Starting a Poultry Farm.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8277, 19 October 1905, Page 7

Starting a Poultry Farm.

To those who' are thinking of starting a poultry farm as a means of earning a living the first thing to be considered is whether you are fond of poultry or not. If you only look upon fowls as the means of making money and do not take a personal interest in each one, the chances are that you will fail. You must study the fowls at all times of the day, and find out their requirements. Some fowls require different treatment to others, and are happy and contented where others would only mope about and look miserable. Above all things keep your poultry busy; don't let them hang round the gate waiting for a chance to get out. Let nothing be too much trouble. Leave nothing to chance. You must give up your

morning nap and be up with the birds. In

the hatching season you must give up courtyour best girl at least four nights in the week. The hour at dusk and the one following it are two of the most important ones of the day. You must look round all the little chicks and see that they are all stowed snugly away. Sometimes before they learn the run of the brooder they will all pile up in one corner, instead of going under the cover, and in the morning a pile of trampled corpses meets your eye, if the night happens to be a chilly one. Have a look at the brooder lamps before you turn in for the night, and see they are all burning steadily. If one should happen to go out the chickens will huddle together for warmth and the weaker ones get trodden underneath. In the summer, and, in fact, all the year round ... keep a careful look-out for lice, both on the perches and on the fowls. If the fowls are provided with a good dust-bath they will keep themselves clean ; but the perches require spraying with a good lice-killer every week; have, them smooth and free from pracks, loose bark, or crevices of any sort, and have them .all on the one level and not

more than 2ft from the floor, and moveable,

The houses must be water-tight and free draughts. It is a good plan to have the front (which should face the sun) open with a verandah on hinges, or a blind which can be rolled up to allow the sun to penetrate into every corner, or which can be let

down to keep tho rain out. Be careful to have the walls as smooth as possible without any splintered wood or cracks which would harbour lice, as once these little atoms get possession of a house the only thing to be done is to pull the wholo thing down and burn all the infested wood. If you havo plenty of space make your yards as large as possible; a big place is desirable provided it is used. It is not an essential, for fowls will thrive equally well in smaller yards if they are well-supplied with green stuff and a scratching pen. If tho yard is bare dig it over every week or s?, this will keep it 'sweet and dry, and give the fowls a chance to fossick out every stray worm. Most people are very anxious to know which is the best breed. There is no best breed ; it is a question of strain. If you study the laying competitions you will find that the breed which heads tho list is not infrequently at the bottom of the list also. It does not follow that because one man's Silver Wyandotfes can lay 200 eggs a year that another man's will do likewise. Likely as not they wouldn't reach 100. One man has been picking out his best layers year after year and breeding from them only, while the other man may have been paying all his attention to show birds. So, in laying the foundation-stone of your flock be sure and get your birds from [the right man A mistake here will be fatal to (he whole business.—By " Hono Ilcke " in Auckland Herald.