POULTRY NOTES

Southland Times, Issue 22733, 8 November 1935, Page 9

POULTRY NOTES

CAGE BIRDS

(By

“Feather.”)

[Comments on any matter api ; in this column, or contributio.. A notes, of general interest, for publication will be gladly received. All correspondence to be addressed to “Feather*,” c/o Southland' Times, Invercargill.] SENIOR CLUB. The fortnightly meeting of the Invercargill Poultry, Pigeon, and Cage Bird Club, held at Everybody’s, Tay street, on Saturday evening, was well attended. Mr A. H. Smith presided. Correspondence received from the South Island Association included a copy of the annual report and balancesheet of the association, remits for the conference to be held at Dunedin on November 21 and 22, a precis of a discussion relating to a dispute in connection with the award in one of the canary classes at the last Invercargill Show, and a notification from Mr J. G. Jeffreys declining to accept nomination as president of the association for the ensuing year. Mr Jeffreys thanked the Invercargill Club for the honour of nominating him, but stated that he had not the spare time necessary to devote his attention to the duties of the office. The annual report recorded a very successful year. Thirty-one societies were affiliated to the association, 20 of these holding annual shows. Increased entries had been received for most of the shows, the cage birds providing the additional, especially the budgerigar classes. At the 1935 shows the association had issued 109 championships, and 91 certificates were won; in 14 cases there were no entries for championships, and in four the respective judges did not consider the exhibits worthy. The record of certificates won proved that the quality of exhibits was still on the up grade. The new competition for the Victory Shield started at the Nightcaps Show and resulted in a draw between three competitors, namely, Mrs S. Robson, Messrs Allen and Bell, ‘and Mr 11. A. Matheson. The breeds equal for the shield were utility Black Orpington pullet, old English game, bantam cock, black red, or light red and coloured flying homer cock. Also at the Nightcaps Show a class was nominated for the shield, namely, baldhead tumbler, any colour, cock or hen, old birds. Two affiliations to the association during the year were the Canterbury Canary and Cage Bird Club and the Oamaru Canary and Cage Bird Specialist Club. Ten New Zealand championships would be competed for at the South Island shows in 1936, namely: Open classes (2), best Wyandotte, any variety; best game male, any variety; utility classes (2), best utility Leghorn other than white; best utility 'Wyandotte; bantams (2), best Pekin; best old English game; pigeons (2), best fantail; best homer, young bird flown classes; canaries (2), best yellow Yorkshire, open class; best buff Yorkshire, open class. The receipts for the year totalled £B7 3/7, and the expenditure £9l 4/2, showing a loss on the year’s work of £4 0/7. The assets were placed at £279 12/5, against which there was a liability of £3 3/- for the tumbler championship. The several remits for conference were read to the meeting and consideration deferred for a fortnight, at which time the delegate will also be appointed. GENERAL NOTES. Hens that are laying, and getting plenty of exercise, are not at all easy to overfeed. Chickens with droopy wings, which are being brooded by hens, should be carefully examined for head lice. Long grass is a source of danger on a poultry farm, especially when chickens are allowed to forage in the grass if it is wet. The undersides of their bodies and thighs become wet and before long a discharge from the nostrils will indicate the presence of a cpld with a consequent loss of weight and failure to make growth. In rearing ducklings they should be given wholesome food, an unfailing supply of drinking water, green food, shell grit and protection from sun and wind. It is important that no mash is left on the ground after the ducklings have eaten their fill, as it is apt to become sour and set up intestinal troubles. Another point to remember is that damp housing conditions will give rise to cramp. When fowls have equal access to wheat, oats, maize and barley they will in some months eat more of one grain than another, but at the end of the year, when the total consumption is made up, the order of preference will always show wheat first, oats second, maize third, and barley fourth. Feeding a high percentage of animal protein to growing pullets will force growth, but at the time the birds should come on to lay many of them will suffer a breakdown in health with consequent loss. Animal protein to the extent of 5 per cent, is sufficient for growing stock, and this supplemented by a little vegetable protein, skimmed milk or butter-milk, is the best ration to feed. In numerous tests made birds which received a. high percentage of protein did not develop into the best birds at maturity, and as the result of forcing a breakdown in their physique generally resulted. Birds fed on a normal ration, though slower in growth for the first twelve weeks, ultimately prove better and healthier stock.

Something in the nature of a surprise was sprung on members of the Senior Club when the time came for the lecture. The subject on the syllabus was “Soft Feathered Bantams,” but the lecturer was not available. The secretary had called on Mr'S. A. Lindsay at short notice to fill the gap, and when Mr Lindsay appeared on the platform with a small box, it was expected by all present that he had brought along a sample of bantams, but instead of bantams he produced two ferrets. However, despite the poultryman’s antipathy to these wily furry animals, Mr Lindsay soon engaged the earnest attention of all in what proved to be a most informative address.

