THE POULTRY KEEPER

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16096, 20 September 1924, Page 18 (Supplement)

THE POULTRY KEEPER

By "Moorfirwi"

SEASONABLE COMMEN"K

A correspondent writes that no one seems to know how soon eggs may be saved for silting after the birds have been mated. It may be of.interest to readers generally to know that if the hens or pullets were previously unmated, the male bird was healthy and vigorous, eggs may be kept for sittings after the fourth or fifth day. Eggs remain fertile for a couple of weeks after the male bird has been removed from a pen. In fact, if you wish to change male birds you could not be sure that the eggs were being fertilised by the second bird till the first bird had been removed for three weeks.

Success in poultry farming is brought about chiefly by stopping what might be described as small leaks, keeping a check on the deadheads. It does not appear much of a loss to see a hen broody, but when "hens" are broody it is a different matter, and unless perpetual warfare is waged against the broody fever the profits of the commercial egg farmer will soon be diminished. A few days' neglect at this time of the year, and you may have it as high as 25 per cent, of your birds broody if you keep sitting breeds, or even crosses of the same. Hens which are distinctly broody should be removed from the nests the first day—not allowed to sit three or four days. They should bo placed in a compartment or a box, the floor of which is slats or perches, so that the hen cannot sit down comfortably, but must perch. Food and water should be supplied. It is not only unwise, but also cruel, to deprive a bird cf food and water for two or three days to cure it of broodiness, or to place it under a small box on the ground without foor and water. Dipping the bird in a bucket of cold water will not cure it of broodiness. If the birds are well fed whilst in what might be called the "breaking-off" cage" they will start relaying in a shorter time than If they were starved.

If poultry-keepers were aware of the intricate nature of a lien's digestive system they would be more careful in feeding. \Ve are quite sure that most of the ails and deaths in adult stock (and young chickens, for that matter) arc due to faulty feeding. There are three important organs that I must mention—viz., the crop, stomach, and gizzard respectively,— and the "in between" apertures connecting them up are very small, so much so that I have known a large whole maize block up the entrance. And is such happens the digestive organs stop, the food in the organ goes sour, and the bird is inwardly poisoned by the gasses from the stale foodstuffs. Poultry-keepers are, therefore, warned not to feed on large pieces of bacon rind, cheese rind, potato peeling, and the like, as these may easily cause a stoppage, and the loss of many birds. Sometimes chickens wander away from the coop, and, getting cold, are found practically lifeless. If you picked one of such up from the ground you would pronounce it dead, hut it is not actually so, for if wrapped in a piece of flannel and placed near a fire or in strong sunlight it will revive and pe as lively as ever. A chicken which lias fallen into water and appears to be drowned may often be revived in a similar manner.

Whito-comb is a troublesome complaint, difficult to cure. It is caused by over-crowding, want of green food, and improper diet. The comb is covered with small white scales, looking as it it had been dusted over. These will etxend down the neck, breaking and matting the features together/ The treatment is to give plenty or green food, to add a little powdered sulphur to the soft food, and to put some sulphate, of iron in the drinking water. Once a day some ointment, made of equal pads of vaseline and zinc ointment, should be gently rubbed into tin-* aflVrlrd part. Never fnriret that when you are thinking about taking your chickens away from the foster-mother or the

brooder-house that they must not be subject to too sudden Gradually reduce the heat in the fos-ter-mother and brooders until there is no heat except that created by the birds themselves. Let them have no artificial heat for a week or ten days before they go out.

Overfeeding is a fruitful source of inactivity and liver disease. Egg production is affected, inasmuch as it impedes the action of the internal organs by surrounding these with adipose tissue. Even young birds intended for the table can be overfed, and the overfed chicken will rarely make such a fine table bird as a chicken which has been kept growing and fat'tened when wanted.

An important point with litter in the scratching shed is to avoid "caking.' It is a good plan to rake it over occasionally, or, batter still, to shake it up with a fork.

When an individual of any breed possesses the power of transmitting to its progeny any peculiarity or quality with especial certainty that individual is said to be prepotent. This prepotency is increased by carefully breeding together individuals of like inclinations, and the longer this process is continued the more certain is the quality, etc., transmitted. A prepotent male or female may transmit prepotent qualities to successive generations and numerous descendants. • so that in course of time it becomes the leading characteristic of a breed or variety of poultry. This principle of prepotency is of great importance to the breeder of poultry, in that it enables him to obtain as foundation stock individuals from a strain known to he especially prepotent in the particular object desired. The use of a prepotent male is most certain to transmit, the desirable characteristic to his offspring, and birds of either sex prepotent in desired qualities are of untold value in the breeding pen.

SHOW AND UTILITY. To the rabid ulititarian the statement that it is impossible to combine show and utility points not only in the ■same breed and variety but actually In the same strain is unbelievable, and yet there is no reason why almost any breed in a condition to show successfully should not be either good layers or quite marketable table birds. Fowls in whom the colour and markings of plumage, cut and carriage of comb, shape and colour of lobes, and so forth are ignored—are catered for in shows as the best layers, and as pens mated to breed table birds. Nevertheless, from a strain bred exclusively for show utility fowls can be, and are, obtained. —Broomhead.