POULTRY NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19330, 9 August 1934, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES

STOPPAGE FROM MATTED GRASS. The Feathered World’s Disease,Research Committee, in reply to a correspondent, deals with a trouble often met with a poultry plant as follows :- “The dead fowl sent was found to be suffering from acute bowel stoppage, induced by a matted mass of fermenting and partially putrefied, fibrous grass which completely filled the gizzard. This condition was relatively common last summer, since, as the result of the warm, dry ,weather, the grass had become hard and fibrous. The symptoms you describe —drooping, listless, roaming, food refusal, weakness—all agree with what can be observed in such instances of bowel stoppage. For the prevention of further cases, we would advise giving each fowl a teaspoonful of olive oil and providing the birds with hard flint grit. If any appear ailing, either repeat the dose of oil and wait and see if any Improvement results,. or kill .the bird and examine the gizzard- for- matted grass. Advanced cases are practically inourable, except through a skilled surgical operation

GENERAL NOTES. Where wet mash is fed to baby chickens it should never be in a sloppy condition, or diarrhoea and bowel trouble may result. Wet mash should be well dried off after scalding, and always fed on the dry side. ■Characteristic symptoms of chicks affected by pullorum disease are—■ wings drooped, feathers ruffled, sleepiness. little or no appetite, huddling together, frothy, brownish-white diarrhoea, pasting of the vent, and bulging abdomen. During wet weather special attention should be jaid to the nests. Plenty of clean litter will result in fewer soiled eggs. A WORD OF WARNING. If you have a really good breeding pen hang on to it like grim death —do not "sell the goose that lays the golden eggs." You may have grand youngsters, but that is so much more reason for not selling the parents. You may never get as good results from your young slock as from the original pen, as they may not match so well in mating. Keep your best breeding pen till you actually prove your young stock are reliable breeders. Then when you have got another pen mated that produces better youngsters than your first, let go. Any old slock that is only fit for killing should be fattened up and sold at once. Let go the moment they are fat or your prolit will be lost.