POULTRY NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 99, 11 December 1939, Page 2

POULTRY NOTES

BUMBLEFOOT OF FOWLS

One of the most tantalising complaints of fowls is bumblefoot. It is not as a rule fatal, yet it causes an infinite amount of petty trouble just when it is not wanted. Occurrence. There is practically no poultry farm where odd cases do not occur. These may be due to injury of the foot by stones, thorns, hard doors, etc. or to the perches being too high with the result that the birds hind on the ground with a thud when they fly down, or to slight defects in the structure of the foot joint. On some farms, however, widespread and distressing outbreaks of bumblefoot occur from time to time. The disease may be confined to one pen, even though birds in other similar or identical pens remain unaffected. Practically all the birds in a particular flock may be affected at once, and the disease may even actually disappear as suddenly and as mysteriously as it appeared. Various micro-organisms have been isolated and blamed for the disease, but at present the view is held that these gain admittance only when some unknown primary cause has weakened the tissues of the foot. We are thus unable to state definitely the real cause of these extensive outbreaks of bumblefoot. Symptoms. The fowl is lame in the affected foot. If both feet are involved, it will lie down and avoid walking as much as possible. A dark brown, sharply circumscribed corn may be seen on the ball of the foot. Pus may escape round the edges of the corn. The foot is usually hot, painful and swollen, and the swelling may be seen bulging up between the toes. Occasionally the swelling bursts at some point. The sinews and their sheaths running up the back of the shank may also be hot, painful and swollen. Treatment.

Wash the foot thoroughly in a 1 per cent carbolic solution. Pull fehe corn right out. Open up the ball of the foot and remove any cheesy matter present. Paint the cavity and whole foot well with ordinary tincture of iodine, apply a pad of cheap cotton wool to the ball of the foot, and then bandage properly so that the toes move freely. Put the bird in a coop with plenty of litter on the floor, and if. must not be allowed

to perch or jump on or off high feed ing troughs, etc., till it is quite better. The foot should be dressed at least every second day. Complete healing usually takes place Avithin a week or two. if the sinews at the back of the shank are affected. f»va*ment is seldom a success, and it is best to kill the fowl.

NECESSITY OF KEEPING FARM RECORDS A farm manager is at the helm of a real business, in which physical effort is not enough to make things go. There must be thought and planning behind every move. There" must be records which will show at the end of the year which farm operation* have paid, and which have been carried on at a loss. With records as a guide, it is possible to av*)id making the same mistakes a second time. EGGS BY AIR Another minor trade is to be open ed by the airliners. Thirty dozen eggs, laid at Glenorie, in the Windsor (N.S.W.) district, next November. will be Town to Batavia, and hatched there. A poultry farmer, Mr Cedric Black, is consigning eggs of the White Sussex breed to a firm in Batavia. The hatched chickens will be used for breeding purposes. Poultry farmers in the Dutch East Indies are increasingly taking advan tage of Australia's nearness by air for importing new blood.

BREEDING HENS Whenever possible, hens intended for the breeding pens and which have been kept intensively in the layers' houses, should be allowed ample range from the time they begin to moult in autumn or early win ter and until the pens are mated up. Try this and you will be agreeably surprised to find a vast improvement in the fertility of the eggs and the livability of the chicks. The increased vigour of the parent stock is reflected in their progeny.