POULTRY NOTES

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 22

POULTRY NOTES

“North Dunedin.”—This correspondent says he finds the daily cleaning of the dropping boards in ids poultry house appears to him to be unnecessary labor, and that ho has too little spare time to undertake what is unnecessary. He refers to frequent recommendations in these notes, to clean the boards daily as a sanitary precaution. “ North Dunedin ” need not worry about it if he omits daily cleaning of the dropping boards, if, say, twico a week will keep them clean. It ho can find the time to spread clean earth on them after cleaning, a thorough scraping even only once weekly will keep them sanitary. February is generally the hottest month in the year, and those interested in poultry must not overlook such matters as shade, ventilation, and cleanliness. What seemed quite all right in colder weather may need some alteration now, for unless the houses are properly ventilated and frequently cleaned and the birds provided with some shade in the runs there is likely to be trouble. Any handy man will be able to alter or arrange for ventilation according to bis housing arrangements. Ho only has to remember that foul air rises, and should be allowed to escape near the roof. There is not much difficulty in letting the fresh air in, for it will force in anywhere, provided there is space made for it by the escape of the foul air. The cleansing of all utensils, bouses, and equipment ought to be frequent, if the flock is to retain that healthy and productive condition so necessary for profitable results. To make the work more easy, and to contribute to its thoroughness, all internal fittings of the fowl house should be movable—particularly perches and nest boxes. The daily routine should include the cleansing of dropping boards, the washing out of drinking vessels, and the scrubbing of feeding troughs when wet mash is the order, while at frequent intervals the perches and nest boxes should betaken out, cleaned, and exposed to the sun, and the hitter (nest boxes) should be replenished with fresh material at frequent intervals. Once at least the interior of the house should bo sprayed with a disinfectant. All these precautions being undertaken that great curse of the poultry yard—the red mite —will be hold in check. If the hen stops laying at this time of year it is probably duo to one or two reasons, either lack of proper breeding or poor management. She may not have good health, vigor, and stamina necessary to lay over a long period, duo to lack of breeding for heavy egg production, and consequently weaken, grow thin, moult, and stop laying. The other cause of poor laying at this season is usually the environment or the management of the hens; lack of green feed, lack of laying mash, presence of lice or mites, not enough roost room, poorly ventilated houses, or some other unknown little detail of management which can easily be overlooked (such as regularly filled water vessels), with the result that the hens will bo thrown out of laying condition. In other words, the number of eggs a lion will lay is determined by management. This fact will be better realised if the poultrykeeper remembers that it is only the domesticated fowl which continues to lay after she has produced the eggs intended to he hatched. She produces her eggs when nature supplies abundantly the food she requires for reproduction purposes, and it the “management” i ails 1o continue supplying spring conditions all the year round there is bound to he a loss in eggs. Spring conditions include insect lifc°in abundance, and any quantity of fresh young green stuff. The insects, worms, grubs, etc., must be replaced by meat food, and the spring herbage by any green stuff, roots, etc., available.

Broodiness.—The general purpose fowls —i.e., the medium and heavy breeds—are inclined to broodiness through the summer months. Since ten to fourteen days arc lost on each occasion of broodiness, and some birds repeat often during each season, it is well to’note the birds so addicted, and cull them from the flock to make room for more profitable layers. Where only small numbers of birds are kept two or three good broodies are valuable, but one can have too much of a good thing. Picking Out the Noivlayers.—One method of culling is—particularly at this season—to throw out the nonlayers, It is not a difficult task to examine a hen and decide whether she is in the lay or not. As we pick her up we notice the head, and if she is alert, with bright, prominent eye and full, red comb, wo know right away she is laying; if the comb is whitish and shrunken and eye dull, we are, or should be, suspicious of her at once. If on examining the vent we find it dry, puckered, and the skin yellow in the yellow-skinned varieties, with pelvic bones well drawn in, we should know that she is not laying, for the vent of a laying hen is bleached, moist, and full, and the pelvic bones arc spread to allow the passage of an egg. If on further examination wo find pin feathers growing we should realise that the moult has started, and in all probabilities she will not lay again until the late winter or spring. Can you afford to keep her that long? The Tonic Effect of Epsom Salts.— In the way of medicines or tonics to make birds eat more their use is perhapo questionable in the very hot weather. What is of use, excepting for the fact that it is so generally abused, is cither Epsom or glauber salts. By being abused is meant giving too much. Epsom or glaubers given in the summer can be most useful if given in extremely small doses, say, one tablespoonful to two gallons of drinking water. All one desires is that the water should be very faintly saline, scarcely perceptible to the taste. Given in this way, its effect on the appetite is most marked, and it is free from tlie objections there are to an astringent iron tonic at ibis lime of the year, iron given too freely usually carries a crop of ovarian troubles in its train. LAVING TESTS. WHY THEY SHOULD BE SUPPORTED. There is no doubt that laying tests are becoming at more importance to the poultry industry. In all poultryexporting countries competition is becoming keener every year, with the result tliat prices are cut to such an extent that it is only the poultrykeeper wlio can keep his birds on strictly economic lines who can remain in the industry. One of the most important factors in economic egg production is the high laying strain Hock, and whether the poultrykoepcr is breeding to improve his own egg output or to sell high fecund stock, lie cannot ignore their trap nest and tho single pen. The public laying tests are thus bis best advertisement. He there competes with other breeders. .It is, an advertisement based on performances, rather than on word of mouth alone. It is to bo regretted that some breeders do not enter for the laying tests, because in the event of tbeir birds not doing reasonably well they fear that more harm will bo done to their business than good. If the birds ol such breeders on the test lay small eggs their sales may be seriously handicapped. The idea savors of the ostrich burying bis head in tho sand. If birds on 'the'tests lay small eggs it is probable that those in tho owners’ yards also do, and it is wiser to awaken to this fact and begin breeding tho large egg factor into the flock than to blissfully close the eyes to what, in the long run, is likely to bring only disaster and disrepute to his flock. The egg-laying tests do for tho breeder what in many cases ho cannot do for himself, and if he does not take advantage of them he is refusing the aid of those whose only object is to better the poultry of the country and advance the industry.— 1 S.A. Poultry Magazine.’ MOULTING SEASON. —Useful Information.— In referring to fowls losing their feathers annually, Mr J. E. Bice, of

