POULTRY POINTERS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 81, 29 December 1937, Page 3

POULTRY POINTERS

Heavy Layers Are Heavy Eaters BEWARE OF POOR DOERS Heavy layers are heavy eaters, and one can easily find which pullets are Jaying well by feeling their crops when the birds are on, the perch. Those birds which have a small crop, plus a thin breastbone, are not only poor eaters, but poor doers as well, and should be culled. When Litter is Stinted. Tf insufficient litter is provided growths may develop on birds' breasts. This conimonly happens in the case . of cockerels being shut up for fattening. At first such growths contain a watery fluid, which later develops into a white core. Do not open the growth at first or blood-poisoning may result. . The best treatment is to paint the growth with iodine daily until it hardens, when it can be opened and the hard centre squeezed out. Bathe the wound afterwards in a weak disinfectant solution, then apply any healing ointment available. White Australorp Evolved. A breeder in South Africa has produced a number of White Australorps, and sent four females and a male to be exhibited in England. It is said that the male is a nice bird, a shade tall, perhaps, for the breed, but fairly deep, a good colour, with slate-coloured legs. Of the females, one is a perfectly good^ Australorp in every way, the rest very fair for type, size, eye, comb and colour, though it is a moot point aa to whether a white should have as dark an eye as a black. The Australorp is the Australian Black Orpington, and has become established all over the world as an established utility bird — a good layer and good table bird. The only thing which could be said of its white brother in comparison is that it would not have the black stubs and legs that some object to in a table bird. Value of Sprouted OatsSprouted oats contain many nourishing qualities that ordinary green foods do not possess, being admirably suited therefore to layers, breeders, growers and adults. Although the birds will not readily eat the oats in raw form, they will the sprouted oats, and with relish. The cause of this seemingly curious happening is that the oats have undergone a chemical change, a substance called diastase being formed. This speeds up the action of the digestive juices, changing the starches to glucose at a quicker Tate. Actually germinated, rather than sprouted, oats should be fed. Soak the grain for 24 hours, and then keep it for three or four days at a temperature of about 60 deg. This is infinitely better than growing the oats until the sprouts become green — in six or seven days' time. Also it saves quite an appreciable amount of work Feed the germinated oats at the rate of loz. per day for each adult bird. Round the Fowlhouse. The question of keeping the ground inimediately around any fixed poultry house, either for adults or young stock, in good order is always a difiicult one. If the land is heavy some form . of cinder mat is a good idea. All this implies is the removal of a few inches of soil and its replacement with flne rubble, cinders or clinker to form a firm pathway abovt a yard wide entirely surrounding the house. In this case it is best to. bind the area thus enclosed by planking hailed to stakes, the upper edges of this to lie only an inch or so higher than the clinker. This makes for cleanliness all ^ound, mucb less mud gets into the house, and eggs are seldom dirty when this plan is adopted. When Hens Hatch Goslings. When hens are used for hatching goslings the main thing to bear in mind is that the nest should be made much deeper than for hen eggs. It should be bowl-shaped rather than saucer-sh'aped. The soil foundation of the nest should be kept uniformly moist. If it tends to dry out at any time during the hatching period a little warm water should be poured into each corner. Goslings are extremely hardy and require but little attention. They should not be allowed to wander too far afield at first, but all the same .they require plenty of fresh hcrdage right from the beginning. If a run is attached to tlie coop make it of fairly large dimensions and movo the whole every day.

Old English Game. Probably no other breed of fowls has such a long tracoable ori£in as the Old English Game. One well-known writer traces it to 490 B.C., but does not deny that it is probably of much long^r lineage,. a feature being that, as far us history reveals, to-day's characteristics are much as they have been for generation and generations. It is well known that many Old English Game are bred in England every year with the primary object of the fighting pit — although theve is an Act of Parliament mahina the sport illegal. The breeders of pit game birds find there is a lucrative market on the Continent and in other countries where no such restrictions exist. Liver Complaints. Birds with little range'may becomo liverish, a condition denoted by a bluish comb and a v&rying appetite. See thal feeding is not too heating; that is, containing too much maize or barleymeal. The best medicine ia Epsom salts. A

quarter of a pound of salts should be dissolved in one pint of warm water and a dessertspoonful of this solution added to each pint of drinking water. "Down behind," in which part of the internal organs protrude, is brought on by forced feeding, or the provision of house scraps con taining too niuch meat. Bathe the displaced organs with warm disinfectant solution, anoint with vaseline, and carefully push back into the vent. Scaly leg is especially likely in cinder runs, and is best cured by liolding the legs for a minute in a mixture of paraffin and linseed oil, half and half, taking caro that none reaches the flesh. Blood Smears on Eggs. Blood which is found in the yolks of eggs has come from the ovary in the first stage of manufacture, but blood on shells has been produced during a later stage after the shell has been completed. The smears, streaks or lines are caused by bleeding from minute ruptured veins c. blood vessels in the lower end of the oiTiduct. The direct causo are severe strain, forced feeding, over-fat body condition, or to ari inherited weakneas. It is most common in newly laying pullets, and the first threo or four eggs laid are often blood smeared, due to the walls of the egg organs being stretclied to a distance never before ex eriencod. There need lie no nOtiee taken of this unless the trouble persists, and prolapsus is noticed.