Growing pullets require a cool- place to rest during the middle of the day, especially in the hot summer weather. If no natural shade is supplied they will be forced into their sheds to breathe stale air and possibly to be worried by lice and other vermin. Long grass and natural shelter is ideal, and the chicken rearing grounds should be planted up accordingly. Border hedges, if not trimmed too closely, provide suitable shade, while scrub, such as gorse, lupin and manuka, is splendid for the purpose. If colony houses are used for accommodating the pullets, these should be moved weekly to fresh ground. Failing natural shelter, additional cleanliness in the sheds is im-

perative, and some temporary shelter must be erected in the yards or paddocks which will tempt the pullets out of their sheds during the heat of the day. Useful apex shelters can be made very cheaply from light timber covered with sacking, leaving both ends open to allow plenty of air circulation. Four stakes can be driven into the ground and a framework of branches thrown across the top, or, failing any material for this purpose, folded netting with a layer of straw between can be used. Precocious Pullets. The inherited tendency to produce eggs in large numbers can be defeated by improper feeding or management of the pullets during their growing and developing stage. One of the inevitable results of breeding for successive generations from prolific laying stock, says an English expert, is an increasing danger for pullets to become precocious, and to begin laying at too early an age, before they are fully grown and properly developed. Such precocity is undesirable, for when a pullet starts laying she ceases to grow, and to this fact may be attributed much of the loss of size that has shown itself in some of the most prolific laying strains. Too early production usually results in short-period layers of small eggs. Birds with small and undeveloped bodies cannot be expected to produce fullsized eggs, and generally these precocious pullets, after laying a comparatively small number of eggs in the summer months, fall into moult, and then remain unproductive throughout the period when eggs fetch high prices. No pullet, even of the light breeds, should come into lay until she is at least six months old.

Precocity may to some extent be guarded against by careful feeding, and the avoidance of all foods of an overstimulating nature. Animal food should be fed very sparingly, and on the first signs of premature reddening up and other indications of too early laying it should be omitted entirely. The feeding and management of. pullets intended to be kept for egg production should, from the time of hatching, be directed toward promoting steady and continuous growth and the building up of a hard and vigorous frame, together with that constitutional fitness which is essential to the laying of good-sized eggs in satisfactory numbers. With this object the feeding should consist largely of grain scattered in deep litter or thrown broadcast into any available rough grass to promote scratching exercise. The ideal rearing conditions for young pullets are to be found on free range over grassland with its natural supply of food. In order to encourage foraging under those conditions the morning feed should be on the short side, more especially in showery weather, when the supply of natural food is abundant, leaving the full feed until the evening. FERRETS. The address on “Ferrets” by Mr S. A. Lindsay to the Senior Club on Saturday evening last proved very interesting. Nonchalantly producing from a box two of these animals which he had brought along with him, Mr Lindsay proceeded to describe the leading points of good working ferrets. He went on to say that ferrets belonged to the same family as stoats, weasels, badgers, and skunks. Descended from the polecats or fitches of England and Europe, the original ferrets were coloured, the albino being a spout or freak therefrom. By judicious line-breeding the white had been preserved, and now it was possible to breed ferrets producing 100 per cent, white. There was a variation in type, the best being sharp in the snout, long in the body, and with an even thickness right through. “Ferrets,” he said, “are clean animals naturally, and are easily kept clean. They smell, as all flesh-eating animals do, but that does not mean that they are unclean. They should have dry quarters to live in.” He favoured housing them in a shed 6ft by Bft or Bft by 10ft, with an earthen floor and iron down below the surface right round the shed to prevent them from burrowing out. A handy-sized breeding box was 2ft 6in by Ift 6in and 2ft high. The young were born six weeks after mating up. Usually there was a litter of six, but sometimes there might be as many as ten or a dozen; they were born naked and blind, but from earliest infancy their scent was quite keen. The mother arranged a snug nest for her-family, and she carefully spread this nest out to air in the daytime, gathering it together again at night. ‘ The natural food of ferrets was meat, and he found that they did well on raw rabbit flesh, cow liver and water. Many people fed their ferrets with bread and milk, but he believed in the meat diet; they were fond of beef scraps. In America, on the large ferret farms, horse flesh was the principal article of food. Mr Lindsay said it was necessary to give the doe a fair quantity of milk while she was rearing the young, and if the litter was a large one he supplied milk in a shallow tin for the little ones. Though quite blind they would scent out the milk and crawl out to drink it even when only a day or two old. There was a suppositon that the mother would kill the young if they were interfered with, but this idea was quite erroneous. In all his long experience this . had only happened once, and he attributed it to some other cause. At the same time he considered it advisable to leave the family alone for the first week, and to commence handling them freely when they were three or four weeks old. Ferrets would breed twice a year, but one litter was the best, the second lot arriving too late in the season. “The black ferret,” Mr Lindsay said, “is more shy and pernickity than the white; neither can you take as much liberty with him. The black must he handled with greater care, but they are excellent ferrets when properly trained. In taking ferrets out to work they should be carried in a box or boxes, not in a bag. By judicious early handling they can be picked up at any time. The first time out is really educative, and it takes quite a while to teach them that the rabbits are under ground and not on the surface; this is due to the fact that the ferrets have always obtained their food without having to go under the ground for it. Place the ferret, when it understands what is required, at the rabbit hole, and he will immediately scent the quarry, and go down after it; the rabbit makes a bid for liberty and is entrapped at the exit into a pouch-net held there by the rabbiter. In trapping over a burrow a very large net is used, big enough to cover every entrance. Then a number of ferrets are put down, and an exciting chase ensues, the rabbits rushing in and out the several holes until eventually all are caught. Some rabbiters work .their ferrets muzzled, others cut the teeth, both methods being adopted in the belief that the ferret sometimes catches the rabbit down the hole, kills it and feeds on the carcass, and then goes to sleep.” Mr Lindsay considered this quite an absurd belief, and he always worked his ferrets without any restrictive methods. Mr Lindsay then described other uses which ferrets are put to besides rabbiting. In laying underground telegraph and telephone wires the wires were drawn through long tubes, Ke said. To effect this a rat was released from a trap at the end of the tube, and a ferret with a long length of twine attached to its tail was let go in pursuit of the rat. The rat ran into a trap at the other end of the tube, ready for further service, and the twine was removed from the ferret, and used to pull the wire through the tube. The biggest ferret farm in America was that of Messrs Chamberlain Bros., Ohio, where the housing consisted of three bams, each 200 feet long and 12 feet wide, and each containing 200 pens.

