POULTRY YARD

Taranaki Daily News, 5 October 1929, Page 28 (Supplement)

POULTRY YARD

BY

G. H. AMBLER

CHOICE OF NEST BOXES. ' Although many will wo to any trouble and expense to master egg-production, they invariably fail when it conies to the choice of next boxes. E<rg-production depends, of course, on housinw and feeding, once One has piocured “quality” birds. One must not; however, finish there. Your eggs supply depends, for number, after all, on what you collect from the nest-boxes. I was recently perusing a reader’s egg records, and there was one item I could not follow. Against each daily total there was a certain “minus.” For Monday, the total read, “18 minus 6.” Naturally, I raised the question as to what they represented, imagining the poultry-keep-er to say than of 18 eggs laid, six went into the house, for domestic use. Baek came the reply that the smaller-number stood for breakages, thin-shelled eggs, and such like unmarketable produce. CAUSES OF BROKEN EGGS. I wish, therefore, to point the moral of preventing egg-wastage. Then each poultry-keeper will be on the,way to obtaining maximum yield. Lack of nesting material will always‘bring in its train broken or cracked eggs, and particularly will you notice non-sitting breeds, like leghorns, .troublesome in this direction.’ However,- you must know- what is meant by. an insufficient supply of- nesting material. To line the nest well with, straw is not enough, as the majority of layers,are fidgety when laying.-'Watch a leghorn lien when she enters the nest to lay. She seeks, first of all, a cosy box, one that is in the dark, and, if’ it is occupied, she retires to the run “talking”/all the time and telling her sister to hurry up. She is indeed restless. Finally, when she does enter a vacant compartment, she is an •adept at acrobatic movements. NEST BOX MATERIAL. ' She twists and turns, scrapes out the material from the centre until the bare boards of the box bottom are revealed, and then she feels easy and comfortable. Later she rises and the egg drops on the bare boards. Being a tall bird, there is a lengthy drop, and the shell is broken. To ascertain these details you must make a hole in the side of the roost and watch the performance, but, as I have already carried out these observations, you. need not attempt boring that ‘fpeephole” with a red-hot poker. You can overcome, this drawback by placing on the bottom of each nest-box a two inch depth of sawdust or eath, and. over this put the real nesting material. Then, should a fidgety hen scratch out the material from the centre of the nest, she will be in contact with the soft sawdust and not hard boards. CAUSES OF EGG-EATING. Finally, we must deal with egg-eat-ing, which robs the nest-box very heavily iu most flocks, although unbeknown to the owners. Egg-eating may start —and usually, does —from a broken egg, the-yolk .being tasted by one of the hens and the habit spreading until nearly, all the birds in the flock are . gating the eggs. We must, at all costsj therefore, prevent an egg from becoming broken. If it falls on a hard sur- j face, like the bottom of the nest-box, , the egg will run the risk of being broken.. If we°do not keep shell always before the birds, we shall obtain thin-shelled eggs that will easily break, as we shall if°the perches arc* too high or if too forcing a diet is fed —again, if the birds are allowed to get over-fat. One should ever be on the look-out for soft-shelled eggs and odd eggs dropped in the litter, alf of which should be collected immediately they . are noticed. This will oo far to remove the temptation of egg-eating. AN IDEAL NEST-BOX. ■ I am rather particular about the type of nest-box used, and am against open fronts. Again, I am not in favour of low nests. My objections are that the hen can see her egg when laid, and other birds walking to and- fro on the floor can see their sisters in the boxes. The result is that they are attracted when an egg drops, a scramble follows, and]

e<*"-eating may then commence. All nests should be boarded up in front, except for a circular entrance hole. Procure a piece of thin wood the size of the front, and. cut a lOin circular hole therein. Fasten hinges at one end, and, on the box itself, fix a wooden button. Then we have a front that can be easily opened for cleaning purposes, and the completed nesting sections fit in with my ideal. POSITION OF NESTS. - In the first place, the nests should be fixed in a dark corner of the house, and' they should be off the ground. If the inside pattern is favoured, they can be fixed on legs. I prefer to have the boxes two feet off the top of the litter, and then birds passing to fro cannot see what is going on within. A few inches below the bottom of the aperture or entrance a perch or fly-up board should be arranged, so that the layers can alight thereon before entering the nesting sections. The perch - should fit loosely into sockets, so that it is removable. The nests standing on legs, the ground space will not be wasted, as the birds can scratch in the litter below the nests. It is a mistake to have too few nests —better to have too many. For six to 12 birds I should prefer one nest-box to every two layers, and for larger flocks, one nesting, section to every three or four birds might- be provided. The fly-up perch at the base of the nest-boxes should be only three inches or so away from the front —just a step for the hen entering. INTERIOR OF HOUSE. Poultry-keepers make the greatest mistake *in having Internal fitments for roosts placed too high. I have quently seen drop-boards four feet off the ground. A2J feet fly-up perch is quite enough for pullets and 2ft for adult hens. The excitement brought about by hens flying up to high perches, and often,, as darkness sets in, missing their objective, is harmful. Likewise it is harmful for birds to have a high drop, especially on to a hard floor, when leaving the perches in the morning. If a moveable drop-board is adopted, whereby it can be lowered for birds in their second season, so much the better. The fitting-up of the perch and dropboard should be carefully carried out. First' of all, the drop-board should Slide into grooves; and not be a fixture. The sockets to carry the perches should be screwed to the drop-board,' while the perches themselves, several inches above, should be movable. GENERAL. - A packet of Epsom salts to 20 grown birds is a good thing to give in the warmer weather as an internal cleanser and blood cooler. Dissolve in warm water, and add to the mash. Do it once a week. Fowls do not perspire; they breathe several times faster than perspiring animals when heated. They are, therefore, obliged to throw off much of the waste of the body through the lungs. It is consequently clear that to keep in good health' fowls require, a great amount of fresh air. ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT. MAKING A HEN BROODY. S.J.S., Fenton Street, Stratford—ln “the good old days” to make hen broody it was the custom to confine likely birds to a small' and dark place, and give them nothing but bread soaked in old ale. Whether such a plan was successful or not I cannot say from practical experience. However, the most likely wav to induce broodiness is to keep three or four “dummy” eggs in each nest, to have the nest in dark places, to keep the house close and warm, and to give the hens heating and fattening foods. It is generally difficult to force nature, and if it were possible- to make hens broody at any time there would be a lot in the incubator and brooder business. When early broodies are required; pullets and second season hens are en- • couraged to begin laying in winter, so that they may be inclined to set when they have laid a small batch. It does not always, come off, but it is a method followed with some success by several Canterbury fanciers.