Poultry Notes

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18973, 26 March 1924, Page 10

Poultry Notes

By

“CHANTICLEER”

ECONOMY AND ADVANTAGES OF KEEPING DUCKS. To those who have not given the matter much thought, it will be good news if they are thinking of taking up poultry or duck farming to know that of the two branches, duck farming can be successfully carried on with much less capital than poultry farming. Buildings must be erected, of course, but they need not be more than shelter sheds. Then the yard need only be fenced in with kerosene tins cut open, spread out, and nailed the long way on. It cuts out the expensive item cf wire netting. To begin with, if iron for roofiing cannot be afforded, bags tarred over will answer quite well and last a long time. Should a drop of water get through the ducks will enjoy it. We are often adevised in poultry literature that great diligence must be given to free the birds from lice and mites. This energy can be saved in duck raising and put into some other avenue of work. Ducks do not, as a rule, get sick, they just die right off if they want to, and so save all medical attention. If clean water is provided they will keep themselves clean and in the process miss disease. Those of us who have had to do with poultry and chicken raising know the sense of worry if a storm comes along, especially f we are away from home. You cut this worry out and instead think of the jolly time the ducks are having while the rain is falling. A duck yard, in proportion to the space used will carry many more ducks that it would fowls. No scratching quarter or exercising yards are needed. If double the number of yards necessary are put in, and used alternately, throwing some seed into the vacated yard and scrtching it over with a rake, no arduous cleaning is required. No roosts or dropping boards arc required and what dirt accumulates is spread pretty evenly all over. This will bring you a crop of green food while it is resting that will save lots of other foods which costs more in money than this does in labour.

If separate yards, or sufficient for alternate Use not be available, you are still on the best side, for ducks do not stratch the dirt in like fowls, and a good hard bass broom run over it will soon put it into a heap. It only lies on the surface, and a little sand is scattered over after the sweeping it makes it still easier. Duck yards do not create much smell, only when they are allowed to get wet, or when the ground is naturally damp. Ducks mess the water about terribly, but if the water that drips from their beaks is carried outside the pen by making the floor at this point higher than the rest and a gentle slope outwards, it will drain itself outside and prevent the ducks from making mud holes all round the water vessel. They carry a lot of water about the yards from their big web feet. This makes it wet and causes the unpleasant odour that is sometimes prevalent about duck yards. The “water fowl,” this term was usually applied to all sorts and varieties of ducks, but experience has proved that ducks can do as well without water as with it and are certainly more profitable to the owner, so that the term water fowl is not now usually used when writing of the duck family. They differ from fowls in many respects and the management is, of course, different also. It is easier, for one thing, and more tha none man who has failed at poultry keeping has been eminently successful with ducks.

While ducks do well without a pond it must not be forgotten that these birds need abundant drinking water. It is part of their food. What would suffice for a very decent flock of fowls would disappear in a very short time among a few ducks. The beginner, especially, should also remember that water kept from poultry makes them only dr yand thirsty, but if kept from ducks it is fatal. A bucketful given at night does not make up to the ducks the little they should have been getting throughout the day. THE SIZE OF EGGS. WHAT IS THE CAUSEI Among all the races of common poultry the Mediterraneans easily lead as layers of standard sized eggs. The Spanish family—Minorcas, Andalusians and the so-called Black Spanish—are even better than the Italian races — Anconas, Leghorns and Buttercups. But with all, the large egg is a breed characteristic. With Hamburgs, Polish and others, small eggs are the rule, and consequently a breed characterstic. The rule with the best known Asiatics —Brahmas, Cochins and Langs hans, is a medium sized egg. The newer breeds —Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Wyandottes, Orpingtons and Faverolles, are a mixture of a combination of Asiatice and Western breeds. The size of their eggs favours the Asiatic side as a whole, and with them the size of the egg depends more on strain. Where the Brahma and the Hamburg has been used as in the production of the Silver Wyandotte, we get a small egg. In White Wyandottes and White Rocks the White Leghorn has been introduced and the eggs are larger in certain strains. Another example of the Mediterranean and Asiatic cross in the famous Black Orpington. On one side it comes from the Langshan and the other parent is the Minorca. The size of egg will vary according to the parent taken after. My readers will consequently see by the above one cause of the under-sized eggs which of late have caused a flutter in poultry circles. This brings me to the small eggs laid in tests by fowls which have been noted for a consistent supply of standard eggs. The English papers mention the falling off in size of the eggs laid by many White Leghorns and White Wyandottes, yet the large egg is a breed characteristic of one, and a strain

characteristic of the other. In Australasia the Black Orpingtons and White Leghorns are the two which are noted now for the small egg trouble. Many writers have blamed fanciers fot spoiling the breeds in their craze for certain points which are against good laying. Now the utility men are being blamed by the scribes for the under-sized eggs in competitions which they say is the result of the dominating object—records. This craze causes breeders to indulge in inbreeding, breeding from immature stock, and hens that are the worse for wear because of the amount of effort they have expended during their detention in the laying test.

