THE POULTRY RUN

Southland Times, Issue 20228, 13 July 1927, Page 12

THE POULTRY RUN

NEWS AND NOTES. (By “Leghorn.”) SHOW DATES. Lyttelton Show, July 15 and 16; Kaitangata, July 20 and 21; Temuka, July 22 and 23; Greymouth, July 29 and 30. THE BREEDING SEASON. SOME USEFUL HINTS. The breeding season is once more upon us, and all breeders should make preparations for it. Those in a large way of business do not need this warning. Those who have suitable birds for cluckers should make every effort to start them laying at once—give them meat liberally—so that they will cluck about July or August, or, at latest, before the middle of September, which is the best time to start hatching. Those who only keep non-sittere should get two or three Wyandottes, Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, or Orpingtons, as they make fine cluckers, and save the keeping of mongrels about the place, and are good layers into the bargain. Now, also, is the time to think about the breeding pens. Fanciers will need to pick out their best birds. This is a good time to secure good strong, healthy birds from good laying strains, and if you have to pay a higher price than you would at the market you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are not buying culls. In large part, profit in poultry-keeping depends upon getting a high egg-production average per year per hen, and poultrykeepers must develop their flocks by proper feeding and correct management to secure this high egg-production. Management includes many things besides proper feeding, and just now judicious mating of the breeding pens is the most important. See that the male bird in the breeding pen is healthy and strong, and the son of a good laying hen, and that the hens are daughters of previously well-selected pens, and are the layers of 2oz. or more weight eggs, and typical specimens of the bird they represent. It is as well to remember, however, in order to avoid disappointment that, mate as we will, the hen is not a man-made machine, but a living producing unit, and that the members of a flock vary very much more widely than would so many machines. Each hen is a problem unto herself. Every year the most experienced poultrymen have to cull out from their laying flocks birds which are weak in respects which render them unprofitable to keep. LOSS OF WEIGHT IN TRANSIT. The question whether birds lose weight when travelling was raised in England, when a woman appealed against a conviction for selling turkeys deficient in weight. It was well known, said an expert, in attendance, that domesticated birds lost weight in a change of environment. They were temperamental. The appeal was allowed. STUDY THE FEEDING QUESTION. Just how much foqd to give a fowl cannot be set down as a fixed rule. The advice given for years past was to give them all they could clean up. While this is a good plan, a man having charge of a large number can hardly spare the time to watch them. A hen that is laying will consume more food than one which is not laying; but the food supplied for laying hens must be different from that supplied for fattening purposes. A hen, to be in a good laying condition, must not be overfat, but in a good, healthy condition. Experts who make culture a speciality agree that about one quart of soft food in the morning, a pint of grain at noon, and a quart of grain at night, will keep twelve hens in good condition—this amount to be kept up daily. The food must be of such a nature that will gh'e bone, muscle, and elements for producing eggs. Meat, rightly fed, is important, if given not more than three times a week. Green cut bone is a grand article for producing health and eggs. The evils of overfeeding are apoplexy, falling dead from the roost, egg-bound, soft-shelled eggs, etc. Study the question of food and the art of feeding thoroughly.—Poultry World. CLEANLINESS. A FACTOR IN SUCCESS. The New Zealand Farmer has the following instructive article on cleanliness in the poultry business: The vital factor in connection with the poultry business is cleanliness. No matter how choice or how well selected your stock may be, you will fail to achieve success unless you pay strict attention to this very important detail —that of cleanliness. The lazy man rarely gets very far on the road to success, for he invariably neglects this highly important factor. Even the hustler will fail in his objective if he ignores it, though there is far less danger of his doing so than there is in the case of the lazy or easy-going individual. The neglect of proper cleanliness is what puts many beginners out of business. They fail and condemn poultry-raising, when the fault of their non-success rests with themselves in not observing a proper measure of cleanliness in connection with their operations.