Here four thousand ferrets were raised every year and sold to the shipping companies for use about the wharves and sheds, in the endless warfare against rats. Fitch (fur of the ferret) was not sufficiently valauble to be a paying proposition for breeding ferrets, but served as quite a good sideline for the rabbiter when culling out his surplus stock. His audience were much interested, and not a little amused, at the manner in which Mr Lindsay handled the ferrets on display to the meeting. One was black, the other white, the latter having been born with a bob-tail. He carefully explained that one should never approach a ferret suddenly or nervously, and pick it up, else there was was sure to be trouble. The proper way was to first pass your hand across the nose of the ferret, allowing a chance for it to get your scent, and then quietly, though boldly, drawing the hand to the shoulders of the ferret and picking it up thereby firmly and gently. The exhibits appeared to be quite at home, and not at all disturbed with their owner’s demonstration methods. At the close of the address Mr Lindsay was subjected to some questioning, and on the motion of the president was accorded a very hearty vote of thanks by acclamation of the meeting. EGG-LAYING CONTEST. THIRTIETH WEEK. Following are the leading birds in the New Zealand Utility Poultry Club competition at Papanui for the period ended November 1:— Single Hen Test. For Light or Heavy Breeds. Mrs B. B. Andrews 177 H. Williams 108 L. J. Glasson 168 W. A. Pollard 166 E. P. Anderson 163 A. D. L. McClintock 162 E. P. Anderson 157 Emery Bros. 156 Mrs S. J. R. Dick (A. 0. 155 White Leghorn Single Hen Test. (Each entry three birds.)' A. Crawford 519 F. C. Innes 476 E. Tilley 475 A. C. Goodlet 469 H. Williams 468 L. J. Glasson 463 R. H. Taylor 450 L. Brumby 449 J. W. McGlinchy . 449 Black Orpington and Australorp. (Each entry three birds.) B. Cotterill (A. 0. 422 A. H. Fowles (B.O.) 404 F. Hughes (A. 0. 390 J. Gunn (A. 0. 367 G. D. Hollyman (A. 0. 351 S. Brumby (A. 0. 344 W. A. Coombes (B.O.) 340 J. Campbell (A. 0. 330 Any Other Variety, Light or Heavy Breeds. (Each entry three birds.) E. R. Buckley (R.1.R.) 412 A. Dalzell (Lan.) 393 J. P. Stevens (Lan.) 299 A. W. Pritchard (8.L.) 299 A. S. Cooper (L.S.) 281 A. W. Adams (S.W.) 236 R. signifies Rhode Island Red. Lan. signifies Langshan. B. signifies Black Leghorn. L. signifies Light Sussex. S. signifies S’lver Wyandotte. Single Hen Test, Light or Heavy Breeds. (Each entry six purebred pullets.) H. Williams 978 Calder Bros. 847 W. Turner 844 G. H. Bradford 830 G. H. Mitchell 820 D. A. McKie (A. 0. 815 T. S. Dacre 800 A. S. Cormack (B.O.) 782 Flock Teams’ Contest. (Each entry six birds.) Miss H. Keddell 857 Mrs B. B. Andrews 847 W. E. Ward 797 E. P. Anderson 796 M. Holroyd 746 J. Liggins 645 Single Duck Test. (Each entry three ducks.) • F. Ashworth (K.C.) 592 Miss N. Dale (1.R.) 588 W. A. Pollard (1.R.) 543 W. A. Pollard (1.R.) 521 Mrs C. J. Collings (K.C.) 489 Marshall and Brett (K.C.) 452 H. A. Lucas (P.) 452 K. signifies Khaki Campbell. I. signifies Indian Runner. P. signifies Pekin. JUVENILE SECTION. Tuis are very much discussed birds this year, due principally to their presence in the city and elsewhere in increased numbers. One business man assured me with apparent confidence that it will not be long before they, will be seen in Dee Street. A sequel to the death of the hen tui at Waikiwi is that the cock recovered from his grief in a day and prospected successfully for a new wife. The lady, however, was not satisfied with her surroundings, and after three days she left. The cock bird is now without a mate, but is staying on and appears to be quite happy. Tuis have been observed at the plantation near the Clyde Street railway station, also about the native bush on the seaward side of Bluff Hill. A resident of Gladstone informed me of a pair of tuis nesting in a gum tree near his place. While he was watching them on Sunday morning a blackbird inadvertently flew near to the gum tree, and the cock tui pounced on him instantly, bringing him to the ground and rolling him over and over. My friend said the tui was most savage in his attack on the blackbird and would have killed him had he not separated them. Another flower to be added to the list of those that attract tuis to private gardens in the spring time is the japonica. A bird-lover told me of this the other day, saying that he and his wife were quite interested watching a pair of tuis extracting honey from the red japonica flowers growing against the side of his house. The birds showed not the slightest sign of fear, but went on with their honey-eating, with their admirers standing within two yards of them. Here is a story of a tui that has died of a broken heart. This particular bird was found in a wounded condition when quite young. It was not able to care for itself, and was provided with a big shed with a tree growing inside, and everything made as natural as possible. With kindly treatment the bird thrived very well, and became the special pet of its finder’s wife, who used to spend all her spare time with him. He learned to talk well, and was quite an attraction to his home at Tuatapere. Now, a fortnight ago, his mistress took ill and had to go to bed. She worried about the tui, and on the fourth day she slipped quietly out to see how he was getting on. Sad to relate she found him lying on the floor of his house, and after picking him up and nursing him for a few minutes he died in her hands. During the period of her sickness the bird had been fed regularly and well looked after, but he had pined for his mistress, and it is no exaggeration to say that he died of a broken heart. He has left a very sad mistress. A strange coincidence is that this bird died almost on the same

