POULTRY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 76, 22 December 1917, Page 15

POULTRY NOTES

(By Chanticleeb.) ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. "J. Ji. G." writes:—"is pouitry-l'aruiing a success it' wonioa on scioutinc iinusf Wjiat is uiti best muiaou ol oUiaimng praciicui Ijnowieago lor vUo purposei l " Answer: Poulli-y-laruiiug lb solely for tho specialist. Poultry-Keeping is for a-li wno care to make a. loDay or pan Jiving from il. li is a, great mislaKo lor anyone that has not ha-u practical eiporieuco to enter largely into the work. Failure is almost sure to follow. Tliere ie no brancU oI asi'icuiture that calls loi experience moro tiwn poultry-Keeping, it is ÜBuaily assumed us a siinpie and easy metlioa of obtaining an income. Experience is essential before auyono shouid venturo into the work for a living. To keep poultry as a part living or as a hobby ia a different proposition. In this little capital is needed, and no great lo&sos can be made. The work gives experience whioh leads on to greater tilings. The workman can in his spare time lca.ru how to hatch and raise chickens, and feed hens for laying, lie "can increase his laying stook, and tho experience be gains from one hundred birds is invaluable. Each year he can extend his plant and incrooso his birds until such timo'as he feels confident ho can launch out on his own. To begin in a big ivay means capital, and tho man who startß out with this may command experience. But to start out with neither capital nor experience is to court failuro. Go on with your work. This makes you independent of your returns from poultry. Subscribe to a good poultry paper, and read practical books on the subject. Book Knowledge iB of little use. It must be practically applied and mastered. Now that feeds are bo dear, only the best and most experienced men can hope to survive, with tho increased prices for egge, economy in methods of feeding, and labour. A striot culling of the stock and a sharp eye for disease, the experienced mail can still do well. Now war is on. and materials are so expensive, it would bo advisable to "go slow" and get what experience you can from poultry-keeping in a small way.

"E. G."—lt is not wlbo to set hens now. The chicks will be so late that they will only como in to lay late in the Bprlng when eggs are oheap. They will moult quickly, and it means a whole year's foeding for very little return. If you are hatching for table poultry, it would bo all right, as the birds would mature and be ready for the market wnen prices aro high jjnd stock is dear. I do not think anyone will oaro .to exchange birds .with you for stock pur no bos, unless you want something cheap. Jt colts nearly ten shillings to keep a bird from now to next breeding season, and you may as well send them to • the market.