POULTRY INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2647, 18 December 1915, Page 15

POULTRY INDUSTRY

« Chantecleh.} % "Sick" Ground. II- is a fact, welt known to experienced poultry men, that the soil in a poultry yard will become stale and "sick" after a certain time. If the birds are kept on it after it has become sick, the.v. too. become sick. The question mainly affects the suburban poultry-keepers, whose space is restricted, and they are the people who have numbers of sick fowls. Of course, if the droppings are removed every day and the yard periodically swept out, the advent of trouble is delayed. But, however clean the owner may bo it cannot be wholly averted so lone as the birds are rim on the samo plot of ground. Although the yards and houses may be kept clean, the liquid front the droppings penetrates the soil, and', in djio course of time, will set up disease. The constant running of. the birds on the samb plot of ground must be avoided, if the owner wishes his fowls to keep healthy. When the birds have been kept for too long a period on tho same patch of soil it becomes stale, the life departs from it for the time' being, and it is at this period that disease germs inultiply # and attack tho fowls, to say nothing of intestinal forms, the ova of which are developed on stale soil. To maintain the fowls/in a healthy condition, and more especially if they aro at all crowded, it is imperative that the ground should be rested for two or three months in every year._ The right way to handle the business is to turn the Birds out of the overworked yard, which should then be dug up and planted with soms quick, and strong-growing stuff. Rape fills the bill in both respects at any timo of the year, and in the not weather, mai7<e will do'tho same'thing. Tho green stuff should be chaffed up for the fowls, until it is exhausted, by which time they may be returned to the yard. However restricted his accommodation may be, the noultry- ' keeper should see to it that his birdfi are changed to a- fresh plot of ground once a year, and' kept .there for two 01 three months. A Hospital for Sick Birds. Borne poultry writers urge the necessity .for tho establishment of a hospital in every his poultry yard for the treatment of sick.'fowls. One man recently said that "a poultry farm without a hen hospital is like a country village without a doctor." It takes all sorts of people to make a world, and every man is entitled to his opinion. Mine is that it is a bad mistako to fix up a hospital, or to bother in any way with sick-fowls, except to kill them and'burn the bodies. Should a crack show bird become ill, it is a fair thing to attempt to a cure, although, oven 60,. I hold the belief that the bird which has once been'seriously ill should not afterwards bo bred from, on account of the risk that it will transmit eomo hereditary weakness. But ■ Valuable individual birds are not concorned in this argument, .which is, that every poultry farm should have ite hospital for the treatment of sick fowls. Now, on a poultry farm time is money, the same as it is everywhere else where a man's living is concerned, only it is more so where that living is being made out of fowls. Let us look at the matter fairly. We will assume that the poultry farmer fixes up a hospital, and sticks every sick bird into it. The quarters have to be kept- unusually clean and regularly disinfected, as otherwise no cures aTe likely to be made. Then the birds Will have various diseases and ailments, which will require different treatment. This necessitates the purchase of a complete medical putfit, which costs money;, but the biggest leakage comes from the lime put in by tho attendant on the sick birds. Some of them may'recover, and' they won't be much good when they do. Others will die,' and the time and money expended on them will bB wasted.. There Is , the danger, too, that tho attendant, after handling tho birds which' are suffering from contagious, or infectious, diseases, might forget the need for disinfection, and go among the healthy birds, and cause them, in one way or anothe?, to becomo infeoted. On the other hand, let us suppose that the s?ok birds are killed and burned 60 soon as detected. Time is saved, whilch can bo put in to far better advantage on tho heathy fowls. There is no risk of tho disease spreading, either, ifjhe sick birds aro outed right away, and there is no need to fix up a hospital nor to' Buy a lot of medicines. Personally, I do not like the doctoring business at all.. Years ago, I usfid to fiddlo about with sick birds, but tne results were unsatisfactory, and I turned it up. The poultry farmer's job is to make his business pay—and a hard job it is too, in the best of circumstances. When he potters about with sick fowls he is wasting the time which could be more profitably employed on the healthy pirds. They are the birds which produce the returns, and every sv>&rp moment should be given to. them. In hot,.weather; for instance, their quarters, should be datnped down irifch water, go that they ro&y lie in the wet earth, and it may be that they will -require extra shade. If these conditions are not supplied, several of them might die of heat apoplexy.. Should the owner T>e Tussing round in his hospital it might easily haonen that ho would not have the time to attend to these matters. Then he might lose a dozen ot his best birds, to say nothing of the harm done to iho others which get through, and all because he hadn't the tuno penalise he was fooling about with, sick fowls, which are seldom of any good, even when they do recover. To my mind the right way of conducting tho business is for the poultry farmer to pay particular attention to the health-of his breeding stock, to hatch the chicks under the best conditions, to house., feed, and attend to them" properly, and not to overcrowd. With such couditions only a few sick birds should turn .up, and when they do, I think they should io killed at once and burned. NZ UTILITY POULTRY CLUB'S COMPETITIONS. The official Tesults of the thirty-sixth week of tho New Zealand Utility Poultry Club's eleventh egg-laying competition tor fowls for the week ended Tuesday, December 14, aTe as follow: LIGHT BREEDS, Total Total \ ■ for to week, date. Verrall Bros. B.L. 20 852 TT lezer. S.C.W.L 27 866 Waikato Egg Farm. S.C.W.L. 33 891 Calder Bros;, S.C.W.L.' 30 803 Heretaunga P.C., No. 1, S.C.28 827 N. Solomon, S.C.W.L 23 713 J. Wordsworth, S.C.W.L 16 . <45 Dominion Poultry Plant, S.C.W.L 26 72 ? M P. Chapman, S.C.W.L. ... 28 821 Mrs. J. Mills, S.C.W.L 30 912 A. R. Browne, S.C.W.L. ' 24 827 Heretaunga P.C., No. 2, S.C.W.L 26 8,6 T, M'llwraith, S.C.W.L 23 . 694 C. Wrburton, S.C.W.L. 23 ' 655 A. G. Brailoy, S.C.W.L 25 891 Wainoni Poultry Farm, S.C.W L 27 791 L. Hayne, S.C.W.L 25 921 A. W. Irvine, S.C.W.L 26 763 A'shburton Poultry Farm, S.C.W.L 27 691 G. Catteral, S.C.W.L 29 757 L. T. Wright, S.C.W.L 31 888 L. Macdonald, S.C.W.L 24 ' 699 Atkinson Bros,, S.C.W.L 26 763 A. E. Phillips, S.C.W.L. ...... .23 756 Dalmuir Poultry Yards, S.C.W.L 29 ' 919 B. P. L. Clayson, S.C.W.L. ... -21 759 Green Bros., S.C.W.L 31 858 Jack Green, S.C.W.L 32 939 A. E. Wilson, S.C.W.L 30 897 W. A. Nixon, S.C.W.L 22 708 H. S. Woodnorth, S.C.W.L. ... 25 900 R. Roxburgh, S.C.W.I 26 7-1S R. A. Lazarus, S.C.W.L 15 741 A. W. Adams, S.C.W.L 30 821 T. Fazackerley and Sons, S.C.- . W.L 31 752" W. Davoy, S.C.W.L 25 841 , W. A. Nixon, S.C.W.L 33 821 . It. H. James, S.C.W.L 10 793 , R. Mills, S.C.W.L 27 892 S. L. Leggett, S.C.W.L 29 716 R. Willis and Son, S.C.W.L. 20 831 George Gee, S.C.W.L 31 796 Green Bros., S.C.W.L 27 712 Rangiuru Egg Ranch, S.C.W.L 21 f,96 ■ T. Kennedy, S.C.W.L 27 1 772 Calder Bros.. No. 1, S.C.W.L. IK 890 K. W. Ilflwke, S.C.W.L 24 733 Mrs, M'Kmuon, S.C.W.L. 26 755 C>v<!?n Bros,, RtC.WiL, 86 . 659

