POULTRY-KEEPING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5074, 12 January 1927, Page 4

POULTRY-KEEPING.

CLEANING UP AFTER BEARING.

(By F. C. Brown, Chief Poultry Instructor, in the Journal of Agriculture.)

N«w that the work of hatching and rearing is over all incubators and brooding-appliances should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before being set aside. Lamps should be well scoured in boiling water. In addition, the regulating-appliances of the incubator should be disconnected and placed inside the machine. This will prevent these parts from becoming damaged, which is too often the case during the off-season. Especially does this apply ot the connecting-rod, and when things are thrown carelessly on top o'f the machine. Once a con-necting-rod becomes, bent it can never be depended upon, and is obviously a a common cause of incubators not regulating properly and producing poor hatches.

The brooder runs should also be dug up, limed, and sown down, everything being done in fact, to ensure for these a clean condition and a good growth of grass next spring. LEG-WEAKNESS IN CHICKENS.

Several complaints have reached me o'f chickens being affected with leg-weakness. This trouble usually affects the young birds when from three to five weeks old, and, apart from the loss of leg-power they often present a healthy plump condition. At first the birds will havei an unsteady walk and a flight spreading of the legs. From then onwards the legs gradually grow weaker, until the bird is unable to stand. Even at this stage they may still bear a healthy bodily appearance, and will eat greedily if food is put before them. Legweakness is often confused by poultrykeepers with rheumatism, and in their endeavour to effect a cure they rub the legs wit.h liniment, etc., but seldom or never with the desired effect. This trouble is usually due to huddling and the need for greater warmth. The huddling effort and the desire of t,he chickens to secure an inside position, which is, necessarily the warmest, has the effect of spreadind their delicate legs. The trouble is often intensified by insufficient bedding on the floor of the brooder, especially when the floor is very smooth—the constant slipping on the smooth surface having the weakening effect on the legs. There is practically no way of curing leg-weakness—prevention is the only feasible way of dealing with it. The first step to this end is to provide the desired warmth demanded by the chickens. This will induce them to spread out over the floor of the brooder —a sure indication that they are enjoying the: comfortable degree of warmth that instinct demands. It is also a good plan to place a piece of sacking over the floor of the brooder on which the bedding—chaff, etc. — is placed. This, will give tne chickens a foothold in the event o'f their huddling, and prevent slipping and its consequent effect on the legs. In addition, the chickens should be provided with plenty of exercising space, as without this, in the case of chickens when about a month old, the body is apt to become too heavy for the: delicate legs to carry, and as a consequence the latter become affected. CLEAN GROUND ESSENTIAL.

In these days of progressive ideas in poultry-culture one of the most important, facts evolved is the necessity of clean ground for the maintenance of healthy stock. This necessity is o'f special importance in the raising of brooder chicks. Not only should the brooder runs be kept clean and fresh, but every possible provision should also be made to place the young birds on fresh ground when they are drafted from the brooder. Dirty or what might be termed poultry-sick "soil means the encouragement of disease and parasitic life, and these come into the category of those things which cannot be properly cured. Too many poultry-keepers are not aware that intestinal worms 'are often responsible 'for heavy losses in comparatively young chickens, say, from six to eight weeks old. Scores ®f such have come under my notice, and in almost every one the trouble could be traced: to tainted ground. '

Above all, never allow chickens —or, indeed, poultry of any age—to have access to a manure heap which has been collected' from' time' to time out of fowl houses, or intestinal parasites, are almost' sure to give trouble. On one plant where my advice: was sought: in regard .to mortality among chickens, and where the natural meth]Cs-was adopted for hatching and rearing- the owner declared that the young birds did well until the hens and their broods were let out of their coops and given a free range. The cause of the trouble was not far to seek, for immediately a hen and chickens were let out of their coop

they made straight away to a manure heap. This not only consisted of cleanings from poultryhouses over at

long period of time, but in addition it was made the dumping-ground for dead carcases of 'fowls and practically all kinds of rubbish., In the circumstances it was little wonder that heavy losses were .taking place, due to intestinal worms.

It must again be emphasised that if the young birds are to develop into vigorous and profitable stock they must have, everything in their favour, and I do not know o'f anything more conducive to this end than clean ground to :sun on. I have always favoured alternate runs to a poultryhouse, in order that the birds may have frequent changes to clean ground after it has been cropped and rested. Longer experience in utility poultry keeping has only strengthened, to my mind, the importance of this practice.