The weaknesses indicated are not general. Leghorns are still layers of large eggs. The white is the only colour that has shown the weakness and that is practically the cnly colour that has taken part in tests. The evil results of forcing is well known to all those who have so indulged, whether in bird, animal, or vegetable life. A gardener would not select seed from a forced plant. Immature seeds will produce vigorous plants and prolificacy, but to continue such a course would result in disaster. Many breeders of larger farm stock thafi fowls have found breeding from immature stock an advantage of a kind, but when kept up disaster was certain. In the case of hens one of the results is under-sized eggs.

Whatever may be the reason of the under-sized egg, there is an aspect which for their own sake breeders should consider, and which is the duty of the journalist to point out. It is this. A pen makes a big score in a test. On the strength of the score a breeder at a distance buys the pen at a big price. The birds arrive at their new home and the owner’s dreams of a return for the big price paid are shattered because the eggs arc too small to be sold for sittings or to the storekeeper. LAND FOR POULTRY. Where poultry is kept as a side line or as a hobby, or both, the poultry keeper will not largely consider the poultry. His considertion will be given to his other kinds of operations such as what land will be most suitable for fruit, vegetables, dairying, general farming, etc. The best land for the oidinary breed of poultry is sweet and good growing land and it must be well drained. The most suitable for ducks and geese would be similar land with the addition of a little running water with plenty of growth of succulent green green food. Turkeys require dry land to roam on whether in grass or stubble, and they revel in ploughed land. The stony land and the sandy land which won’t grow stuff may be used only when one cannot provide his birds with a more suitable run. SHELTER. All poultry need shelter and won’t do well without it. Poultry can stand both cold and heat, but not cold winds, wet, or a hot sun. This is of course especially so with young stock. Hence all houses should be in a sheltered position, and if no houses are used shelter must be found to take their place. Open sheds on the farm are suitable for ducks, geese and turkeys, but the last mentioned would prefer to roost on the lower limbs of trees, while the waterfowl prefer to sleep by clumps of low bushes, etc. The houses for the common breeds of poultry have often blinds or shutters to protect the birds. Both are very good, but I would sooner have a break wind some yards away from the open fronts of the houses. VARIETIES OF POULTRY KEEPERS. The most common variety is the cottager, often called the backyarder. Then there are the different classes of farmers who keep poultry as a side line. They also are pretty numerous. Lastly there is the real poultry farmer, who are few in number. The fancier may be found in all the classes. Fanciers are are not all exhibitors. Indeed most of them are not, but keep the fowl as a hobby or as a hobby and for the sake of fresh eggs and an occasional good table fowl —“a rarity.” SYSTEMS OF POULTRY KEEPING. There are three recognised systems of poultry keeping: (1) the intensive; (2) the semi-intensive; and (3) the colony system. The intensive is where the birds are entirely under cover with no open run. The semi-intensive is where more or less of an open run is allowed and this is a much better system. No matter how one may attend to the wants of one’s flock they seem to get something in a bit of a range that the owner fails to supply. Even those who indulge in the intensive system endeavour to let their breeders have a run out. Separate houses in seperate runs may be called the colony system, but generally what is meant is portable houses dotted here and there over the farm. This may suit the man who has plenty of time to collect egg sand attend to his birds’ requirements, and it may suit geese and turkeys, whose eggs are only a few to be used for cooking or hatching. But one who keeps poultry for their eggs and flesh, and who must watch and feed them and collect every day, must have the flock together and handy. The one who is not depending on his fowls for a living and who has plenty of time may find the colony system all right, but the semi-intensive is much the best.

TUBKEYS. The varieties of domestic turkeys arc descended from the wild breed of North America, and are in no way connected with Turkey or the Turks. The Spaniards called the turkeys peacocks when Cortes landed in America, and one authority thinks the name in consequence is taken from the Hebrew "Tukki, ” meaning peacock, and through that channel into the English turkey. The fowl was sent from America to Spain arid there is a record which shows that it was in England in 1524. _ arkeys differ in size and colour. The English standard gives the same general characteristics .for ail, and the weights 271 b. to 361 b. for cocks and 181 b. to 201 b. for hens, but much larger weights have been known. The varieties are the Bronze (often called the mammoth), the White (also called the Austrian or Holland), the Black (often called the Norfolk turkey), the Cambridge (a black bird with white markings), and the Narrgansett (a bird with a black ground colour and in size next to the Bronze). Then there are the Slate or Blue turkey, the Buff or Fawn, the Red, and the little Greyish-black Italian turkey which is used a lot for incubting the eggs of other fowls.