POULTRY NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1933, Page 12 (Supplement)

POULTRY NOTES

Geo. H. Ambler.)

MARKETING COCKERELS. BEST FOOD FOR FATTENING.

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What about the young cockerels in the early-hatched broods ? Serious attention should be directed towards their development during this month, so that they will be ready for the Christmas and New Year’s trade. There will be an exceptional demand for the early spring chickens up to the end of February, and high prices ' will be paid for birds weighing from three to five pounds each. Flesh is required rather than frame, and this can only be secured by judicious feeding. Ground oats, maize meal and pollard, in'equal quantities, moistened with milk, and fed three times daily, will soon secure the quality of flesh desired. Every few days the growing cockerels should be examined and a few of the best brought in for special feeding. A fortnight on a fattening ration puts a finish on to the birds, and the extra price obtained more than pays for any labours involved. SUMMER SHELTERS. Chickens need shelter all the year through. In winter we must shelter them from the cold, and, if we wish them to do their best, give them all the sunshine there is during the short days. In summer we must, for the same reason, shelter them from the fervid heat of our long summer days. I sometimes think that it is easier to give our birds adequate protection in winter than in summer. We can, without too much trouble, provide houses in which they will be..comfortably warm, and at the same time get all the benefit of direct sunshine, but in summer there are many days when the heat of the sun is allpervading. So far as getting the greatest benefit from the vitalising influence of direct sunshine is concerned, the chickens will get all they need in the morning and evening, and we do not seek for these benefits during the heat of the day. An orchard is an ideal place for a flock of chickens to live during the summerThey can find cool shade under the trees during the day, and a comfortable and natural place to sleep in the trees during the night. In fact, any shady grove is a good place to keep chickens during the summer.

Those of us who live in places where orchards are not convenient for chicken runs must seek other means of securing comfort for our growing chickens during the hot summer days. Even a run overgrown with weeds is better than any artificial shade, unless pains are taken to make it effectual. This year I have left undug a portion of land that I have been using for garden purposes, so . my

growing chicks may find a cool place in which to stay ' during the day. Where I live a thick growth of sweet clover will spring up. One flock of my chickens uses this for a resting place. They are kept in their house and the limited run attached to it until nearly noon. .To confine birds to the house at night is no . hardship as our nights are nearly always cooL When the chicks are given their second feed for the day they are turned into the weed and clover grown run, and within two minutes they have disappeared, not one being visible. They stay there until they get hungry about four o’clock, when they come out and begin to look after me, After they get their feed they begin to range about and pick up such bits of natural feed as ■they can find among the grass and clover. The weed patch is an eyesore to me, but to the chicks it is a delight. Where it is not safe to allow chicks to roost in trees a simple roof supported by posts and a protective chicken netting wall round the space enclosed by the posts makes a first-class sleeping place. Put the perches up near the roof, and do not worry about night rains. A summer wetting hurts neither chickens nor men. THE BREEDING PENS. Breeding operations for this season are now over, and breeders will have broken or be breaking up the pens. Whatever the results may be as far as numbers and quality are concerned, it is too late to make any alteration or improvement in our plans, and we can only hope that the youngsters will prove equal or even superior to the parent birds. This should, of course, be apparent in a large proportion of the chicks, providing the mattings were sound, both from a colour and pedigree point of view. As a rule, many breeders are anxious to dispose of some of their breeding stock, and as it is the end of the season, good bargains can often be secured. The breeder of pedigree stock has to inbreed up to a point in order to establish particular characteristics in the progeny, but there is a limit to this; a certain number of cocks may prove useless for future operations. Such birds are too good to kill for table, and the owner is usually prepared to accept a few shillings for these discarded ■ birds. Some of them may be two or three years old, but their pedigree is worth much to the poultryman who is out to improve his own flock, and if these cocks are kept away from the hens until next year’s breeding season they will giv<_ one a number of chickens from which to build up a strain. OLD HENS AS FOUNDATION STOCK.

Hens with first-class laying records are often discarded in the same way, and when pedigree or breeder is known to the buyer there is little risk in purchasing a few birds for future needs. Here, again, the age may. not be one which would tempt anyone, and most of us realise that an old hen is no longer a profitable investment as far as numbers of eggs are concerned. At the same time, these birds produce the bulk of

their eggs during the spring months, just at the period when needed for hatching, and a number of chickens can be secured from the pens, thus forming a nucleus for future breeding. The actual value of such birds must, necessarily depend upon age and pedigree. Most breeders are prepared to accept a trifle more than they would realise in the local market. Leghorn and other non-sitting breeds do not bring high prices when sold to the butcher, and 2s 6d per bird is often as much as can be obtained. If we are called upon to pay double this sum for healthy two to three-yea T-old hens, at such a price they should appeal to both buyer and seller. Some commercial poultrymen have started business and produced several thousand head of stock on the lines suggested. '