POULTRY NOTES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16797, 22 July 1920, Page 9

POULTRY NOTES.

Poultrymen who have good indoor houses for their birds found the advantage of them last week during the wet weather. Birds that are kept under cover in an open front house in wet weather keep on laying, whereas birds that are left out in the open are apt to go off- Good houses arc wanted as well as a good laying strain. Great care should be taken in the manner that the perches are fixed, as they are the harbouring place for a parasite called the red mite. This parasite lives in cracks and crevices in the perches in the day time, and at night time comes out on to the birds and sucks the blood from them. The only way to rid your house of the red mite is to white-wash the inside walls of the house and hang the perches on wire stretched from a rafter in the roof; also get some crude petroleum and brush it well on to the perches-. If these precautions are taken this pest can be held in check.

A lot of male birds get out of condition when running with the hens, and I find it a good plan to take the male birds off tfic perches at night, place each one in a separate coop, and give, them a good feed of gram by candle light. It ia surprising how they look for their meal alter the first niglit or two. If this is carried out your male birds will finish up the season as fit and well as they were at tho beginning. Not only does skimmed milk contain much nutritive material, but it contains it in a form which as a rule is easily digested. Skimmed milk may often be advantageously substituted, in part, for meat. It may be used in mixing tho soft food, or it may bo given the fowls to drink in addition to water.

Are your eggs sterile? If so, you want to know the reason, for unless you know tho reason you can’t overcome the difficulty. Sometimes infertile eggs are tho fault of the male bird, sometimes of the hens. If the male bird has been forced too much early in life, or if he is of a weakly disposition, he is frequently unsatisfactory. In this case, of course, all the eggs from the pen are sterile or else they contain extremely weak'germs. On the other hand, if infertile eggs are the result of constitutional weakness on the part of one or more of the hens, then only a proportion of the eggs produced will bo sterile; those laid by strong and healthy tins will probably contain quite satisfactory germs. The progeny of related parents often produce infertile eggs, and thus it is a mistaken policy to mate together a male bird and hens which aro closely related to one another.

Tell-tale signs to look for.—The poultry-keeper cannot do a much more foolish thing than to allow an unhealthy bird in his hreeding-pen. 'Tho consequences of such a thing arc likely to be very serious. Unhealthy stock naturally throw unhealthy chickens and thus faults aro maintained year after year, often growing in intensity all tho time. Even a bird that doesn’t possess a sound and vigorous constitution should be rigidly excluded from the breeding-pen. We don’t mean in tliia connection that should a bird bo suffering from such a tiling as scaly leg or an accident she should bo rejected ; these are only of a temporary nature, and will not bo perpetuated in tho offspring . It is when a fowl is

suffering, or has suffered, from an infectious and organic disease that danger arises. This is the sort of "Bird that must b« rejected at all costs. There are several signs that indicate good health—a bright red comb, activity, readiness for food, and a glossy appearance of the feathers. Fowls that are unhealthy, on the other hand, are rarely active; their combs, as a rule, are either dull or of a whitish tinge, their feathers are usully rough and draggled, while they seldom possess good appetites. There are, of course, other indications peculiar to the complaint from which they are suffering, but theee can only be learnt by experience. Bren when eggs are intended for edible end not for breeding purposes, unhealthy birds should he allowed no place in the pen, since they are rarely profitable.