POULTRY NOTES.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 383, 10 September 1903, Page 5

POULTRY NOTES.

I The hen's ambition to fill the egg basket is in proportion to her surroundings and comforts, and the least important of these is not the nest. Put the nests rather high, and in as dark corners as possible. Nail them tightly so that they don't fall down, but not so tight that a good clean hammer will not soon fetch them down for cleaning and renewing. Put an insh of ashes in the bottom with a sprinkle of som6 vermin destroyer. Pine hay is used instead of straw, as hens don't scratch in it as much. It is also softer and does not break so easily. A hen delights to get into a hay stack, and you should try to imatite the stack as far as possible when making a nest. A lazy poultry-keeper has lazy fowls (says "Oackler" in the "N'Z Mail") The moment you put your foot into the farmyard of a busy energetic man, you notice how lively the hens are. A busy man will never j allow his hens to stand idle and mope. They are continually kept on the move, and taking healthy exercise. It is impossible to overrate the value of exercise to fowls. They do not get overfat, catch cold, nor, in fact, are they one-hundredth part so liable to disease as fowls which are permitted to mope. The fowl-house is just as true a guide to the character of its owner as is the disposition of his hens. Dirty nests, piles of droppings, no whitewash, loose perches, draughts, are all signs of laziness. It is surprising that fowls neglected in this manner ever lay at all. They certainly will not pay for their food. !

A little salt is as necessary for fowls as for human beings, and food should be masoned accordingly. Birds fed without salt are lees rigorous, more apt to develop maladies, and less prolific taking the season through. Neither are their eggs quite so rich. One reason that ducks and fowls do better apart is that the former delight in slush, and the fowls like a dry piace. Ducks like a soft muddy surface; fowls like a hard one. A duck may be as filthy as possible in appearance, but a few minutes in the water will enable it to come out sound in plumage and perfectly clean. If a fowl gets its legs cased in mud (especially if featheredlegged), and the tips of the wings and tail draggled, it is a long process for it to get dry. ; Fifty 'fowls will drink from a vessel without spilling a drop; two ducks will scatter the /water all over the place. At feeding-time one duck will eat at the rate ; of ai least half a dozen fowls. Again, drakes, especially when breeding, are quarrelsome, and have been known to injure fowls. These are just a few reasons; there aje others. We know it is a common practice to keep and feed ducks and fowls together, and even geese, turkeys, and guinea-fowls as well; but it is this ignorant mixing that has led many to imagine that j poultry will not pay.,-" N Z field." !