sees no reason why Australian - and New Zealand poultry-breeders should 1 not be able to compete successfully with the United States’, which supplies 40 per - cent of the poultry arriving in England ■ during four months of the year. ‘ This is the weather when one must wage war against the red mite. They are found 1 mostly under the perches. Perches should be movable and occasionally raised and a : little kerosene poured on the place on which they rest, or they may be smeared 1 with greese. Pieces of cloth or bagging ’ may also be laid under the perch where it rests on another board. These pieces of cloth will collect the vermin, and they ■ can be collected and burned. The mite is fairly easily kept in check providing the perches are not attached to the building itself. They do not remain on the 1 fowls- during the daytime, but either hide in the crevices or under the wood. For this reason perches should be as smooth as possible, and branches with the bark on should never be used. It is easily kept in check, but will rapidly multiply in the careless man’s poultry house. DUCK DATA. In the very near future we shall look to ducks to a greater extent than in the past to furnish our egg supply, remarks “Moorfowl” in Waikato Times. Indian Runner is already helping to solve the egg problem. The rapidity with which this e gg P r oducing line of stock is growing in popular favour is simply wonderful. Of the entire duck family the Indian Runner is by far the most popular. It is a beautiful variety that matures very quickly and is often found shelling out the eggs at the age of sixteen weeks. Rarely, indeed, is it found difficult to produce the . second generation of Runners in the one season if the proper grade of bird is kept. Runner eggs hatch readily, but they must be incubated under hens or in an incubator, as the Runner itself rarely sits. The Runner is the smallest of the best known varieties of the water-fowl family, but lays more eggs than any of them, 300 per year being not an infrequent total among prolific strains. When we remember that four duck eggs are equal to six hen eggs in the matter of weight, and that the average production of a Runner is equivalent to four hundred hen eggs, we get a proper idea of this grand utility bird. The Indian Runner is a great forager, and requires little or no feeding when given free range, preferring grass and insects to grain. It is extremely hardy, and prefers to r6ost out of doors on the ground, except in severe weather. Its housing at any time is a simple problem, and a three-foot fence is sufficient to keep it within bounds. It may not be generally known that Runners can be confined in very small ’enclosures and kept on lawn clippings and table scraps. Instances are on record where half a dozen of these birds have been kept continuously in an ordinary colony coop without their egg-production being checked in the slightest degree. It is thus possible for the city resident to keep a flock of these birds in his back yard and have freshlaid eggs for breakfast each morning and some to market. They need water only for drinking purposes, and are not subject to infestation by lice or mites, nor to the diseases that usually affect poultry. They can be hatched and reared at all seasons, and lay extremely well in winter. A strong prejudice exists against duck eggs with tinted shells, but the Runner is immune from such prejudice, as its eggs are white and the equal of the hen’s product 1 in every way for cooking purposes. In

many, instates no marked difference is observable between them and the latter, except as regards size, Runner eggs invariably scoring an advantage in this respect.

The flesh of the Indian Runner is especially fine in quality and early in maturity, and is always produced at less expense, pound for pound, than is that of the ordinary market duck, but it is as an egg-producer that the Runner shines.