POULTRY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 32, 1 November 1919, Page 12

POULTRY NOTES

(Py "Chanticleer.") Soma Practical Hints. Here are ;i few practical hints for tlio small poultry keeper. It ia beat lo have "lho houses outside the runs, with_ a door at the bael; of each home. You can push a wheelbarrow along the track, open the door, sweep out the house, and shovel the manure into the barrow right away. When the floor is clean, throw Bomo sand or dry earth over it, so that tho droppings will not stick, when the sweeping, and cleaning will become easy. Have the gate to the run wido enough to admit of t lie passage of <i wheelbarrow. With a, wide entrance you can wheel your barrow in, sweep up tho yard, and shovel tho stuff into the. barrow at nice. If the gate won't let a barrow in, you eitlier have to cart tho'refuso out in a- bucket, or take down one Bide of the run when you arc cleaning Tip. Tho yards should be spelled onco a. year by turning out the birds, and digging up and planting tho run with rape or barley, which ore strong growers, and gross feeders, and act as good soil cleansers. Havo tho floor of the house higher than the eur rounding ground, so that no water may run in. Have shell grit, stone grit, and crushed charcoal mixed up together in a tin, and place the tin in the houao_ where it will keep dry; inako a hole in tho tin, largo enough for the < birds to got their heads in, but not big enough for their bodies. Thoy can't get tn tho tin and kick out and waste, the Btuff if the hole is small. Turn back the edges of tho cut in the tin so that the rirda can't injure themselves. Don't have lugh perches—l2in. for heavy, and 18in._ for light breeds—is high enough. If higher the birds may hurt themselves in jumping' to tho ground. And—when you hatch a weakly chick, kill it out of hand and dodge trouble. You "will never do any* thing -worth talking about until you learn liow to kill tho weakly chicks. Constitution is the foundation of successful roultry breeding.

Eggs for Hatching! All practical poultry writers advise their readers to use the medium, normal sized eggs for hatchiug. Why? Because it takes a certain amount of water, albumen. fat, and ash to .produce a perfect chick. If any of these constituents is lacking in quantity, or is in excess of the proper proportion, the chick either dies during incubation, or hatchcs a weals specimen, and this is tho reason why you ouirht not to use the email or very large eggs from a lien that should, and generally does, lay an averaged-sized egg. When' tho hen that ought to, and usually does, lay an average 2oz. egg. drops a ljoz. ogg, or a 3oz. egg, sho lias got out of her usual gait, and has done something abnormal, and the abnormal is a tricky, risky thing to deal -with, liecauso you don't know where yon are, or what you will get out of it. On tho other hand, when you deal with the normal you do know where you are, and you do know what you will get. Therefore, don't go away from the normal. If you Fet small eggs from a lien that always lays small eggs, and whoso ancestors have also been noted for small eggs, you know what you will get. You will hatch chicks that ivill lay small eggs. You will have kept to the normal, and may confidently expect normal—that is, average, results-in this case Bmall eggs. Don't Hatch Aonormal Eggs. On tho other hand, if you set l?,oz. or 3oz. eggs from a hen that -usually lays a, normal 20,z. egg, and whose ancestors did the samo thing, you depart from tho normal or average, and you will got what you get. You will havo nothing to go on, and won't know where you are. Tho chicks from the small, and tho large, eggs may produce chickß that look all Tight, and seem to bo all right; but you don't know what they will do ,ater on. They might lay the normal averaged-sized egg; hut even then you won't know where you are, for tho large or tho small egga may show up eome years hence, just when things aro apparently going well ■with you. In hatching eggs, Btlck to tho normal, and you aro safe; bccauso tho normal or average is tho natural thing, and you may expect it to bo reproduced. These remarks apply to badly-shaped and rough-shelled, and thin-shelled eggs. They are abnormal, too, and the hen should not lay thcin. But she does it, now and again—why, no one knows—and tho breeder should turn them down with decision, so far as hatching chickens from them is concerned.