THE POULTRY INDUSTRY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10282, 17 May 1919, Page 10

THE POULTRY INDUSTRY

PROTECTION. The most common mistake _ made in the management of poultry is failure to protect the birds from wind. Fowls, •like other classes of heavy producing livo stock, can stand heat and cold, but they cannot stand the cold, driving wind. Yet the growing of shelter hedges is the last thing many poultrymen think of. The writer has in his mind a largo commercial egg-laying plant which was established some years back on ,a. bleak plain, but no attempt has yet been made to establish shelter, which is a vital consideration on. such a situation. Shelter is not only necessary as a means of protecting the breeds from cold winter winds, but is often required at other times of the year. Adequate shelter has a considerable economic value. ' Without it fowls cannot lay to • their maximum capacity, while they make a heavier demand on the feed bln. It will invariably be noticed on a windy day that the birds are out of sorts, and often'internal disturbances set-up feverish conditions. They drink more water, eat 'ess, and fail off in laying. Where the necessary live shelter has not been provided no time should bo lost in erecting breakwinds. It should be unnecessary to describe these. • A little thought will suggest how' they can bo prepared. Old timber, corrugated iron, or sacking are useful, while where manuka scrub can be secured excellent windbreaks can be erected. It the last-named material is at hand, the best form of hreaktvind is to make two thick walls of this in the form ot a cross. Caro should be taken to keep out all bottom draughts. Sacks cim bo usefully employed by fixing these to the bottom of the run fences. A fact to be always remembered in handling present-day poultry is that they are artincinl typos, and have to be treated accordingly. DRY AND WET MASH. Tho hens fed on dry mash in the Burnley, Victorian, Government tost put up a slightly bettor average tnau those fed on wet mash. In the teams class, wet mash, the 270 birds averaged 107 oggs each, while 100 in the dry mash averaged liOi’J eggs each. In Black Orpingtons, wet mash, HI birds averaged 1661 eggs lor the year, anu 00 in tho dry mush section averaged 167 eggs. In the single tost, White Leghorns, 53 birds averaged iWOJ eggs, while 24 in the dry mash section averaged b’M eggs. Twenty Rhode Island Beds averaged ifefci eggs, a»d ito Black Orpingtons reached tne satisfactory average of 204 eggs. The 765 birds competing in the test put up an average of slightly over 103 eggs each. THE LAi'ITR. . To be sucen.iful it is imperative that ive -know oar ileus. li e muse test their abni.:c.-3. We c>.n;iot aiiord-to Keep drones. , Hi:iHere, . ive. mus-. adopt some method by which we can determine tho gou.'t iruin tho bud. Noticing a hen rep-an edly upon the nos is nut a ganran.os that she is about to iay. In using trap-neats { ays M.K.8., in tho “Mar,time Fanner’ 1 have almost daily captured hens on .he nest, but no eg', and their annua, records were very low. Every tunc a hon cackles when corning put of the laying room is no criterion that she has laid. I believe it was Oliingwpod who once said: “A cackling hen i, cither a l.ijer or a I.nr’ I —-and in using trap-nests I have found quite a number pf these cßcklers to ha “iiara»” So

in the absence of trapneste, the seleo lion of layers Is more or less guess work. It was said by some writers that “spare and leggy birds are the best layers.” This opinion no doubt was based upon the fact that the Mediterranean class is built after that fashion. It was corroborated by the late Francis A. Mortimer, when ho said that he found that hens with abort logs, chunky bodies, short necks, and small heads are, as a rule, indifferent layers. This would seem so from the standpoint that such hens are more of the meat order ; but trapuests have told us that during tho past few years our chunkiest Wyandottes are in the front row 'of layers. Feleh said the pullets that commence laying earliest' in life are the ones to lay the largtit number of eggs. There is' some logic in that, but wo cannot always tell our earliest 1 layers if wo have no system of trapping them. PO tILTBYIiEJBPIN G A BUSINESS. Poultry-keeping is as much a business as running a grocer’s shop, it requires the same business methods to achieve successful , results, otherwise failure and loss are hound, to ensue, it we beard of a grocer who kept no books or accounts failing in business, shouldn't we say that it served him right? Of course, ire (should. Tet there are thousands of poultry-keepers who keep no books or accounts. If such fail it is their own fault. On this point an English writer says: Many pou.iry-kcepe.rs are losing money through their fowls, and do not know it, while there are others whose birds aro really paying well, but who think they are* resulting in a loss. This is all owing to lack of system and want of proper business methods. A short time ago wo wee on a small holding, where the owner kept a flock of about 330 fowls. When we ask>>d him about his results he said he had really no idea, for he could not be bothered to •k-ep books. Hove is n man who has 300 fowls, and yet he cannot tell whether they are losing or making money’. We should- think that, if this is typical of the man, his fowls are costing him a goad many pounds per annum. Careful and systematic hooks should always be kept, for only in this way can a man know whtjt his profits or losses arc. If ho is making a profit Iris books will show him how. to augment it; if ho is making a loss his books will show him how to convert it into a profit.; POINTERS. Many fowls arc now in full moult. Moulting bens cast their p’.umrga best when kept under cover. The moulting ,process is slow when fowls are kept >n open run l . Prepare for the approaching winter; sob that the roof of the roasting house is waterproof. Mnise is a very hearing .food, and must ho sparingly fed to fow -1 s during tile spring and summer. Tim only 'wo oecnsiniu on which meisse is rocom-. mended pry during a spell of very cold weather and to sitting hens.