Poultry Notes.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 148, 19 April 1909, Page 3

Poultry Notes.

Even now, if you find any over fat hens in the flock, dispose of them at once. Keeping hens busy is of first importance, but should not be carried to extremes. Because a hen will eat filthy food is no reason why more of it should be fed to them. A steady diet of raw oats sometimes causes indigestion. It is better to scald cook the oats. Overcrowding, overfeeding, and under exercise are the common causes of j failure with poultrymen. I It may be that your young stock jis the best, but, as a rule,the strongest ' chicks are produced from old and well I matured birds. ' Breeding from fowls that arc apparently over the roup is a bad thing to , do. It is a disease that is easilv trans- { mitted. Six months is considered long enoueh for a pullet of the laying variety to j get to doing business, but many of f them do not lay until seven or eight 1 months old. j In saving breeding stock for next j year keep the old turkeys, ducks and geese, and also hens that have done ! good service this year. Some of them j will be valuable as mothers if nothing I more. I The first one or two litters of eggs ( laid by a pullet is not so sure,or profitj able for hatching is the product ? later on. Nor would I place too much f dependence on the first egg laid by ; old hens. i By mating White Leghorns and I White Wyandottes together, entirely i fresh blood is infused, and this always I tends to the production of stamina in \ the stock raised, and encourages the • activity of the egg organs. Each breed j are excellent layers, and when they j arc crossed the results arc very satis- | factory. ! The Orphington is making rapid j strides in every country where it has 1 been introduced. Nowhere has the j breed caught on more than in the I United States. Black, buffs and j whites are all equally popular. The White Orphington is in demand also, j the Americans very gradually getting ; over their dislike for anything but yelI low legs. The Wyandottes, with their nice yellow legs, are, of course, the most pop- | ular breed in the United States, but j the Orphingtons are making great j headway. Their all round utility qual- ' ities are always in favour. The Amerj icans like a general-purpose fowl, and I they seem to have found it in the Orj phington. j That the productiveness of fowls has Ibeen remarkably incresed under some I of the conditions of domestication is a ; commonplace, but that there should be a limit to increased production is only realised by the practical producer, and that profitable production is subject to an even stricter limitation is a hard lesson for the inexperienced or careless. The persistence of a setting ben depends more upon the proper preparation of her nesting place than some people imagine. A grain or two of citrate of potash in the drinking water of a bird that seems done up after a show helps to pull it round. Ten or a dozen hens may be set in adjoining boxes if they are screened from each other, so they will not interfere with each other. The hen turkey seeks a secluded place for a nest, and lays her eggs. After a clutch is laid she sits four weeks to bring off ber young. Grit, artificially prepared, and supplied, though not exactly a tonic, nevertheless forms a very necessary article of the poultry run. The use of tar in branding sheep is a practice that should be discontinued by every woolgrower as soon aa possible. It is an unnecessary evil . and causes the manufacturer a lot of trouble and expense. Buyers when they find the tar generally allow a little in their price to pay for the expense of dealing with the wool later on. Growers should brand "no tar" on their bales when they do not use it, and it would show "Ibc buyers that they need not look for the tar trouble in that direction.