THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 19546, 9 May 1925, Page 19

THE POULTRY RUN

NEWS AND NOTES. (By “Leghorn.”) OVERCROWDING. A COMMON ERROR. The tarm flock often is overcrowded because the farmer wishes to keep just as many birds as possible throughout the winter, regardless of results. As much profit often can be made on a flock of ten birds properly housed and cared for as on one of 200 which is crowded into a small house. Crowded conditions are usually found in a filthy, poorly ventilated house. The result is low egg production and usually disease. A bird under ordinary farm conditions should be allowed approximately feur square feet of floor space. Without the proper amount of floor space for each bird the litter becomes damp and dirty quickly, and if it is not removed frequently, and clean straw supplied, a drop in egg production can be expected. / Hens give off more moisture a hundred pounds of live weight than any of the farm animals, and it is essential that this moist air be carried off if the house is to stay dry. There should be plenty of fresh air in the house, but no drafts. It therefore is essential that there be no openings except in the front of the house, unless a circulation of air is needed during hot weather in summer. Some of the openings in front should be of glass tc let the sunlight penetrate the back of the house and some space left open to be cqvered with a muslin curtain only when the weath.r is stormy and extremely cold. If the muslin is kept clean some air will pass through. Birds can endure rather severe weather, but the air must be dry. There is plenty of straw’ on the average farm, and yet very little of it is used for litter in the hen house. Deep, dry lifter will make the birds scratch dcr their grain, thus helping to keep them healthy and working off some of the surplus fat on the body of the hen that has been fed too heavily on corn. A count should be made of the birds that are to be kept through the winter. If there are mere than can be comfortably housed, the surplus ones should be taken cut of the flock. The siekly, latematuring birds should be culled out first, as they will not be profitable layers. They must lay a few eggs during the spring, but high-priced winter eggs cannot be expected from them. The essentials cf good housing are cleanliness, dryness, freedom from draughts, plenty of room, and plenty of sunlight. The house should be a comfortable heme for the hens.—lllinois College of Agriculture. Competition performers are evidently splendid advertisements. Mr J. Liggins, of Burwood, has shipped eight White Leghorns to Mr R. Porritt, “Kirkwood” Poultry Farm, Pietermaritzburg, Natal. This is not the first consignment made by Mr Liggins to Mr Porritt, who, when he was here on a visit, expressed himself as greatly impressed with Mr Liggins’s birds and plant. No doubt he is watching the egg-laying test results, and makes his orders accordingly.