POULTRY NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

POULTRY NOTES

COMMENCING THE NEW YEAR. COMPARISONS OF BREEDS. (Geo. H. Ambler.) With January comes the birthday*of fresh resolutions—in many instances to be broken before many days are past. The wise poultryman who conducts his poultry-keeping on business lines will now make up his balance-sheet to ascertain his profit or loss. He will look over the past year and reckon in his own mind where he has failed, and why. Sometimes the reason is hard to find; at others the remedy lies close at hand, palpable to the man who has an open mind and easily altered by anyone with sufficient energy and desire to rectify the mistake. With many the past year has been a trial year. They started with a few birds of quite ordinary quality, so as to have some idea of the run of things generally. The method of feeding, and housing, the breeding for points and colour, and in some cases marking/have been difficult for them to understand, and yet the trial year has taught them a great deal. Commencing with a desire to learn, they have benefited by experience and now feel more confident to launch forth into better quality stock. Regarding Black Orpingtons and White Leghorns a reader writes to ask me which I consider the hardier breed of the two. With respect, to the utility types, Black Orpingtons seem much stronger than the White Leghorns, and I find the Orpingtons are, in consequence, much easier to rear. Unless some are quickly taken to preserve the constitution of the utility White Leghorn the Black Orpington will soon be ahead in the race for first honours. I have the record before 'me of a pen of four Orpingtons which I have had under observation this season, and the trap-nest has shown that, notwithstanding the fact that two of the birds did not begin to lay until the third week in May,' the four pullets have an average of over 20 eggs each per month during the four winter months of May, June, July and August. This test, I think, taken at a time when eggs are nearly twice the value they are at any other time of the year, speaks very favourably for the Orpington. The breed, too, has a further advantage over the White Leghorn as Jar as the market goes, and that is tha’t the egg is brown. I do not know that the colour enhances the price or that it means richer qualities or superior flavour, but it is a fact that the public is attracted by the brown egg, and it is thus more readily saleable. CHECKING BROODINESS. The Orpington egg is scarcely so large as that of the White Leghorn, and the breed has its broody intervals. By careful selection the broody instinct has been practically eliminated, with the result that broodiness is not so pronounced as formerly, and the broody fever is as quickly checked. I have seen them stopped by a day or two’s confinement in a coop, and laying again in a few days’ time. These brief rests'appear to give a stimulus, to egg production, and seem to aid Nature in sustaining the necessary strength of constitution. We have been able to prove as the season has advanced that the constitution of the Orpington is much more robust than that of the White Leghorn, since the mortality amongst chicks has proved to be less by over 60 per- cent The difference in the two breeds mayhave been brought about by the close and incautious breeding that breeders have resorted to in the case of the White Leghorn with the object of record breaking. The Orpington is being subjected to the same treatment for the same purpose at the present moment, but the broody periods are Nature’s safetyvalves, and whilst it is a drawback rather than a help in the competition for honours on account of the brief rest required, it is also a safeguard against us in our blind haste against wrecking the constitution of the breed. The Black Orpington is already treading on the heels in the laying competitions, and ere long I shall not be surprised to see it, pass the Leghorn in public esteem. WHEN THE CHICKENS FLAG. It is often the case at this season of : the year that thriving yo’ung fowls, especially cockerels, suddenly become debilitated. Frequently .it is the result: of intense heat, and in such circumstances to supply the birds liberally with stimulating food aggravates the eviL In hot weather shady places must be provided for the growing stock, and green food allowed. If there be not natural shade such as trees and bushes, there are other means of providing the necessary shelter from the sun. As vegetable food a supply of lettuce leaves hung in the sun is excellent, and another good thing is to chop up some freshly cut dandelion leaves and mix them with the soft food. The strictest cleanliness should be observed during the hot weather, and all green food given to the fowls should be in a perfectly fresh state. Stale food, and particularly if acid fermentation has occurred, is a constant source of dysentery and diarrhoea, and many birds are. lost annually through neglect in this matter. As soon as a fowl is noticed to droop it is advisable to change its food. A small quantity of raw meat, finely chopped, may with advantage be given, and medicinally two drops of perchloride of iron should be administered morning and night.