POULTRY YARD

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1927, Page 10

POULTRY YARD

-By

G. H. Ambler

GRADING AND FEEDING

DIFFERENT TREATMENT, Poultry farmers are now fast approaching that period in their year s work when tire young stock are requiring urgent attention. It is essential that the young pullets and cockerels should have been segregated as soon as the sexes were distinguishable, the reason for this being that the pullet needs different care and feeding from her bouncing brothers. This, of course, is an evident step, since it will be recognised that the pullet will not be expected to make normal strides to maturity if fed on the same ration as is given to fatten cockerels for the table. The females get badly bullied and knocked about, and often seriously injured. Having segregated the sexes, grade them carefully. It is not a good plan to have birds of various ages and sizes running together, as the smaller and weaker lots do not get their fair share of food, and consequently do not thrive and often die. PULLET FEEDING. Pullets should never be given rich and forcing foods, as this will encourage early laying, before maturity is reached, and the eggs will be small and unsaleable. Furthermore, the pullet that lays too soon never makes a good breeder. Remember that quality in stock is better than quantit'- much more profitable. The best is thus the cheapest in the long run. If wet mash is given and milk is procurable', the ingredients should be mixed with milk until in crumbly form. The grain feed may be either half each of kibbled maize and wheat, or one-third each of garton clipped oats, kibbled maize and wheat. Give grit and green food and a liberal supply of fresh water, keeping both out of the sun. It is a wise plan to tame young layers if possible. Never excite them by rough treatment, and let them get accustomed to the voice, petting them at every opportunity. This is not a waste of time, for the happier and more contented they are the better they will thrive. THE PRECOCIOUS PULLET. Now is the time wiien early hatched pullets are either laying or on the point of laying. Most breeders are aware that the early hatched chickens develop at a faster rate in rpite of the less favourable weather conditions than the late hatched broods. This, I believe, is due to a better start—the eggs laid early in the year are undoubtedly richer and fuller and therefore produce a bonnier chick than eggs laid in the flush season; that is to eay, an egg which has not been depleted by overproduction of certain constituents essential for the development of healthy chickens. Now let ue remember that the productive organs, in both male and female, develop at the same time as the body •—the ovary does not develop suddenly, say five months after the chick hatches but slowly matures with the approach of production. This being the case, it is evident that an attempt to check the reproductive organs will mean a like eheck to the body growth, a fatal step and one likely to ruin the pullet for good. TREATMENT OF EARLY LAYERS. If pullets siiow signs of early laving —if they redden up and recover the pullet moult quickly—do not do what is so often done, reduce the feed; by this method you only etop production at the expense of loss of condition. Rather increase the nourishment in feeding menus, and try to promote the natural growth of body which always proceeds in the normal pullet after she

commences to lay. Maturity, as I have pointed out before, does not etop at the lirst egg, it goes on lor months after the normal time for production in a pullet. Do not feed too much maize, and reduce the animal content to five or six per cent. Such meals as ground oats and sound pollard will nourish without stimulating, and when the normal period arrives normal feeding can be continued. While it would be fatal to attempt to check laying, it is equally so to encourage it; consequently only one course can be folowed. Feed but not for eggs; reduce fatty and animal foods to the mimimum and increase oat products. CARE OF APPLIANCES. ' Those who have not put away all their spare appliances should do so withdelay. It is quite late enough to have finished with all coop and foster mothers, hence all such material must be overhauled and carefully stored away. When attending to the incubators always see that the water tank is run dry, the flues properly eleaned out, and the lamp emptied. Then the dry-box, egg drawer, and inside the drawer space must be thoroughly cleaned with some strong disinfectant to destroy all germs of disease. Burn all canvas and cloths on which the chicks have been; then you make sure of purification, and it is the best safeguard for the future. Thousands of chickens die every year from white diarthoea, a disease which attacks the chick from the first day of hatching. If one brood has been through the incubator, suffering from ' this trouble they are certain to leave germs behind, and the next hatching can contract the disease as soon as out of the shell. For this reason a thorough cleansing is essential between each hatch, but more so before the machine is put away. The foster mother and brooders must receive some such attention, because this is an equal source of propagating disease. When ehicks l get a week old they will pick at anyI thing lying about, and the dried dropI pings of an earlier brood will prove a I great danger. Needless to say, all I floor-covering must be cleaned out, and the floor scarped. The sides must have some attention, and there is nothing better than a coat of paint or distemper, but the coat must be left to dry in the air for some days before shutting down the lid. Lime-wash is good, but it cannot be put into all the corners like paint, and the latter, when made from white lead, will destroy all germs of disease left there. If there is any part broken it should be repaired, and something put on the outside. Here, again paint will be the best preservative, and during the dry’ weather it will soon set, and an extra coat will ensure a sound machine for next season’s work.

As a part of the same work, clean out all the nest-boxes. This can bcdone with creosote, both inside and out, and a liberal supply will not only destroy all germs and insects, but preserve the wood as well. The most general parasite here will be the common hen flea, which, if it has been neglected during the hot weather, will have multiplied rapidly. Every nest should be burnt as soon, as the hen comes off it. With a* little insect powder the whole can be kept clean while sitting, but the creosote will prevent the lodgement of any parasite in the wood work and make it sweet for the next season. All the coops should be repaired and then stored, which which must be under cover. This work is best done now, so that when wanted they will be ready. Creosote them inside and out, or use paint for the outside, and wash the inside with a strong disinfectant. Each one must be governed by one’s own fancy, and can paint with any special colour, but it is necessary that something be done to ensure healthy conditions and at the same time preserve the wood.