The hardest work in connection with poultry-keeping is that which has to be performed during the trying heat of summer. It is then than vermin, such as mites and lice, multiply and get in their best work. Lack of cleanliness is responsible for their appearance. If proper attention -had been paid to this they would have found it very difficult to have obtained a footing. The chief essential in every poultry house is a dust bath. This should consist of sand and ashes, in which a handful of sulphur has been mixed. The mixture should be placed in a box and placed under cover, where it can be kept thoroughly dry. The way the birds revel in it is proof that they enjoy some such provision for their comfort. It will be found to keep down lice and mites to a great extent. Then every crack and crevice of the poul-try-house should be sprayed with disinfectant. So far as the inside of the house is concerned, it should be thoroughly limewashed twice a year, or oftener if the necessary time is available. SWEETENING THE RUNS. Whether runs be large or small it is asking for trouble to let them remain occupied year after year without adopting some thorough system of cleansing and renewing the soil constantly made foul by the droppings of the birds. Nothing else can be expected in such a case than that organic disease may break out at any moment. It has been demonstrated that, to some extent, the germs of disease are present, even among healthy stock, but that they are harmless until conditions arise which are favourable to their extra rapid multiplication. The more excessive the germs are, therefore, the more serious such an outbreak is likely to be, if the conditions which favour it arise. As we are still very much in the dark as to the exact nature of the conditions which favour the rapid development of such germs, the best thing we can do is to get them out of the way as soon as possible. The manner in which this is done will depend somewhat on circumstances, but some system should be adopted so that the menace of disease is reduced to a minimum. In the case of small runs, there should be, w’here possible, a system of alternation, so that a run is unoccupied for a fairly long period, not less than a month at a stretch. If the run is grass the natural growth will soon utilise all organic matter, and a complete sweetening will rapidly take place. Where there is no grass, the whole ground should be dug over and thickly sown with some quick-growing plant, such as mustard. When this reaches its full development, not only may the birds be safely brought into the run again, but there is a good crop of green feed for them. A system of alternating runs is the only safeguard against fouling of the whole ground when a heavy stock of birds is kept on a large area. When the range is extensive and the birds few it is not necessary. In cases where only a small run is available, arzl such resting and recuperating cannot be practised, frequent digging over is a great safeguard; for this not only places much of the dangerous matter out of reach, but exposes the consolidated masses to the effects of sunlight and oxygen. A liberal dressing of quicklime, will, however, produce a more immediate effect by destroying many of the dangerous germs. In addition to periodical digging, it is expedient to scrape off the top layer of soil at least once a year and remove it. This becomes specially advisable after a long spell of wet, for the foul matter then lies caked on the surface. Thinly shaving it off with a spade will not only have an excellent sweetening effect, but the material removed will be valuable as garden fertil iser. PERCHES. If there is anything in the poultry house | that requires careful attention it is the ! perches. On these the hens spend about : half their time. The instinct of self-preser- ! vation prompts fowls to perch on the high--1 est possible point when settling down for the night. They naturally wish to be above danger from below. For this ’reason the perches in a fowl house should all be on the same level, otherwise crowding will take place every night with disastrous results. The perches should be low, not alone because fowls are apt to injury themselves ! when flying down from high roosts, but i because low perches permit of better venI tilation. The most impure air in a poultry ■ house is near the roof. The lower air is ' purer, more plentiful, and more healthgiving than at the top of the house. Eigh- : teen inches to two feet above the floor is ; plenty high enough to place the roosts, for I the convenience of most fowls, unless dropping boards are used when the boards must i be about 2ft above the floor and the perches ■ 6in above them. Perches should be built so that they do not really toich the walls of the house at ■ any place. When they do so it is much : easier for lice to thrive. The fewer cracks ' and crevices wherein lice may find a lodgi ing place about the perches the better. Perches should be moveable, in order that ■ they may be taken out of the house and periodically cleaned. STERILE HENS. It sometimes happens that all the eggs produced by a certain hen are infertile, and this is probably owing to one or two reasons. It may be that the hen is sterile and cannot fertilise the eggs, or that the cock, for some reason, has taken a dislike to

this particular bird-. The latter is the more common cause, and when such is the case the hen should be removed from the pen, and another put in her place. When the trap-nests are employed the eggs from each hen are known, but even under ordinary conditions one is able to distinguish the eggs from each hen, and if these are continually infertile it may be taken for granted that it is owing to one of the two foregoing reasons. Forcing pullets is responsible for a good deal of sterility in eggs, and they should always be allowed to develop slowly. Chickens for the table may be forced as much as possible, as they are killed immediately they are sufficiently large. But with breeding birds no forcing should take place, but they should from the days of early chickenhood be allowed to grow slowly, as only in this way will the best results in breeding be procured.