POULTRY KEEPING

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 30 August 1911, Page 3

POULTRY KEEPING

TH'NGS TO BE REMEMBERED.

Eggs for hatching should be as fresh as possible. Gather your eggs daily and market them at least once a -week, oftener when convenient. Doubtful and smnV. eggs should never be marketed. Don't delay purchasing fresh birds for breeding iintill some one else gets the pick of the stock offering. Any one's hens will lay in the summer when eggs are cheap. Try to be in the minority and secure egps in the dear season.

Have the coop and brooders disin* fected and ready for the chicks .be fore these arrive.

It is commonly stated that this year the pullets were slow in coming on to lay. Keep up the supply of animal food if .you want eggs. Prevention is better than cure ; and the be3t preventive in a poultry'yard is cleanliness.

W. The farmer should keep purebred birds, all black or all white : he will then not be so ashamed to Bhow them to.a visitor.

Don't take advice from every theorist who come3 along. Take it from a man whose statements are based on experience, and adhere to his advice all the time.

The farmer should pen his fowls, and save the annoyance of them scratching in the J garden and roost-, ing on the lack of the seat of his Sunday buggy. Wben table eggi or!y are wanted male birds are not necessary ov desirable : you will get- more and better oggs without them. Then, infertile eggs will preservo better. Don't let lice drive the setting hen from her- nest. Give her a good dusting with carbolic power. Avoid the comrfion mistake:"don't hatch inol e chicks tnan you can handle properly. - The beginner should start wit'i one breeds and obtain, best specimens of that breed for his foundation stock.

It is heat and not food that a young chicken want? for the first day or two. He is hatched with a good supply of the latter, and will not starve. Plenty of sleep and a comfortable degree of heat is all that is wanted. '

'Avoid forcing birds in the breed-::ng-pen, The more natural the treatment —plain feeding, and fulV opportunity to exercise—the better the ferci xty and the stronger the chicks. When mating the breeding birds endeavour to select those conforming to breeds points combined with the main utility characters. Avoid t cro.^ses 0") much as possible, and breed pure when it is possible to do so.

If the birds are well housed, we'l fed, and properly managed, and yet do not lay well, it may be taken for granted that, they are a poor laying strain. The best remedy is to got entirely new blood of a si rain noted foi egg-yielding power.

When a sitting hen is confined ii a box she should be let off once a day to feod, drink, and duet herself. It is much better for her if she is placed in a coop \ with a roomy run attached. She can then have before her at all times all she requires, thereby minimizing the time required in attending to her. A frequent inquiry is, which, breed gives the best layers? There is no best breed. The matter of strain and constitution are the main considerations, providing, of course, the breed is of an egg-lay is g type. There are good and bad layers in all breeds, as the laying competitions have undoubtedly proved. Of course, it is much easier getting a laying strain in some breeds than in others.

There are many methods of feeding the laying hen. Some prefor feeding with no* sh in tho morning, with meat at midday, and grain at night, or \ico versa. Others give the morning meal d.y and in hoppers, ihis feed being always before the birds, grain also being fed in the evening. My advice to those who want the best results is to follow the bill of fare in use at the egg-laying competition.