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the Cornell University .Agricultural Experiment Station (America), says: “ The first mature moult comes at the end of the first year of laying. It seems to be a necessary renewal of the worn-out plumage. Feathers, like clothes, wear out. In the mature moult it was found that the rotation followed closely that of the prenuptial moult before egg production commenced—the oldest feathers being shed first. The mature moult seldom began while the hen was laying. Quito a few feathers might be shed earlier in the season and during production, hut in most cases t’ shedding of feathers ceased for a week or two, often for a much longer period; then the entire plumage was renewed. For convenience this latter part of the moult is termed the “ general moult.” During this moult some liens shed only a low feathers at a time in the different feather tracts, looking well clothed throughout the moult, while others shed almost the entire plumage at once. “Tlio fact that hens, though well L’, lost weight in the-process of moulting would indicate something of the strain imposed on them by the production of now feathers. It was apparent that as moulting increased egg production decreased. Tin's was almost without exception with hot li starved and fed flocks during each period. It was strikingly true during the starvation period. While some of the lions continued to lay after beginning to moult, and a few began laying before completing their new coat, no hen continued to lay during the entire moulting period. Persistent layers, unless broody, appeared to begin the moult within a week after the last egg, am were usually in heavy moult in less than two weeks. Those beginning to moult after October (April in this State) first shed more quickly and refeathered more quickly than those moulting earlier, especially to the stage of advanced moult, when their bodies were well protected. Hen No. 61 was a good example. It was fifty-six days from the time she began to shed until sho had grown a complete coat of feathers. “In these observations it was found that the hens from all pens which began to moult before September 15 averaged 108 days’ moulting, while those which began niter that date moulted in eighty-one days. The hens moulting before September 15 began to lay thirty-nine days after the completion of "the individual moult; those moulting after September 15 began to lay in forty-three days after they were completely refeathered. All those moulting before September 15 averaged 103 eggs, and thore moulting later averaged 126 eggs.”

TWENTY-THIRD TAPANUT EGGLAYING COMPETITION. —Leading Pens, Forty-fourth Week, ended February 4 (303 days).— FLOCK TEAMS CONTEST (Six birds). Light and Heavy Breeds. —White Leghorns.—

Week’s Weight. Eggs. oz. dr. Ti. A. Woolley 31 G6 0 1.362 J. Liggins 25 55 11 1,337 'i'. 11. Wilee ... 24 53 4 1,321 F. Hawes 33 70 3 1,321 J. G. Vcrrall ... 22 49 3 1,292 Vcrrall Bros. ... 31 Co 13 1,286 SINGLE HEN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP. Light and Heavy Breeds. —Black Orpingtons.— Week’s Weight, Eggs. oz. dr. Tl. H. W. Beck 4 10 5 241 Mrs J. A. B. Hoi la by _ 3 G 7 223 A. M. Espio ... 6 12 9 219 —While Leghorns.— H. C. West 6 13 14 246 S. E. Davey 6 13 11 245 J. M'Intosh 2 4 10 229 W. Spence 4 9 2 229 G. H. Chambers ... 6 13 13 225 A. H. Adams ... 5 11 11 223 SINGLE DUCK CONTEST. Owner Enters Three Birds. —Indian Runners.— Week’s Eggs. Tl. A. G. F. Ross, No. 2 ... 7 296 G. Voice, No. 3 ... 6 293 F. R. Cotton. No. 1 T 292 Mrs B. Gee, No. 3 ... !!! 290 A. Adsett, No. I 7 288 A. Adsett, No. 3 ... / 281 SINGLE HEN CONTEST. Owner Enters Three Birds. —A.O.V. Heavy Breeds.— Week’s Eggs. Tl. P. Bailey, R.I.R.. No. 1 .. 7 242 F. A. Cornish, L.S., No. 2 3 231 P. A. Cornish, L.S, No 1 3 201 —Black Orpingtons.— T. I). Dalziel, No. 1 2 242 G. A. Grainger, No. 1 ” 4 242 T. D. Dalziel, No. 2... .. 3 239 B. M. Cookson, No. 3 .. c 233 G. A. Grainger, No. 2 2 231 WHITE LEGHORN SINGLE HEN CONTEST Owner Enters Three Birds. Week’s Eggs. Tl. H. Williams, No. 3 ... .. o 265 A. C. Goodlet. No. 3 .. 6 265 A. M. Espie, No. 3 ... .. c 263 G. H. Mitchell, No. 2 .. 5 262 J. Maxwell, No. 3 ... .. 6 262 W. H. West, No. 2 ... .. 6 259