POULTRY NOTES

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 301, 19 December 1931, Page 23 (Supplement)

POULTRY NOTES

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. ‘ Game.”—The following is the Poultry Club standard for Indian Game: Cock, skull rather broad, long and thick Not as keen as in Old English Game, nor as thick as the Malay. Somewhat beetle-browed. Beak short, well curved, and stout where it is set in the head. Eyes full and bold, comb pea type, small and closely fitting. Face smooth and of fine texture. Earlobes and wattles small. Throat bare and dotted with small feathers. Neck of medium length and slightly arched, the hackle feathers short and just covering the base of th’e neck. Body thick and compact, tapering towards the tail. Broad shoulders with prominent butts. Short and flat back, but not flat-sided. Deep, well-rounded breast, short, muscular wings rather high in front, close to the bo’dv, and round at the points. Medium 'length tail with a slight droop. Short, hard secondary sickles and tail-coverts close and hard. Ltegs strong and thick Thighs round and stout. Shanks short and well scaled, wide apart and free of feathers. Toes (four) straight strong and spreading, the lourth (back) low and nearly flat on the ground. Carriage upright and powerful, the back sloping downwards to the tail. Plumage narrow, short, hard and close. Handling firm and muscular. Weight not less than

♦ en 7T With the exception of the tail rather short, venetianed, but close, and not as low, the general characteristics are similar to those of the cock. Colour—Beak horn, yellow or horn striped with yellow; eyes va’rying from pale yellow to pale red. Comb, face, wattles and ear-lobes brilliant red. Legs rich yellow or orange, the deeper the better.

Plumage of the cock—Head, neck, u '\ der_fluff . thighs and tail black with a rich green sheen or lustre. The base of the neck and tail hackles a little broken with bay or chestnut. Shoulders and wing-bows glossy black or beetle-green slightly broken with bay or chestnut in the centre of the feather or shaft. When the wing is closed there is a triangular J? atch of hay or chestnut formed of the secondaries, which are glossy black or beetle-green in the inner and bay or chestnut in the outer web. Primaries are deep black except for about 2 Jin of narrow lacing in the outer web of a light chestnut.

Plumage of the hen—Ground colour, chestnut-brown, nut-brown or mahogany-brown. Head, hackle and throat glossy black or beetle-green. The pointed hackle that lies under the neck feathers glossy black or beetlegreen with a bay or chestnut centre mark. The breast, commencing in the lean part of the throat and expanding into double lacing on the swell of the breast, rich bay or chestnut, the inner or double lacing being most distinct, the under-parts and thighs marked somewhat similarly, and running Into a mixture of indistinct markings under the vent and swell of the thighs. Feathers of the shoulders and back somewhat small, enlarging towards rio?Ki ail i C °^ ertS ' similar,v marked with double lacing. The markings on the wingbows and shoulders running down th ® waist are the most distinct of all. with the same kind of double lacing. Often in the best specimens there is an additional mark enclosing the base of the shaft of the feather and running to a point in the second or inner lacing. The tail-coverts are seldom as distinctly marked, but with the same style of marking. Primary or flight feathers are black, except those on the frond or web, which are a little coloured or peppered with a light chestnut. Secondaries are black on the inner and web in keeping with the general ground colour, and are

edged with a delicate lacing of glossy green-black or beetle-green. Wing

coverts, which form the bar, are laced like those of the body, and often a little peppered. The. lacing mentioned should be metallic-black or beetlegreen. and appear as if embossed or raised.

