POULTRY NOTES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20107, 14 May 1935, Page 6

POULTRY NOTES

(By Alex. Peat.) Water and Egg Production About 65 per cent, of the egg consists | of water, so that egg production alone will result in the body losing a considerable quantity of moisture. In addition, much moisture is lost in the droppings and by evaporation, prin- I ! cipally in resperation. It will be seen. ; ] therefore, that the water requirements of fowls are very great. In addition J to that actually consumed by stock we ; must allow for waste and evaporation. j and can safely say that 100 fowls will require between four and five gallons i of water a day. Nothing will check egg production so rapidly as lack of drinking water, so much so that poultry keepers wishing to force the moult in addition to removing the mash must restrict the water. In hot . weather the demand is very much greater than in cold weather, and it should be seen that there is an abundant supply of fresh, clean water always on hand. Lack of drinking water is , often the direct cause of a drop in production and small eggs in the summer months. The . Sex of Geese The gander is what breeders term “stronger” or stouter about the head and bill and has a thicker neck, but in goslings this difference is not so pronounced. The heads of ganders even when a few days old are larger than the geese, but a novice would hardly detect the difference. Ganders make less noise, but hiss vigorously if the geese are approached or driven into a comer. The call of the gander is rather weak, a light silvery sound more like a murmur as compared with the loud deep bass or discordant sound of the goose. The gander is inclined to lower his head and hiss if annoyed. He is also said to show a single bag, or sac, between the legs while the goose has a double sac. This point is more noticeable when the geese are laying or about to lay. Best Breeds for Mating The discovery of sex linkage has been of vary great benefit for it enables a breeder to distinguish the sex of chickens almost immediately they are hatched, provided he uses breeds of the right colour. If a male bird with a red or gold plumage is mated to a hen with silver plumage all the male chicks in the first generation will be silver and all the females gold. For instance, if a Rhode Island Red male is mated to a Barred Plymouth Rock hen, the males will be “Rocks” and the females “Reds.” To the fancier, colour-inherit-ance is a most interesting study, and the utility breeder who knows the laws of certain colour factors can sort his pullets for laying purposes and either kill the cockerels or fatten them for market. The purity of the breed is sacrificed by sex linking them, but there is the advantage of not having to rear any cockerejs. The result of these matings should not be bred from. The best breeds for mating in sex linkage taking the golds as cocks and silver as hens are:—Golds—Brown Leghorns, Gold Campines, Gold Wyandottes, Partridge Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds and Red Sussex; Silvers —Duckwing Leghorn, Exchequer Leghorn, Light Sussex, Barred Rock, Silver Campine, Silver Wyandotte, Columbian Wyandotte and Ancona. Leave Ducks Mated It is not advisabl to remove the drake to again use the same mating next year, from the breeding pen if it is intended It is a mistake to do so because apart from the possibility of his becoming sterile if penned by himself for any length of time, there is always the chance that the ducks will not take kindly to him for some time after being mated next season. Ducks are similar to geese in that respect; once they are mated they prefer a continuance of the company of the same drakes. In their wild state the same pair mate and breed over many seasons until accident or death separates them. Second and even third year ducks will produce better results if the breeding pen is allowed to remain intact for two or three seasons provided of course, results justify a continuance of the mating. Sea Sand If you are using sand from the beach for the bottom of your canary cages make sure it has been thoroughly dried ■ out and subject to a fair amount of sun as this will ensure it being clean. Red Mite The Red Mite is very small, with an oval-shaped body, provided with four pair of legs when grown, and three when young. The end of each leg has two hooklets or claws, with which it clings to objects and crawls about. The mouth, with which it punctures the skin and sucks blood, is conical m shape. These mites lay their eggs in the cracks, crevices and filth of the fowl house. If the temperature is warm the eggs hatch out in a few days. The mite is white before it attacks poultry, but afterwards may be either blue or red. Hens attacked by red mite become unthrifty and cease laying, while sitting hens leave their nests. Owing to this mite inhabiting cracks and crevices a liquid insectcide is always best when an invasion occurs. Dressing all woodwork with kerosene tar is most effective. These mites leave unmistakeable white specks (eggs) about any cracks when present. The following are interesting experiments which have been tried and the results —Flowers of sulphur, air slacked lime and dry Paris green had no effect on the mites; powdered moth-balls killed all mites in 45 minutes; tobacco waste had no effect; carbolic acid, five per cent, in water, killed all in a minute; one per cent, powdered mothballs in kerosene was fatal in 30 seconds; one per cent, coal tar disinfectant killed in ten minutes; two per cent, in four minutes; pyrethrum powder took six to ten minutes to destroy.

Green Feed Do not omit green food at this time of the year as it is an important item. Cabbages and silver beat are plentiful just now, and some of either suspended from the roof just high enough for the birds to reach well be kept clean, and also last as long as there is any left. A small ledge should be made for the water vessel about a foot high, so that the straw is not scratched or raked into it, or the water will become foul or tainted. I saw a capital idea a short time ago a small ledge being fixed outside and then hole cut for the birds to drink through. This was easily changed, and the vessel washed out. Apart from this it was a labour saving device, as the birds were watered from the outside. A little improvement might be made in the form of a small hinged piece of board to fit over the top to prevent the water from being sun-warmed. Less of Size If size is lost in any breed and you mate up your hens with a large cock you can breed more size into the progeny. but it will take three years of breeding from large cocks and small hens to increase size equally with what can be done in one season by breeding from large hens and a small cock. Size is influenced to a certain extent by the male but far more by the female. If through neglect in rearing, late hatching or poor feeding a hen is small, but is bred from a large-sized strain, she would, notwithstanding her own lack of size, still produce, if mated with a large sized cock, progeny of a large size also; but with any strain that has been properly attended to, and in which size has deteriorated, by far the quickest, and safest plan is to purchase

large hens in preference to a large cock. Introducing New Blocd When it is absolutely necessary to introduce fresh blood into a strain, bring it in on the female side. Mate the new hens or pullets with the best and most reliable cock in your stud. Kill the cockerels from this mating, as it is not safe to use a cockerel from an outside mating until the third year. Select a few of the pullets from this first outcross and mate them to another cock. Test and watch the balanqe of the pullets from the first mating and in their second year mate them to the cock which was mated to the best pullets the previous year. In three years’ time the blood of your strain should dominate the new blood antf there are not likely to be any spots.