POULTRY NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 19 February 1938, Page 19 (Supplement)

POULTRY NOTES

(By G. H. Ambler.)

HINTS FOR EXHIBITORS. HOUSING AND FEEDING.

A big question in exhibiting is, the novice or beginner compete successfully with the professional?" Everything deperids on what knowledge the beginners have of the breed they intend exhibiting. It is sheer folly to show birds and know next to nothing of the points that go to make a winner. The great advantage the professional has over the beginner is experience, but it is well to remember that in the majority of cases this, experience has been dearly bought, and that all professionals were once beginners with plenty or pluck and luck. - One point is in the beginners favmir. As a rule, they have only a few birds, whereas the professional has many. Thus more care and attention can be bestowed on the few. , . Before exhibiting, study one brewl until its points are thoroughly mastered, for it is only by specialising^ that one can be certain of success and it must not be forgotten that it is quality that is wanted, not quantity. It js far better to have three good class specimens than 30 infdrior ones. The standard of perfection, scale of points, and special features of the breed must be memorised. It ia essential to visit a few shows and a good insight can be gained from photograps and coloured plates. The shape or type is of great importance and is best mastGre(l rn the folowing manner: Get a photograph or a picture of as perfect ' a specimen as possible, and colour the back of the picture with either black or red chalk. Then, by laying it on a piece of white paper which has previoiisly been marked out in small squares, trace the printed copy of the bird and a good impression will be found upon the- squares. Now draw the bird freehand upon a sirailarsized squared paper, making the lines of the body touch the same points of the little squares as shown in the tracing. A little time applied thus daily for about a week will be more effective in memorising type than any other method. Preparatton of Bird. The day is past when a bird can, ba picked up from its run and sent direct to a show and win. It requires preparation and this is a work of weeks, sometimes months. The bird should be placed in a cockerel box, a small house, about flve feet from front to back, two feet six inches wide and three feet high in front, and two feet high at the back. The front should be boarded up about a foot from the bottom, the intervening space being small mesh wire-netting. A small glass or calico shutter, so that the bird may be shaded from sun and weather, should be used. ' It is not advisable to keep them in a dungeon type house. The house shdiild have no floor. There should be one perch, about a foot from. the ground at the back. If the house is enclosed in a gmnll wired-in run the bird can be let out when the weather is suitable. Young birds, either cockerels or pullets, should have companions of their own sex placed with theni: but never run with the intended exhibit one that is more masterful. It .is impossible to place a bird in the Show peri in perfect plumage unless it is shaded as apart from the effect on colour it is also beneficial to white lobes, 6 Having housed our birds, we arrive at the question of feeding and this plays a vital spart in making winners, for it affects colour, condition, feather and size, all of which are needed in the show pen. With regard to colour and condition (for a bird in bad condition is never a good colour), these are to a large extent influenced by feeding, especially when birds are growing new feathers. Although feeding cannot change the natural colour of the bird, it can, and does, alter the shade of colour. The colour of the feathers is derived from pigment collected in the root of the feathers, and a variation in the amount of pigment will cause difference in the depth of colour. The colour may be dense and Lustrous when a great amount of pigment is present. The quality of colour is largely due to the effecits of feeding, which requires a certain amount of discretion. The use of boiled linseed mixed in soft food and given three or four times a- week, using both liquid and seeds (it can alsb be given in its raw state to small-hard-feathered birds) and vegetables of rich colour tend to produce a rich glossy plumage. Maize is food for yellow legs, buifs, etc., but will tinge the feathers of light-plumaged fowls. Foods rich in fats and oils, such as sunflower-seeds, hempseed, etc., are exceljent for lustre and sheen, but must not be given too frequently or in too large quantities. Two or three times a week at midday will suffice. Foods that contain salts and minerals, such as fresh-cut bone, meatmeal, etc., are necessary for colour and feather. Saccharated carbonate of iron, enough to lie on a sixpence, given in the soft food thrice weekly, or a. little nitrate of iron and potash in drinking water (given in earthernware drinking vessels), is good for darlj-plumaged birds. Half a teaspoonful each of cod-liver oil and Rarrish's chemical food is also good for sheen, feather and also size, but chemical food or any kind of iron must not be given to light-plumaged birds. The use of cayenne does not appeal to me for colour-feeding buifs, etc., as this absolutely spoils the bird for breeding purposes. Peas, cracked beans, pea or bean meal are excellent for bringing out sheen, but these tighten the feather and thus should not be given to soft-feather-ed varieties." A good meal of bread and milk never comes amiss in conditioning the majority. of exhibition birds. Size may be procured by feeding on good sound meals. and milk (more particularly meals from oats), and a little animal food. Soft food will also put on feather, but where soft-feathering is required, and the bird is to be. kept as small as possible, boiled rice and bran will be found as good as anything. All soft-feathered breeds, no matter what colour, should have plenty of soft food. On the other hand, hard-feathered birds must be fed on hard food such as peas, beans, wheat and oats, etc. Warmtn will add to growth of feather, but will also force head points. Care must be taken not to ruin one point in attaining another.