Serious defects—Crooked back, beak, legs (inkneed, bow or bent), wry or squirrel tail, flat sides, single or Malay comb, red hackles. In the hen too light, too dark, or mealy ground colour, and defective markings, crooked breast or toes, fiat shins, bad shape, lack of size, long legs, twisted hackle, rusty hackle, white in hackle, heavy feathering. (By “CROW BLACK.”) The Christchurch Poultry. Pigeon and Canary Club will hold a meeting in its rooms, Lichfield Street, on Monday evening. Notes. The schedule and entertainment committees of the New Zealand Utility I oultry Club will hold a meeting in the club rooms this evening. The principle business will be the drawing up of the schedule for the 1932 egg-laying competition. The card and social entertainment conducted by the Christchurch Poultry Club will be continued this evening. The Canterbury Pigeon Flying Club conducted a race for old birds from Tolaga Bay to-day. This is one of this s • ne races, the distance being 4i2 miles. Another race from the same point will be flown next Saturday. The South Island Wyandotte Club will hold a special meeting in the Christchurch Poultry Club rooms this evening. It is hoped that there will be a large attendance of members and intending members. The first West Coast open show for the 1932 season will be held by the Inangahua Agricultural and Pastoral Association on March 11 and 12. This club has taken over the Reefton Poultry Club. The championships allotted for competition at this fixture are the open class Black Leghorn and utility class White Leghorn. At the council meeting of the South Island Poultry, Pigeon and Canary Association, held on Monday evening, reference was made to the splendid report of the association’s conference in the “ Christchurch Star.” At the South Island Poultry, Figßon and Canary Association’s conference several new championships were allotted—utility Buff or Cinnamon Orpington, Black Pekin bantam, Black Red Old English Game bantam, Spangled Old English Game bantam, Old English Game other than Black, Red or Spangled bantam and any other variety pure-bred poultry. Open class: Any other variety pure-bred poultry, utility class. The popularity of the Rhode Island Red is growing in Australia. At a recent meeting of the Australian Rhode Island Red Club forty new members were enrolled. The two championships allotted to the Old English Game have been drawn for competition by the two clubs where this branch of the fancy is most supported, Christchurch and Oamaru. The game fanciers are very pleased, and there is every possibility of the Game Club holding its annual show at the Oamaru fixAt the last English Crystal Palace Show the entry in bantams reached the splendid total of 1250. Old English Game were the most popular breed. The United Pigeon Fanciers’ Club lias decided not to meet again until after the holidays. From then on the club will begin to make arrangements for holding the new season's table shows, the first of which will be held on February 10. The classes are for juniors and the schedule for all varieties of fancy pigeons. The club has received some fine silver spoons as special prizes for these shows. The club will also conduct judging competitions in conjunction with the shows, one for junUns and one for seniors. Special prizes have also been donated for the winners of these competitions. The schedules for the full list of the whole of the season’s table shows can be secured on application to Mr F. W. Chambers, secretary. The shows are open to the public and the executive will be pleased to see a large attendance of fanciers. z The Christchurch Poultry, Pigeon and Canary Club held a meeting in the club rooms on Monday evening. Mr A. E.

Hounsell presided. Air Hounsell gave an outline of the business done at the South Island Poultry Association conference. It was decided to hold a meeting on next Monday evening. Tht council of the South Island Poultry, Pigeon and Canary Association met on Monday evening, Mr G. E. Jeffreys presiding. The secretary reported on his efforts in connection with Mr E. C. Baker’s championship certificate. This matter was left in his hands for further information. A letter was received by the president from an enthusiast, suggesting a system of selecting eggs for hatching. The Dunedin Fanciers' Young Bird Club applied for an alteration of show dates. This application was returned for signature. The North Island Poultry Association forwarded a copy of the proposed new standard. It was decided to call a meeting of the delegates to deal with this matter at an early date. rood Value of Eggs. In addressing the National Poultry Congress, Dr llazel K. Stiebeling, of the Bureau of Home Economics United States Department of Agriculture, discussed the food value of eggs, especiallv diet of young children. “It is difficult, ’ he said, “ to measure the egg consumption of the country, because many eggs are consumed by producers or are sold retail without going through tbe trade channels from which statistics are derived. From many records of actual food consumption by farm families it would seem that eggs are not more generally used by farmers than by people at large. A large- factor in the variation in the use of eggs is a question of price. Since the egg not only contributes nutritive value to the diet, but facilitates so many cookery processes which would otherwise be difficult or impracticable, the demand tends to keep up all through the year, while the fresh supply is most abundant during the spring and summer months. Consequently the price of fresh eggs varies from season to season with the supply. During the winter months there is a price variation between fresh and storage eggs, but the housewife needs to learn that storage eggs may be used quite as satisfactorily as fresh eggs for most cooking purposes. It will be easier to educate the public to give a proper recognition to the place of eggs in the diet when as much care and standardisation can be given to the egg supply as is now given to the milk supply.” Kerosene Emulsion. Kerosene emulsion is useful on the poultry farm as a spraying material for the control of red mite and other parasites that Jive and hibernate in the poultry house on perches, etc. To make the emulsion take 8 oz of soft soap and dissolve it in one gallon of boiling water; take the mixture off the fire and add slowly one gallon of kerosene, stirring all the time. This mixture should he agitated briskly until the oil and ?P a Py water are thoroughly emulsified. -Lhese two gallons are then designated the "stock.” Add to this ten gallons of soft water. Hard water will not do, should lime or any caustic subresult will be that the oil'w'ill separate from the soapy water and the emulsion will be spoiled. If it be desired to make the spray also a disinfectant, add one tablespoonful of mixable carbolic acid to each gallon of emulsion. The whole Should be kept well stirred, especially when adding water. The method just described is the only way in which it is possible to make the emulsion, and unless it is followed exactly the product will be useless. If the oil and water are not thoroughly emulsified (mixed) the oil will float on top of the soapv water and the mixture will be absolutely ineffective. Fibre in Rations. The principal common cause of pasting up in chicks together with indigestion, loss of weight and mortality, is the lack of fibre in the ration. Manv experiments by various feed companies and colleges have shown clearly that we need a much greater fibre content than was thought desirable. By having sufficient bulk in the ration, the digestive juices are able to get at the materials in the intestines properly to digest them so they can be assimilated. At the same time the muscles in the intestines still have something left to push on so that the chick does not become constipated and pasted up, which condition frequently results in a fatality.

