The Poultry-Keeper

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 March 1911, Page 4

The Poultry-Keeper

Confined fowls must have their wants carefully attended to. Plumage of old fowls tends to shade lighter with increasing years. Teaching the yonng chickens to scratch as early as possible by cattering small grain among the Little. A little flaxseed meal in the food will help the old fowls to pass tlirough the moulting rapidly. Air-slacked, lime dusted everywhere is cheap and will aid materially in destroying lice, gapes and roup. When the bens .stop laying they may often lie started again by a change of food. Prevent, disease among the fowls rather than risk curing them. Keep the quarters clean and supply pure water. While ducks require water to assist in swallowing their food, tliev should not be allowed on ponds until they are well feathered. due advantage'in breeding ducks is their freedom from disease; after they are a week 'old there is but little danger. In nearly all cases improvement among poultry can be more readily secured if only one or two breeds are kept, rather than a large number. 'hie liens must have quiet and cleivi quarters. No quiet, no digestion. or at least imperfect digestion and dirt and lack of health. One important item in fattening fowls economically is to supply the food in a way that is easily digested The Pacific Rural P< - ess says : "During recent years there Daw been many widely-advertised system s for choosing laving liens and th liscoverers have made a great deal <! money. They claim that by certai'i signs and types th w are :.ble to esiiiTite quite acura'elv the niKrher of eggs a hriii will lay in a year. Witib a view of giving one of the most popular of these systems a trial, we .persuaded the discoverer to mine personally and estimate the laving qualities of fifty Leghorn pullets. The birds were carefully trap-nested for a year, and the result gives a very good idea of the worth of the svstem. We found tilvat in no case did the system discovered make <'n exact hit, and in not many cases did lie com" even ne:ir it, while some ul his misses are truly astonishing. For instance, a hen estimated to lay 200 eggs produced but 10; another rated at 250-egger laid but 81 eggs by actual count.