THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 20204, 15 June 1927, Page 12

THE POULTRY RUN

NEWS AND NOTES.

(By

“Leghorn..”)

MATING AND BREEDING. The amateur should not attempt to start a strain of his own until he has mastered the art of mating and breeding. The best course is to select some reliable breeder who has established a superior strain, and purchase a pen or two mated up by him. The amateur can then send back each vear for stock or can buy eggs from the breeder’s best pens, and raise stock that, being of the same line, will “nick" with his own birds and give him the advantage of the improvement the breeder has been making in the strain. Of course, it is very necessary that in startig to breed along these lines one should select a breeder who practises line-breeding and breeds his own winners instead of buying them. However (says a noted authority), there are few breeders who would not occasionally buy a bird of another strain if they were to find one strong in some point in which their own line was weak. But, having seen such a bird, they would be very careful to prove its breeding well by experimental mating before introducing its blood into the entire strain. They would then introduce only the percentage of blood necessary to produce the desired result. The best system of mating depends upon the breed and strain. Nine breeding failures out of ten are due to the breeder rather than the particular system which he followed. It is absolutely necessary to breed only the best, both as to individual quality and blood line, if we hope for improvement. EGGS FOR HATCHING. Normal eggs, full of vigour and vitality, generally hatch out as they' are expected to do. Give fowls nannal and natural conditions, use fresh air houses and plenty of the best food, and hens are only likely to lay eggs that will hatch. Be it remembered that when hens lay eggs they must enough to eat. The food must furnish the egg-making material. Poultrybreeders and fanciers have done inestimable service to the poultry industry, and much remains to be done by the men who comprehend the laws of heredity and variation and the ability to select along desirable lines — establish or fix that which is wanted. “NewLaid” in Dominion. ACCOMMODATION FOR YOUNG POULTRY. Many beginners make a g’eat mistake in bringing up young poultry along with hens from the time they are weaned. The effect is to check the growth very seriously, for at breeding times the young birds are constantly being bullied, and have a very poor chance of obtaining a sufficient i supply of food. Growing chickens need to I be fed frequently, yet if food is thrown down four or five times a day the old birds get the greater quantity and the young birds derive little benefit. No matter how limited the accommodation may be, if chickens are reared they must have a separate run and sleeping quarters, and must on no account be kept with the old birds. Unless that precaution is taken it is little use rearing young stock, for certainly they will not pay. RESPIRATION AND VENTILATION. Fowls have no sweat glands to carry away poisonous matter from their system, and so a tremendous amount is carried off in their breath. If a house is not correctly ventilated the air becomes devoid of oxygen and saturated with carbonic acid gas, and this is breathed in again by the birds. The blood of the fowl is pumped by the heart to every part of the body, where it is carried to the lungs, reaching Them charged with poisonous matter. In the lungs this blood is relieved of the poison, which is carried off in the breath in the shape of carbonic acid gas, whilst the oxygen extracted from the air, if pure, is carried back by the blood to the heart, and pumped again round the body. It is the same oxygen in the blood which, combining with the carbon in the food, causes combustion, and the consequent nourishment of the body. Hence it is a paramount necessity for an adequate supply of pure, fresh air to be provided in the sleeping quarters for chickens and adult fowls alike. Within the space of three or four minutes every ounce of blood is passed through the fowl’s body, and thus returns laden either with fresh oxygen or deadly poison to the system. Now, if the fowl is subjected to blood poisoning for ten or twelve hours out of the twentyfour, only one result can follow. Remember that a fowl is usually fed just before going to roost, and that it should digest and assimilate that metal during the night. If there is a lack of pure oxygen to combine with the carbon in the food to produce combustion, and so nourish the bird, what can result but an ill-nourished bird, which soon becomes weak and subject to any disease. Hence the front of the house should not be boarded above 2ft 6in. from the bottom, the remainder of the front comprising small mesh wire netting. This will be found to provide plenty of fresh air. A weatherboard and a sliding shutter will be found useful in inclement weather.—Evening Star. A CANADIAN TEAM. A pen of ten White Leghorns in the laying competition at Agassis, British Columbia (Canada) put up a record of 2,946 eggs (average, 294.6 per hen) in fifty-two weeks. They were owned by the University of British Columbia. A contemporary states: “Experts in charge of the University of British Columbia prize laying pen gives three reasons for the success of their birds. First, they place the climate, which they say is ideal for poultry-raising and egg production; secondly, the quality of bird now being produced by Frazer Calley poultrymen after most careful breeding; and, thirdly, the care given to feeding the birds on the farm, milk being one of the chief constituents of their diet. Otherwise the diet is the usual ration of a mixture of grains and greens. The houses are open fronted, and the birds are on short range only two months in the year.” The reference to food is scanty. The birds have mash in addition to grain. ANTIQUITY OF THE FOWL. Probably fowls were first domesticated in or near Burma, and they were well known 1000 B.C. There is a specimen sculptured on marble in the British Museum of about 600 8.C., and this bird resembles the true jungle fowl with its drooping tail. The earliest “breed known in England was the O.E. Game. This may perhaps have come to Britain with the Phoenician tin traders. It was, of course, used for cock fighting until last century. This pastime was well known to the ancients, though the first actual record of an English fight is in the time of Henry 11. The next breed to appear was the Dorking, and this may have been brought in by the Romans. One of their writers, speaking of a fine table fowl, mentions more than one Dorking characteristic, including the five toes. It is entertaining to read old comments on poultry, and one written early last century is quite amusing. The writer mentions a “variety, or more properly a kind of monstrosity . . . very common in England, particularly about Dorking, in Surrey”—and all because of the poor creature’s extra toe! About 1847 some fowls were brought from Shanghai, China. They were first called Cochin Chinas, and no after-attempt to give them the designation of “Shanghais” prevailed over the firs. 1 name. The fowls seem to have been both light and dark, and the Bluff and Partridge were derived from them. The Black was next produced, and the White naturally followed.

USE FOR LIME. Professor Herner, of Manitoba Agricultural College, has another use for lime, and says: li One of the simplest and most effective remedies for colds in chickens, and also canker in its early stages, is air-slaked lime or lime dust. In giving the treatment the doors and the windows of the poultry house should first be closed. Crowd the hens toward one end of the house, then throw lime dust at them till the air is so full of it you almost smother. Five pounds ! will be sufficient to use at one treatment ' for a house that holds from 100 to 300 birds. This treatment should be given every day for a week or so.” HINTS. Sitting hens should not be fed on soft food, but always on hard grain. They should be given as much as they can eat. Fresh water must also be supplied, and a dust , bath provided. No matter what ails the fowls, a sick bird should at once be removed to separate quarters from the well ones. It is a precaution that always pays. Never be tempted to breed with a bird ; that has had serious illness. It is not always possible to be sure that such is really cured. There is just one way to succeed at poultry raising—make it a business, not a plaything. The secret of successful egg-farming is not difficult of solution. Volumes could be written upon this subject, but there are six principle essentials which constitute success, and which are: A reasonable location, a productive fowl, proper and eonomical feedstuffs. adequate yet inexpensive housing, intelligent general care, and a properly marketed product.