An unusual feather guessing contest was recently conducted by a prominent American poultry food company. Five hundred dollars in prizes were offered for the best estimates as to the number of feathers on a hen. Thousands of guesses were received, including some very amusing ones. One person who was probably looking for a “ catch ” estimated “ none at all.’’ Many estimates in the hundreds of thousands were received, and several in the millions, the highest estimate being 600,060,017. The correct number was found to be 8120. Green Food Requirements. A person who has limited cultivation space, can grow the dual purpose vegetables and salad plants, instead of cereals, etc. Tht tops of spare vegetables supply the green food requirements of the feathered stock. Cabbage, lettuce, spinach, kale, beetroot, silver beet, onions and solid plants are all suitable for the purpose and by cropping intensively an abundant supply is available at all seasons, A few boxes of sprouted grain will make up any deficiency, or a single row of one of the cereals, oats, wheat, barley or rye, sown in a drill to form a thick ribbon of foliage, will augment the existing supply of vegetables, as well as act as a rotation crop. The reason why young stock should be fed separately from the adult stock is because a different class of food is required. For instance, the practice of feeding growing chickens, especially in the initial stages, with a balanced ration as fed to layers, is wrong, and is calculated to result in that early maturity which induces pullets to come on to lay before they are properly grown, with its attendant evil, small eggs. The way to raise good chickens is not to pamper them with too much concentrated food, but to feed them often on a coarser ration with milk or milk powders rather than meat or highly concentrated materials. Often a hen’s droppings will attach itself to the feathers around the vent, causing a heavy incrustation. Or possibly wrong feeding may be causing bowel trouble, which mats the feathers. Catch and examine ever}' bird and clean this matter away. If necessary clip or trim the feathers to allow a sure passage for the droppings. Allowing any such accumulation to remain causes irritation. Excessive feathering around the vent is also a hindrance to fertilisation, as it prevents proper copulation. Attention to the vent is more essential in heavy breeds and greater care would mean more chickens and less possibility of disease.

Albumen is found most' abundantly in animal food such as meat meal, fish meal and the like. Certain vegetable foods also contain a fair amount , such as beans and peas, lentils and cloves, including lucerne. At the same time, to depend on vegetable foods for albumen would not be wise, as they contain too small an amount of it compared with their other ingredients—carbohydrates and fats. In the wild state fowls pick up a good deal of insect food, which is rich in albumen. To make up for this in captivity we feed meat meal and the other allied stuffs mentioned above. When on free range poultry should not require these feeding stuffs unless their range is very limited in extent, or known to be poor in insects, worms and the like. The Australorp is receiving marked attention in other countries, and our breeders are being congratulated in having introduced the bird. Breeding pens are already either on the way to or established in Europe and North and South America. Brazil, through the Consul-General, • has got in touch with some of the best fanciers, and will doubtless take up the birds extensively. Now that the bird has been accorded official recognition in America and England, there is every prospect that it will become exceptionally popular all over the world. This should bring good business to those of our men who have carefully concentrated on the utility type according to local standards.” —Australian Poultry World.