POULTRY YARD

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 12 (Supplement)

POULTRY YARD

BY

G. H. AMBLER

SUMMER HINTS,

. The beginning of February is usually glorious summer weather, and a good deal of heat is generally experienced, therefore the sleeping quartets of poultry must be well ventilated. Fowls would keep in better health and condition if they were allowed to sleep ni open sheds all the summer. • This, however, is not always convenient, and the best alternative is to have houses with the frqnt and sides practically open. _ By keeping birds in such houses it is possible to harden them so that they ■become practically immune from colds. •Shade is another necessity, and those who make small permanent poultry runs in the garden or elsewhere would do well to plant some young fruit trees, for the sake of the shade as well ’as obtaining some results from the fruit. However, for those who require a quick-growing annual plant I can recommend the tall sunflower. If a strip of ground is dug and manured all round the run just o.utside the wire netting, the plants can be put in about 16 inches apart, when in a short time they will form a dense tall hedge and provide Splendid shade all day. Sunflowers, however, serve a double purpose, for when the seeds are ripe the heads ■should be cut off. The fowls will peck out the seeds, which affords splendid exercise ' or they can •be threshed out by beating the heads on the ground. Sunflower seed is of an oily character, and very useful for growing feathers, but should be used sparingly. THE GROWING CHICKENS. Owinw to the long days and plenty of insects chickens should be making good crowth now, plenty of milk, and a variety of foods being essential . Care must still be taken, however, to keep them free from vermin. It often happens that chickens stop growing just about this time, and the trouble may be usually attributed, either to insect pests or overcrowding. The latter is a frequent cause of failure. ■ How often one finds half one’s chickens bare- of feathers at this time of the year. The cause is a drynees of the skin through some mismanagement. The remedy is to add boiled linseed to the wet mash daily for fourteen days. Keep reducing the stock in each sleeping place as the birds grow, or they will be spoiling one another’s chances. Sort over all the cockerels, selling or eating all the mismarked ones, as they are worth more now than in two months’ time, besides giving the remainder more room. Broad flat perches about a foot from the ground may be put in the houses for well-developed chickens over four months old, and it shopld be seen that the birds roost upon them every night or those remaining on the floor will be' fouled by those above as well as becoming too hot.when closely packed in the corners. Keep all perches on the same level or the birds will crowd on to the top ones. FOOD FOR I MOULTING BIRDS. If any old birds are moulting it will' be a good plan to put them into a welllighted outhouse so that they can be fed by- themselves. The growth Of new feathers is a severe strain Upon a bird, and it should have three good nourishing feeds per day, with scraps of meat and vegetables and about an eighth part of hemp seed with one hard corn. There should be a considerable saving in the food supply at this time of the year with the adult stock, and those who are fortunate enough to be able to turn their fowls out for a run can keep them at very little cost. Many amateurs in country places can run their birds in a paddock, and they will find that a few hours of such liberty and extra exercise each day will do a great amount of good, besides effecting-a saving in corn. Even in •small confined runs fowls do not require nearly so much food now as they did in the early spring, and of what they have a large proportion should consist of Vegetables. ■ Poultry-keepers can utilise a lot of waste garden produce for their fowls, whilst lettuce, cabbage leaves, etc., are very welcome. The evening feed of hard corn should not, however, be forgotten. Oats is the best grain for this season of the year, mixed with a third part of wheat. This is the best time to get rid of all old hens arid make room for fresh stock of young birds. , HOW ‘EGGS (BECOME STALE. The effect of age upon an egg is to dry its contents and reduce them to a small compass. If eggs are not occasionally turned the yolk and white are liable to adhere together. That is why with eggs in an incubator turning is essential. An egg that is exposed to the weather, but protected from the sun, rain and frost, will lose more than half its original weight in twelve months. In other words, kept under similar conditions, twenty-seven eggs

