THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 19389, 1 November 1924, Page 19 (Supplement)

THE POULTRY RUN

NOTES FOR AMATEURS. (By “Leghorn”) When a bird stands by itself at feedingtime, if its feathers are slightly ruffled, and the crop full of fluid or semi-fluid it is very suspicious. Water will not run out of the crop unless you stretch the neck straight; give the crop some pressure. The crop should be washed out if possible by emptying, and then pouring down water in which there is some germicide, again empty the crop and give a teaspoonful of kerosene. Feed milk either perfectly fresh or quite sour. Stick to one or the other. See that the sour milk is a lactic acid sour if possible. Milk will coagulate through dirty cans or other contamination, then you may have trouble with chicks, but not if it is clean soured. The soured milk may be mixed with meal, bran, pollard, etc. If you have an excess of skim milk it into curd and you will get rid of the excessive whey. It then becomes valuable as a food. Sour milk will not scour birds, but will correct and prevent scouring. In fact, sour milk is one of the best cures for infantile diarrhoea. The colouring matter of the yolk substance is composed of vitellen, melien, lecithin, and two pigments (lutein), which are all secreted from the blood. Therefore, if a bird produces pale-yolked eggs it is necessary to improve the blood supply in order to obtain eggs with yolks of the desired colour. To do this it is essential to use either a blood-forming food or tonic. One of the best remedies is the tincture of iron perchloride, and the easiest way of adminis- 1 tration is to give the birds five drops of the tincture in a teaspoonful of sweetened milk twice daily. It is a little-known fact that maize is a mild ovariam stimulant, and good results are obtained when this valuable product is judiciously employed. Tincture of iron perchloride yields better results with poultry than any other preparation of iron—but it must be administered as recommended —in sweetened milk. See that the males in the breeding pen have not long spurs. Should the spurs be long, cut a bit off them. Another way is to wrap a bit of cloth round the legs and burn the ends of the spurs with a hot iron. The cloth is meant to protect the leg from the heat. If a cock or a cockerel has a very large comb it will tend to help fertility if the comb is cut off. There is no need to cut the comb off close, as with game birds. First starve the birds that are to be dubbed for 24 hours, then with a pair of short scissors start at the back of the comb and cut upwards towards the beak. When finished put the bird’s head under a tap and then put a bit of feather in the wound to stop the bleeding. Birds which have combs cut off not only give better fertility, but are in much better health. Some cocks and cockerels are soft enough to let the harem eat all the food. Such males are poor chick-getters unless bred on their own. The savage male that knocks the hens about is not desirable either. Vigour is wanted, but not savagery. The question of food values is of the first importance of all. Vitamins may be more talked about than understood, but we have come to recognise that they are essential. A step farther has now been taken. Professor Cullis, in a lecture, summarised in the Journal of Education, explains the matter very well. All three vitamins are contained in tomatoes. “A” is in butter, milk, yolk of egg, and cod fiver oil. This explains how milk and oil aid the growth grain, in yolk of eggs, and in yeast. “C” is in fresh vegetables and in the juice of oranges, lemons, grapes and swedes. Many poultry-keepers use swedes for their birds with good effect. But the important new point deals with the virtue of direct sunlight. There is no doubt that sunshine is a great factor in preventing the ordinary effects of the deficiencies of vitamins. Yet some commonsense is necessary. Folk in large towns have the greatest of difficulty in securing fresh vegetables, either for themselves or their fowls, and there is far too much tinned food, of the condemned character, brought to feed poultry. An official market report is before me. Hundreds of cases of Russian eggs had to be sold in the poorer districts at a knock-out price with "all faults.” Neither vitamins nor sunshine are of much avail if we tolerate putrid food for children or chickens.—Broadcaster Poultry. SEPARATING THE SEXES. To separate the sexes is a most important matter, and the earlier this can be done the better for both. It is, however, a point that is often neglected with detriment to the cockerels as well as to the pullets. To obtain the best results it is advisable that wherever possible the birds should not only be kept apart but out of sight or hearing of each other. If the cockerels are kept with the pullets there is always more or less fighting going on among the males, and the females not only suffer in the matter of feeding for cockerels are, as a rule, very greedy, but they are also bullied and annoyed by the male birds. It is somewhat difficult for the novice to distinguish the sexes at an early age, but a little observation this year will give one more courage for a future season. As a general rule among most breeds the matter of feathering is a reliable guide, pullets, as a rule, being more forward in this respect, the difference being noticed especially on the back and breast. In light breeds there is a much quicker development of comb and tail in the males than in the pullets. Size as a rule has something to do with sex, male birds being slightly bigger from the start than pullets, the heads are larger and carried higher, pullets being less obtrusive in their manners. Many poultry rearers can judge very accurately at quite an early age by the indication of the spur. All male birds that are not to be used for stock purposes should be weeded out or used for the table, as it is unprofitable to keep them, especially those of the light breeds. MARKING CHICKENS. It is always advisable to mark chickens in some way so that one is able later on and during the fife of the birds to distinguish one lot from another. It is quite impossible to do this accurately without some reliable and authentic method being adopted. There is a plan which is very easily carried out and may be useful for a certain period, but which eventually is useless, and it is by the use of aniline dyes in different colours. The marking should be done with a very slight touch immediately after the chickens are hatched, and it has this advantage in that it keeps one on the right track till the birds are older and stronger when they may be attended to in a permanent fashion. Marking by the use of metal or celluloid bands in different col* ours is a simple plan adopted by many poultpr rearers, but it has the dieadvantage that in some cases the rings may come off with the result that the marking is lost. The most reliable and sure way of marking is by toe punching. Some may object to this on the assumption that the method is a cruel one, but it is really quite painless, the web of the chicken’s foot being quite insensitive and the name is really a misnomer and instead of toe punching it ought to be web punching, as the small holes or punctures are made in the web of the foot. It is necessary when doing the job to make sure that the punching is perfect and clean cut, as then there is no danger of the punch closing up again as it might do if the cutting were done in a jagged and careless manner. • By this method one lot may be punched on the right foot and another on the left. Quite a number of lots maybe marked thus alternately with one, two or three punches on either foot. Whatever is the method of marking adopted it will be necessary to keep? a note or chart for reference, because depending on one’s memory is not satisfactory, and to be correct and sure it is safest to put the markings down in black and white. It takes but little extra time to do this, and then one has a reliable reference.