POULTRY YARD

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1926, Page 10

POULTRY YARD

By

G. H. Ambler s

SUCCESS IN POULTRY BREEDING. SOME USEFUL HINTS. WHAT TO DO AND WHAT TO AVOID. The hatching and rearing of baby chicks is the poultry farmer’s most serious problem. It combines the questions of breeding, incubation, brooding, feeding and housing. The failures can be attributed to a large extent to the owner’s inability to hatch and rear chickens to keep up the flocks. The farmer or poultryman who cannot raise to maturity as many chickens each year as he had to begin with is destined to certain failure sooner or later. Success or failure in the poultry yard each season depends upon the success or failure in raising a reasonably large percentage of the chicks hatched. Too much should not be attempted, especially by a beginner. It is better- to keep one hundred chickens and make a profit on them than it is to keep one thousand and lose on all. It will pay every poultryman or farmer to raise only purebred poultry. Ho will take more interest and. pride in them, and consequently will give them better care. They will attract more attention and be in greater demand; they bring better prices; they are better layers; they produce more pounds of flesh, and produce quicker, with the same qtiantity of feed; their eggs are more uniform in size and colour, and therefore bring better prices. CONSTITUTIONAL VIGOUR. The'condition and health of the parent stock largely determine the condition and health of the offspring. No question is more important than that of constitutional vigour. The actions of the fowl indicate to a considerable extent its physical condition. A weak bird is usually inactive and droopy. It .does not scratch or forage actively. The loudness and frequency of the erow of . the male and the cackle of the female are indications of strength. The large, bright-red comb and wattles indicate health. The eye is the mirror of the body, and is a good indication of either health or disease, the healthy fowl having a good, bright, clear eye, while the diseased bird’s eyelids droop and present a sleepy appearance. The brightness and brilliancy of the plumage are indications of constitutional vigour. Fc.athers on a fowl of low vitality usually grow slowly, and appear to be dull and ruffled, ae compared with the close-fitting, smooth, fullydeveloped, bright plumage of the vigorous fowl. The strong bird, also, has a good appetite and a large crop. CAUSES OF LOST VIGOUR. The causes of loss of vigour may be summed up as follows: — ■(1) In-breeding without knowledge of the principles of breeding. Poultrymen sometimes have a bird with exceptionally fine plumage, and for that reason mate the bird in their breeding-pens, regardless • of its vigour or its relation to other birds in the same pen. There is a distinction between line-breeding and in-breeding. (2) Use of pullets and immature male birds. As a rule, pullets lay more eggs than hens, yet it has been proved ■ by experiment that the chicks from , hens are larger when hatched, and that I they mature more quickly and produce stronger and more vigorous specimens than those hatched from pullets. If pullets are used, see that they are fully matured. A half-grown cockerel should never be used in the breeding pen.

(3) Increased, egg production. Forcing fowls to lay, by continuously feed" ing heavy, rich foods tells upon the health of the females, and often injures their breeding qualities. (4) Crowding. Poultrymen make the mistake too often of crowding a great number of birds into small quarters, I and then expecting the best results from | the flock. (5) Lack of exercise. If strong, 'healthy chicks are desired, the fowls in I the breeding pens must be required to I exercise, by being forced to scratch for j part of their food in a litter, or by being given plenty of range. (6) Lack of care of eggs. Eggs for hatching are often kept in places that are too cool or too hot. Clean nests should be provided, eggs gathered daily and kept in a temperature of from 50 degrees to 00 degrees and not held more than ten days before being set. (7) Improper incubation. .An incubator which cannot be regulated with any degree of satisfaction, which lacks the proper provision for both ventilation and. moisture, which is first too hot and then too cold, should not be used. The germ of the egg is weakened so that it cannot free itself from the shell, and the chicks which are hatched are poor and sickly, either dying in less than two weeks after hatching or having very low’ vitality. (8) Insanitary quarters. Where the poultryliouse is allowed to become filled with filth, lice and red mites, which suck the life blood from the fowls, chickeus cannot be strong and healthy. (9) Inferior breeding stock. No one should attempt to raise chickens from drones, from birds that are not true to type, from weak, sickly stock, or from birds that have been seriously sick with any disease, if he expects to be successful in the poultry business. _ All these things can and should be avoided. (10) Bleeding from a flock indiscriminately. Many flocks contain a great many" birds which lay only during tiie spring season. Breeding should be done with birds which are known to be good winter layers. •BEST MALES ARE QUARRELSOME. Often when a poultry-breeder escorts me round his or her poultry pens certain quarrelsome males are pointed out. “That Red cock is a brute,” etc. It is not generally known, however, that the best males are quarrelsome and ever ready for a “scrap” with their owners, particularly so in the breeding-season. It is a point to be pleased with, therefore, rather than the reverse, although one can forgive the beginner for thinking otherwise. He or she is more concerned with how to get out of the house or grass enclosure, walking backwards, and without feeling the spurs. When such a male is met with, the owner should not complicate matters by trying to make the bird submit, armed with a broom or stick. The hens should not be handled or unduly disturbed in the presence of such a male, and when the eggs are being collected the pop-hole shutter should be dropped (operated from outside) before the owner enters the house. Handling of the birds should then be carried out after dark, when hens and males (on the perches) are quite docile. Where the male is spiteful to the hens, then that is a bad quality as regards breeding. Set hens at night. They settle down better. If -the hen is wild it is best to tether her when feeding. Try your hen with china eggs before trusting valuable eggs under her. Avoid the sealy-legged hen, as this trouble will be transmitted to the chickens, and will very often spread right through one’s flock.