(at the end of six months will weigh less than twenty-two newly-laid, ones, Under these adverse conditions it ‘has been found that an egg will_ lose daily on a yearly average from 0.05 to 0.08 of a gramme. During cold and damp days evaporation falls to 0.03 of a gramme, and in dry and warm weather it rises to 0.12 of a gramme. Evaporation is ■half the annual daily average in winter, and double, the annual daily average in summer. That means a daily loss four times greater in hot weather than in cold. It is, therefore, safest when storing eggs for hatching purposes to keep them in a temperature of ’from 50 degrees to 55 degrees. The shell of an egg is porous, the air can permeate it, and there is constant evaporation going on from the time the egg is laid. NEXT SEASON’S BREEDERS. No more opportune time than the present will 'be found to select the breeders for next scason‘’s work. Only the first and second-year birds that are ■going to be kept over will •> now be in the yards, or should be, and from these the selection should be made. The most potent factor in picking the ■breeders from present flocks will be the separating of those birds retaining the full red head and comb and still in old feather. Practically any bird over one year old and now- laying is a 'bird worth marking as a breeder. Following the bright head and eye, such a bird will be hustler too. It is a handy practice to carry a few leg bands in your pocket when going through the yards. GATHERING EGGS. All through the hot months you need to pick up the eggs several times a day. There are more broody hens in evidence now, and to leave eggs under them all day long is to injure the table qualities of the eggs. Gather the. eggs three or four times each day, taking them to a cool room or cellar, and get them along to the consumer without delay. The public is demanding quality in all lines of food and no article used on the table absorbs smejls more quickly and surely than eggs. Boiled eggs need washing when brought in, not later, when getting them ready to send to market or to a private customer.

’ IMPORTATIONS. One of the most valuable importations of Modern Game 'Bantams that has ever reached New Zealand arrived in Auckland recently by the lonic. These were for Mr. W. Hart, Hastings, and consisted of a Pile hen, two Pile pullets and a 'Pile cockerel, and three Black Red pullets and a cockerel. The Pile cockerel was exhibited by Mr. Hart in England and won at Honley and Bingley. At the latter event he was awarded the gold medal for the best Modern Game Bantam, and the ■Poultry World’s championship for the best . bird in the show. Unfortunately he went into moult after the Bingley show and Mr. Hart was unable to exhibit him again before leaving England. The Pile hen was second at the 1929 Dairy 'Show. One pullet was second at •Kendal Game Show. . The other wrns bred from a “Lindsay” cock and a "‘Cathcart” hen, that won the gold medal at Bingley last year. Mi-. Hart bought this particular pullet for cockerel breeding. None of the (Black Reds has been exhibited. I had the pleasure of inspecting the birds on their arrival in Auckland. All are capital specimens —finely drawn bodies,, tall and shapely, with good heads, feet and legs. Although all were slightly in the moult they arrived in excellent condition and should'prove a valuable acquisition to Mr. Hart’s yards. GENERAL NOTES. The poultry business is apparently in g. flourishing condition in the Wellington district. Mr. A. E. Salisbury, Lower Hutt, has had a record season, in the sale-of both eggs and chickens. Mr. Honore, Foxton, had an auction sale on January 7, when he sold over 1500 'Black Orpington and White Leghorn pullets at prices ranging from 4s 9d to 7s 3d each.

Mr. Leslie Maunsell, Opaki Stud Farm, Masterton, has just imported an exceptionally good trio of utility Light Sussex from a well-known Australian breeder. Mr. Maunsell is very keen on squab-breeding. In view of the high price of wheat, a number of North Island poultry-far-mers have given up feeding this particular grain. Mr. G. 'S. Bates, Wellington, president of the New Zealand Poultry Association, has. not fed any wheat to his-fowls for some time. So far as I am concerned I have fed no wheat since the breeding season. In the Henderson and 'Glen Eden districts several breeders are taking advantage of the low price of barley at 4s 6d per bushel, which they are feeding in preference to wheat at 8s per bushel. Mr. W. A. Hanson has accepted an invitation to judge all classes of poultry, other than Game, and Mr. W. Wilson all classes of Game at the Poverty Bay Show to be held at Gisborne in July. Mr. Hanson has judged on several occasions at Gisborne. Mr. Wilson, who is president of the Auckland Game Club is, however, making his first appearance there. Poverty Bay is a hot bed for Game fancy and no doubt Mr. Wilson will find competition keen. With such a keen fancier adjudicating exhibitors can rest assured they will have little cause to complain on the placing of the awards.