day as the bird I wrote of at Waikiwi last week.

I have. been asked a few questions regarding birds’ nests. Well, every species has its own particular design and most of the nests of the smaller birds are very neatly built and cosily lined. Spider web is freely used by many birds to bind the materials together, and in one or ■ two cases it serves as an outside coating to shed the rain. The birds are surely very patient and clever to make use of such fine stuff as spider web. A resident of Bluff records the appearance of shining cuckoos there. About this time of the year they may occasionally be seen flying over Invercargill in the late evening, but they do not stay about the city. A pair of red polls have been about my garden during the week. They are pretty little birds, as big as a hedge sparrow, and have scarlet breasts; the cock bird is scarlet on the head. The red polls are imported birds. They do quite well in an aviary, and are useful amongst canaries, as they help to keep the red mite in check. My visitors are quite tame, but they are constantly on the move hunting for small insects. A common accident that happens when canaries are breeding is that the young ones sometimes get pulled out by the hen in hopping out or flying off the nest. When this occurs the hen’s claws should be examined, and if-they are very long shorten them with sharp scissors, taking care not to cut too close as to induce bleeding. A hen that is naturally clumsy, and some are, should be furnished with a nest deeper than the ordinary. It is quite possible, when not suspicious of such a mishap, that a young bird may be overlooked lying on the cage bottom. This accident usually happens when the birds are very young, and additionally liable to suffer from exposure, but if there is a spark of life in the little thing it has every chance of recovery. Place it on the warm palm of one hand, covering it with the other, then gently breathing on it through one side of the closed hands. As soon as it begins to move freely and wriggle about, pop it under the hen, and it will soon be all right again. Above all, keep a vigilant look out for this or any other of the many possible mishappenings. Crest and heavily feathered birds are liable to pull young birds out of the nest with them, even when leaving it in a quiet way; their bodies are so heavily feathered that the little chaps get nestled up amongst the long feathers, and so are carried over the side of the nest.