POULTRY YARD

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1929, Page 16

POULTRY YARD

BY

G. H. AMBLER

LOOKING AHEAD. i flie poultry-keeper is now starting on a new year, and there is no thought for anything but the mating up of .the breeding pens and the preparations for hatching. “There is still plenty of time,” the thoughtless poultry man may say, but the real enthusiast knows that the time is none too long to enable him to get all preparations adequately made. There are so many things to consider and arrange. First, the best possible rearing arrangements must be ensured. If you have no records made at the time, cast your mind back and recall what were your experiences in rearing at the beginning of last season. Some portions of the ground, no doubt, proved favourable for chicks; the youngsters did quite well on those runs. On the other hand, doubtless, you found some parts of the ■funs which did not seem at all suitable. The chicks run on these patches probably did not come on at all, but seemed to pick up all kinds of diseases. Now is the time to treat those bits of ground and get them ready for the coming hatching season. Sweep over the bad patches, lime them well, and dig them over. Then, as soon as possible, sow them down with so te quick-growing crop. That will cleanse the ground of any foulness quicker than any other method you could possibly adopt. It might even be good policy to sow these sections down with grass. There is just a chance, that the grass might get established before the really cold weather comes along, and the winter* would then serve to set it mere firmly, so that when spring does come again you will have plots’of fresh grass on which the chicks /can run; plots which will be so sweet and fresh that there will not be much danger of disease. This work, however, must be undertaken now; it is of no use leaving it a month. A GREAT SAFEGUARD. ’ ' Perhaps you may decide to go in for the newer policy of rearing chickens intensively for the first six weeks of their 1 life.’ This is being increasingly rcconi- ' mended, and, properly carried out, it is one of the greatest safeguards against disease. Remember that 8.W.D., coccidiosis, and gapes, the three greatest ’ scourges of chick life, almost always have their origin in the soil, or are largely spread from the ground. If the chicks are kept inside until six Weeks old they vrill have reached a stage at which they will be practically immune ■ from these ailments. The experience of the last season has shown that rearing chicks intensively for the first six weeks has reduced the death rate among chickens by as much as 50 per cent., and lias given the youngsters such a start that they have never been any trouble in the later life. Of coui.se, there are dangers about the intensive ’’’"•keeping of chickens if it is nou done properly. The one thing to be avoided is overcrowding, but then that has to be guarded against in the ordinary method of keeping chicks in coops and runs. It has to be remembered, too, that intensive keeping does not mean keeping the chicks in any sort of house. PLENTY CF SUNLIGHT.

They need as much sunlight as possible, consistent with the avoidance o draughts and wet. It may mean redesigning your rearing houses, but it is worth while. The rearing-house should be like the new type of .layers house, open at the side which gets the most sunshine, so that the shutters, vvhich can be put up when the weather makes it nccessarv, can also be dropped to the floor level when the sun is shining, and so allow the sun's rays to shine through the netting front on to the youngsters as they run about the floor. The warm-

est and most sheltered corner should be utilised for the foster-mother itself; the run in which the growing chickens are allowed should be extended gradually towards the sunniest patches of the floor. Do not bo afraid of fixing a good wooden floor to the rearing-house. The old idea that wood floors are harmful ami tend to induce leg weakness is now disproved. It is not wooden floors but lack of sunshine which causes leg weakness in chickens. If you can provide plenty of direct sun rays there will be little fear of leg weakness,. The preparation of such a house will naturally take time. It is re use letting things wait until the last week, and then rushing the job. That is how careless and haphazard work is done, and a house for intensively rearing chicks, if it is to be satisfactory, must °be carefully constructed. You can have a wooden floor as explained above, and that will be some safeguard against rats. A further protection against those creatures is to fix Im or IJin mesh wire netting under the bottom side of the floor, and for six or twelve inches up the side. THE INTENSIVE SYSTEM.

There is no doubt about the advantages of the intensive system for chickens if it is conducted properly. One’s own experience has proved this. Last season, through fear of rats I had to bring some of the chicks into a spaie shed, the > floor and sides protected I against rats as stated, and the wooden I floor lightly covered with bran. In the first month those chickens reared indoors grow to nearly twice the size of another batch of chicks which were brooded in the ordinary way under a hen. They never saw outside until they were six weeks old, and then, whenever the sun shone, they were put out on to a small lawn. Not a single case of any sort of disease occurred amongst the flock they had a most excellent start, and they kept their lead all summer. At six months old they were laying, and looked six weeks older than sisters hatched with hens. That is practical ex. pericnce. However, as I said at the beginning, if you are going to rear intensively be sure and use the best type of house, and make certain that you can tap all the sunshine that may be going. Remembering the need for. caieful preparation, it is obvious that, it is not at all too soon to begin getting ready for the hatching season now. Do not leave looking over the incubators and brooders. Get them out now, clean them up and examine them thoroughly. A dav's trial run would be advisable; then, if 'it is found that any parts have, failed and need to be renewed, it will be possible to order them and ..have them readv for when they are needed, whereas I valuable time might be lost if it were I not discovered until they were needed i and the order for new parts were put ! in just at the busiest season. TREATMENT AFTER SHOW. While it is essential that, close attention be given the birds previous to their despatch’ to a show, it is equally important that they should be carefully examined and attended to on their return One of them may possibly have been staged in a pen in which a croupy oi diphtheric bird had been staged at a previous show. It is, therefore always wise to keep the bird by itself f day or so. and then if m signs of dis- ! ease appear, it can be put back into its 1 own pen. Care must also be taken that l it docs not catch cold. Most shows are 1 held in places which become hot during I the event, and the change of- temperaI ture from the show pen to the open run I often causes a chill. Do not think that filth in the poultry house is not dangerous because it. is dry It becomes dust and every moving i win'd sends it into the lungs with its 1 deadly microbes.