POULTRY NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 8 December 1913, Page 6

POULTRY NOTES.

(By Utilitarian.)

The ground being well soaked with so much rain, this summer will bring into being many luscious worms for the chickens; tile soil being soft will simplify digging for them. In wet and showery weather it is a good policy to do all feeding;, whether for chickens, or adult stock, under cover. When this is done there should be plenty of scratching ntav terial in which to scatter the grain. All sorts of timber being now so dear, attention may well be given to building fowlhouses of |aoncrete or coke breeze. The labour may be somewhat additional to where timber is used, but a permanent house is the result, and moreover, if properly constructed, as vermin and rat-proof as human ingenuity can devise. Grass should not be allowed to be J coma long and rank in fowl runs; first, because its nourishment is, lost to the birds-lyhen allowed to run to seed, and secondly, by keeping it cut down, it creates a good sward of green growth for the autumn months. .. Birds for market have been recently aent from this district to the New Zealand Pdultry Industries, Blair , Street, Wellington. It ig. better to market earlv than wait for the Christmas trade. * Everyone; is after the latter. It requires some little practical experience to be able to detect/noit merely that a bird is not laying, but whether she has finished for the season or* not. The distance between the pelvis and, breast boneg will give , the necessary indications. Poultry notes, like gardening notes, apparently require to contain frequent repetitidn. One would be excused in thinking that now-a-days, considering the frequency the matter has been mentioned, it would be worthless informing readers what a morning mash should consist of, and yet, this very day, the writer has received a request from a resident m . the Bush district concerning her hens, adding how the birds were fed of a morningj. This feed consisted of peas and boiled potatoes, mixed with pollard. Grand feed for fattening baconers with, perhaps, but for laying hens, alas! Commercial poultrymen in theae times have, generally speaki in"-, but one" formula, and that is, ; two parts pollard and one part bran, by not weight, tins varying but slightly according to the quality ot the pollard. This is given either whollyVdrv, or mixed to a slightly damped, "crumbly, consistencyfHvith plain cold water, warm water, soup, or milk, according to circumstances and the owner's inclinations, but pqjlard and bran are the mam ingredients in probably nine cases out of ten.

Amateurs or beginners are over prone to experiment, not on new lines but go over the same did ground that others have gone times without number. ' Experiments ai£ dangerous at the best of times, being costly and rarely satisfactory. Again, it is only the experienced who is fitted to undertake fresh departures, for pot only are his ventures likely to prove : inore exhaustive, but his knowledge: will check him tackling worthless methods, and further, his experiments it resultant in success, are more likely to bo acknowledged and accepted by the poultry world at large than any, possibly, accntinp thrriugh the attempt* of the beginner. . The most advanced men in the Justness have vet a mighty lot to learn, and there/is no doubt we require a multitude of information before it can be truly said "Eureka/; but, tins information is nrtb icoming from .tilt amateur. . ~ • ' • Backward pullets can be pushed on by an additional feed of mash at midday iu'st what thev will quickly pick up'." Meat, once or twice a week, will facilitate matters, too News concerning the welfare of the birds sent to the American egg-laying competition should be to hand any time now. , ■, The New Zealand Poultry Industries, Ltd., Wellington, has Keen realising 'hisher prices for eggs than other firms in the city; eggs, guaranteed by testing, must tell a satisfactory tale. . Orchardists appear to he agitating for an orchard tax, and why not.' The writer would like to see a, tax on every poultrykeeper, so that the industry ootid and would be self-sup-porting; and save the crawling to the powers that he, every time any little assistance was required.