POULTRY NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19648, 7 August 1935, Page 12

POULTRY NOTES.

USE OF SALT.

A very small supply of salt is beneficial, but great care should be exercised to see that the amount does not exceed 1 per cent.-of the total ration fed. The salt should be dissolved in the liquid used for mining the wet mash, or if included in a dry mash the salt must’first be thoroughly dried and then put a through a small sieve. Mix with a small amount of the mash very thoroughly and then remix through the whole'bulk of the'mash. An excess of salt acts as poison, but a little- will supply very necessary- minerals as well as acting as an appetiser. If skim milk is available the chicks should be given as much curd as they will consume. Under no conditions should they bo given fresh milk one day and sour milk the next, as this' will cause bowel trouble. See that an ample supply of small shell grit is available, while every brooder shed should have a proper dust-bath for the chicks. Even if they arc free from body lice, the dust-bath supplies exercise and promotes good habits. Try to avoid using chaff during the first week of a chick’s life, as they are inclined to eat the thick joints of the stems and these will cause impaction of the gizzard and death. The best litter obtainable is the outside husk of wheat, but failing- this wheaten straw chaffed up into about three-inch lengths makes excellent litter. Weak'’ chicks are always very difficult to rear, and in conslderiqg the price of day-old chicks it is as well to consider carefully also the quality of their parents.

/INCREASING EGG SIZE. The best way to set about -improveing- egg size is, first of alt, to weigh and record all pullets’ eggs and ruthlessly discard ail birds that do not lay two-ounce eggs within eight weeks of their first egg. This may seem a drastic course to take, and if your egg size is not good, you will be surprised and disappointed at the number of birds you will have to eliminate from the breeding pen. It lakes courage to cull out birds with records of 40-50 eggs during the first eight weeks on the ground of egg size alone, but it will pay in the long run. The next step is to see that the birds you have left*maintain their egg size, and any birds falling off in tills respect must be removed or banned from the breeding pen. It is a mistake when mating up the breeding pen to mate for one factor alone, such as egg size. One must breed for all-roundd efficiency, i.e., stamina, the most important of all, egg size, and fecundity. Many breeders fail to maintain body size in their birds, wth a consequent loss of stamina. and then the vitality of the birds is impaired, although not necessarily because they are layers of large eggs. The production of poor-textured eggs may be due to lack of stamina in the layers.