POULTRY-KEEPING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4523, 5 February 1923, Page 1

POULTRY-KEEPING.

SURPLUS STOCK. / ■ At the present time, on the majority of plants, the housing and run accommodation will be taxed to the utmost. On top of this the young stock are rapidly developing, and are day by day making greater demands oil the accommodation available. Hence the necessity of weeding out every bird that is not likely to show a profit over its keep. If the evils resulting from overcrowding are to be prevented, and if the most money is to be made from the plant, this is a matter that the poultryman cannot afford to ignore. Especially does this apply in the case of surplus cockerels. Be is ever remembered that the most profitable period to market a cockerel is at an age of four and a half to five months. Of course, this is not to say that because it has attained this age it is naturally in a prime table condition, or that the best price will be secured for it, for no profit can be made from a cockerel sold as a table bird if it has been neglected in any way or kept on a lean diet. FEEDING. A cockerel should be fed and managed in such a way that it.will rapidly lay on flesh and be in a prime condition a,t the age mentioned. In other words, as in the case Of the fat lamb, it is the one brought rapidly on which is the most profitable. When a cockerel reaches an age of between four and a half and five months it commences to grow its adult feathers. Obviously, it cannot be expected to produce these and put on flesh at the same time. The production of a maximum weight of flesh in a minimum period of time is the ideal to aim for. A weakness on many plants in developing the market cockerel is in providing it with a mere living diet, or with a mash chiefly made up of green stuff, boiled potatoes, etc. As a means of reducing the cost of production these cheap foodstuffs may be sparingly included in the ration, but the best results cannot be obtained unless the great bulk of .the ration consists of wholesdme , ground grain material. The following mash is recommended after the priming process has commenced : Equal parts by measure of wheat-meal, maize-meal, and bran, the whole being mixed with milk or soup into a crumbly mass. Feed three times a day all that, the birds will clean up.' Green food should be fed separately during the day. Where milk is available ..this should be given in large quantities to drink. A good method ojf using skimmilk i? to let it sour, pour off the whey, and boil the curd before feeding. Grit, of course, should be available to the birds at all times.

CULLING. As to culling unprofitable hens, March is the best time of the year for doing this, but nevertheless some good weeding-out work can be done in February. True, it demands considerable judgment to safely cull at the latter time, but to the man who constantly works among his flock and .thereby develops his powers of observation it should be a fairly easy matter to detect at a glance a bird that is falling, in egg production, a failing which is as often as nbt the result of a weak constitution.^ —"N.Z. Journal of Agriculture.”