POULTRY KEEPING

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20183, 11 March 1931, Page 4

POULTRY KEEPING

(Bjr. Faneier.) ■ NOTES. y Fanciers., will bo pleased to learn that Mr W. Mabley is home agaiD after a long stay in the Christehurch Hospital) also that Mr 0. P. Bradford has been able to return home from the Lewjsham Hospital. Mr Fred. Chambers, secretary of the United Pigeon Panders' CluL and a vicepresident of the Christehurch Poultry Club, has taken a fancy to Rhode Island Beds, and has added a few birds of that variety to his stock. He has also secured a fine Blue Muffed/Tumbler cock, which he intends pairing with one of his best; elean-legged ' ac 1 : hens with the idea,of improving the heads of the Muffs, which, as fanciers know, are weak in skull. - An experiment conducted by J. v< Huttef at Cornell University, using several.' kinds of materials under vary* ing conditions and practices, points out that:-r-(l) shavings are far superior to all Other as a nest material; (2) shavings prevent chipping breaking as well as soiling; (3) the right kind of nest material is more important than I the litter material.

Making the Flock Fit. The pullets hatched at the proper time last spring are now beginning to lay in large and increasing numbers, and while the egg yield of the hens is fast decreasing, this is a good time to increase the grain feed , and reduce forcing foods. Next month will be time enough for that. Any birds that are moulting will be better for a little linseed meal in the mash, some bone meal and less sulphur—that and the two per cent, cod-liver oil should finish off the pullets, and the hens that moult this and next month should be in fine condition to mate in spring. Those who are not getting eggs from the pullets arp again reminded that they hatched too late to secure autumn and winter prices for eggs. Any hena will lay in spring, but it needs some knowledge to get eggs in the cold "weather of autumn an,d winter. An iron tonic is good at this time. Some Bare Varieties.

At the' Chicago Sho\ ■ held recently, some rare varieties bo seen, list is interesting, and included in the specimens , were , the Light Sussex, Buff Sussex, Silver Grey.Porlung, Dark Cornish, Blue Cornish, Jubilee Cornish, White Laced Bed Cornish, Bourbon Cornish, Sumatra, Highlander, Silver Spangled Hamburg, Black Mottled Houdan, White Crested Black Polish, Plain- White Polish, Bearded. White Polish, Plain Silver Polish, Bearded Golden Polish, Bearded Buff; Laced Polish, Blue Polish, Silver Campines, Golden Campines and Jap Pit .Game.. The only class to assume size was the Dark Cornish class, which consisted of 24 birds. • : , The Light Sussex is now popular in New Zealand, but I have not yet heard of the Buff, though that variety would present little obstacle for the experimenter. The White, the Blue and the Buff Laced Polish are new to us, though Old in Europe, , The English standards Game, the Black Red ot Dark and the Jubilee, and the dark is the only one I have seen here. The other varieties are new. to us. Cornish, £ should have said, is the usual term in America for the 80-called Indian Game; and as the .breed originated in.Cornwall, „thp name Cornish'appears to mo-id be'the: most correct* The writer has often worn the kilt, but has' never before heard of a fowl called Highlander. Hew Laid Eggs,

New laid eggs are desirable, but 1 there is a difference in new laidg, and the, public should'know the difference when the best price is paid, but buyers Often get an inferior article though /'new laid," The new laida may not be fresh owing to being held up . more or less time in ■the oviduct,, t A thin shell may be due to lack of /grit. or poor grit or to over-fatness. The remedy is to reduce , the diet,, to supply a better grit or put a little lime' in the drinking water. '' When the shell is dull, it is a sign the eggs are either not new laid or .that the bloom, has been washed of£ owing to dirt. N , ' A rough shell indicates that the birds have not had a regular supply of and, of course,the npn-regulor I supply will ofsen c use thin., shells. . Some of the old hens will,now be laying watery whites. Pullets lay the best eggfl' for quality, but owing to being smaller than-hens eggs they arc. classed as second in the market, but may be mixed and sold for firsts the fffeops* i Preserved eggs .are often passed as new. laid. The preserved eggs will "crack when boiling unless perforated at one end with a fine needle.

When eggs craqk in the boiling, or 'the yolks break in frying, or the shell has lost its Woom, then one has'reason to conclude the eggs have been preserved.'

The air space at the thick end .of an egg-is a' good guide. The 1 new laid will show little space, and the space gets, bigger and bigger as the egg ages. Placed in-a tumbler of salty water, a fresb egg will lie on its side at the bojttoift, At three weeks old the thick end will rise a little. At three months old it will be partly out of the water. The jDpt Bath. ■' The free use of wood ash in the fowls' dust bath has a prejudicial effect on, leg colour, says a London -paper. The alkali in it (when not mixed with a good proportion of safid or gravel) is so strong as to affeet this result. When wood/ ash is used at all in the dust bath it should •be first bleached, and finely sifted coal ash is quite as -good as the other for this purpose, while it possesses very little of the strong penetrating lye naturally. As to a wood ash heap for the fowls to roll in, by itself,this should never- be permitted. It will invariably bleach the colopr of the legs if indulged in for any length of time.

Starting Poultry Farming^ "Back to the land" might'be an excellent slogan at the present time. But to bo economically sound ■ there must be' a, pfofltable occupatipn of it, and not'the dissipation of hard-earned say,ings or the waste of energy which poultry farming too often _ becomes. The- beginner should realise- that to eapi about the basic rate. of wages at poultry farming, he will require to have a stock of good average layers of' between . 600 and 700 head, says James Hadlington in tjie • "Sydney Morning Herald." . • . \ • | It would, .however, be a mistake to i confine operations" to ' that number: 1 Allowance has to be made for .the raisiW of chickens, and for expansion. ' Such a. r farm, whether built up or pur-' chased, and having on it a very modest kind of dwelling, will run into about fi 1200 or £I6OO. -The idea so I prevalent that one can a. .poultry ! farm in * small way and live on it, however frugally, while working, up a stock is all, wrong, and generally leads s (o failure. The fact is tha\ in starting ' podestly one must have some means

of sustenance so that all the profits from the birds can be put back into the farm until the' nnmbers indicated have been raised up to the point of laying, \ Feeding the birds is only a small Item compared with the initial outlay in providing the rearing equipment ant housing accommodation, without which large numbers of poultry cannot be reared and handled. ' 1 ' Equally risky is the proposition where one buys into a farm on a small deposit and becomes saddled with big interest payments. Perhaps the most fallacious idea of, all is-that of the beginner wh takes up poultry farm* ing with or without sth- -necessary capital, and attempts to put into practice all he has read or his own conceptions of -what .should be, ignoring the lessons of experience gained by .those who have established themselves-in the business. Unfortunately some of the i latter, leven, are not reliable guides to the novice. i -