HEAVY BREEDS. ; Total Total, for to week, date. A. W. Adants, S.W 15 620 b'reen Bros., S.W 15 674 13. Oakcs, R.1.1i 23 721 Cooper and Wainscott, R.I.R. 21 830 W. A. Nixon, R. 1.8 9 290 A. E. AVilson, W.W 25 590 T. Kennedy, W.W. ■ 22 789 W. A. Nixon, 8.0 27 621 W; L. Walker, 8.0 31 489 E. Willis, 8.0 i 28 953 W. Bloomfield, 8.0 33 810 Totals 249 7,947 FOR DUCKS. _ TJTo New Zealand Utility Poultry Club's sixth egg-laying test for ducks. .Returns for the thirty-sixth .week are as follow:— Total Total for to week. date. ,T. B. Merrett, I.R 21 786 T. 11, HalU I.R 20 856 0. Z. Rfiyna, I.R 12 814 W. Davidson, I.R 21 824 Thomas Dowtihwaite, I.R 23 694 W. Knight, I.R 30 989 W. Knight, I.R 22 736 Wainoni Poultry Farm, I.R. 11 265 Totals 170 5,961 The letters after each entry denote the breed, a 6 under: —8.L., Brown Leghorn; S.C.W.L., Single Comb White Leghorn; R.C.W.L., Rose Comb White Leghorn; S.W., Silver Wyandotte; R. 1.1?,' Rhode Island Red; W.W.. White Wyandotte; 8.0., Black Orpington; 1.R,, Indian Stunner.