POULTRY KEEPING

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21409, 27 February 1935, Page 6

POULTRY KEEPING

♦ : PIGEONS, CANARIES, AND CAGE BIRDS LBy "BARRED ROCK"I ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT The injection used for turkeys is not .stated, but foe following is a Rood treatment lor blackhead. Sulphur five to 10 grains, sulphate, of iron one grain, in- sulphur 10 grains, sulphate of iron "no grain, sulphate of quinine, one grain. Those remedies are lo be given two or three times a day, and continued for a considerable time. Tim doses mentioned are for turkeys weighing four or five, pounds each, that being about the weight at which most of those which require trealment will have arrived. The disease attacks mostly young turkeys, and in these does not generally ■•how outward symptoms until the season is well advanced. NOTES The United Pigeon Fanciers will meet to-night in the Fanciers' Hall at 0 o'clock. Messrs Green Bros, have received an order from South Africa for a breeding pen of White Leghorns, to be shipped immediately. This firm has supplied several pens in previous years 16 South Africa, and have proved good breeders, one pen having supplied the winners of the South African Egglaying Competition. Hens in Breeding: Flock Those who use hens one year old or more find that they come into laying at just about the beginning of the breeding season, and are then at their best in health and vigour, provided that they have been properly handled. Such hens will transmit to their chicks the greatest measure of health and constitutional vigour that they are capable of giving, and with careful management they should continue to do this throughout practically the entire i hatching period. The eggs laid by hens | are always larger than those produced j by them as pullets, and as the size of I the chicks is determined by the size j of the eggs from which they are j hatched, it is readily seen that the I chicks hatched from eggs laid by hens ! have a distinct advantage. A new angle has been given to this subject by the researches of Dr. Raymond Peart, of John Hopkins University, who has recently published data tending to show that duration of life is an evidence of physical fitness, or, as the poultryman would express it, of high vitality. In other words, the oldest hens in any flock are constitutionally the strongest and most vigorous and hence the most desirable breeders. This theory is a scientific justification of the belief of many experienced breeders, that desirable birds should be kept in the breeding j (lock as long as they remain active, regardless of age. It is at the same time a warning against the common practice of indiscriminately sending hens to market at ttie end of their second or third year simply because their total yearly production is comparatively low. To the thoughtful breeder, reasonably good production from a high-vitality hen, even if limited chiefly to the hatching season, may represent much greater profit than a good year's average from a younger bird of lower physical fitness. Dr. Pearl's theory also suggests an added reason for the ob--1 served inferiority of pullets as breeders: namely, that there must be included in any pullet Hock many shortlived, low-vitality individuals that I when bred will pass on these charac- [ ters to their offspring, thus indirectly lowering the percentages of hatch and j of chicks raised. | Prepotency I All fowls possess some degree of | ability to transmit racial and individual characters to their offspring. The measure of ability to do this, however, varies greatly in individuals, both male and female. Occasionally a bird is discovered which possesses extraordinary power to stamp its characters upon ils offspring. This is prepotency as the poultry breeder uses the term. Obviously, it is highly desirable to be able to detect such fowls, and many efforts have been made to find some means of doing so. One method which is based upon skull measurements has received much publicity, but its practical value has never been satisfactorily demonstrated. To date there is no certain way of detecting prepotency except by actual test in the breeding pen. It is known that fowls of the purest blood are most likely to possess this power: hence line breeding is regarded as especially effective in intensifying characters and the ability to transmit them.