POULTRY NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22986, 15 September 1936, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES

By Terror

.ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS “Beginner” (North Otago).—You should build the house so that the open front faces the most sunlight. That is the first consideration. If the front also faces the direction of the worst winds and pelting rain, a blind or shutters should be affixed for the protection of the birds. The most convenient corner in a back garden is not always the best place for the birds—sunlight and shelter are absolutely necessary for the well-being of the birds. Australian Egg-marketing Foil Out of 5000 to 6000 poultry keepers qualified to vote in Victoria, the qualification being 150 adult female domesticated fowls, only 900 have applied for claim cards for enrolment. A supplementary list is now open for enrolment, which closes on September 10. After the closing of the list, ballot papers will be despatched to all enrolled persons, and thesu will be returnable by October 19. Seemingly there is not the expected enthusiasm for a marketing scheme in Victoria. Green Feet! for Chicks Green feed is necessary because it supplies two essential food accessories —mineral salts and vitamins. It also serves to maintain appetite, and has a cleaning effect upon the intestines. Minerals salts are essential for proper growth and the formation of firm and strong bones. A lack of green food results in the paling of the comb and wattles, a lack of appetite, a weakened digestion, and an increase in the cost of feeding. Green feed must be fresh, live, and unwilted, so that it is palatable and that the essential elements are undamaged. High Price of Wheat In South Australia a bounty is being asked to be paid on exports of eggs. It is pointed out that the high price of wheat was a severe handicap to egg producers. Such being the case, the still higher price of wheat here in New Zealand must be a severe handicap Indeed. * Farmyard Fowls On many farms, chickens, as soon as they are hatched, follow the mother hen in search of food. While it is good, from the food point of view, to enable the chicks to add to their food any small insect life, green stuff, minerals, etc., it cannot be too strongly emphasised that, in addition, all young poultry must be regularly fed on suitable and efficient egg-producing foods, otherwise their production of eggs as pullets and hens will not be what is expected from domesticated fowls. A Matter of Courtesy If you cannot supply an order, write the would-be customer and thank him or her for the inquiry. Silence is not golden in such a case. Profit by Experience In poultry-keeping, as elsewhere, experience—either your own or someone clse’s —is our teacher. There is nearly as much ability in knowing hqw to act on good advice as there is in acting independently for oneself. A Useful Tonic Ginger is a bitter tonic useful in indigestion, loss of appetite, and malnutrition. For best results, its use with other drugs as follows is recommended:—Powdered ginger, 2oz; powdered gentian, 2oz; powdered nux vomica, 2oz. Give one teaspoonful to each 12 fowls twice daily in wet mash. Two ounces of ginger of best quality and finely ground given alone in each 1001 b of mash might be of benefit. Cull Your’ Chickens The poultryman who does not cull his young pullets is, says Poultry (Australia), like a busines man who does not investigate the character and financial condition of a man to whom he lends money. Investigate your chicks! Size them up before you lend them money. Are they going to pay you back in lots of eggs? If not, do not finance them. You will be giving your money away. Dead in the Shell Every incubating season complaints are heard about the number of chicks found dead in the shell. This problem has been attacked by Dr A. Romanoff, of Cornell University, who has been devoting attention to research work covering incubation from all angles. The annual loss of egg during the incubating period is set down by Dr Romanoff as at least 35 per cent. The conclusions he has arrived at, he remarks, suggest that the reasons are many and not restricted to any one part of the process. “ If there are 100 many dead embryos during the first week of incubation, it usually indicates that the eggs have weak germs, due to their poor reproductive inheritance. If there are too many dead embryos during the second week of incubation, it means that the eggs have weak germs, partially due to poor inheritance and partially due to deficiencies in the egg’s make-up. It- may also indicate that these eggs came from unhealthy hens, or from a flock of breeders not properly cared for. Again, it may indicate that the eggs were partially destroyed previous to incubation by age or by improper storage. If there arc too many deaths during the last week of incubation it usually means that the incubator equipment is defective, or that the operator neglected to give proper care during the incubation. The World’s Poultry Congress The special correspondent of the Feathered World supplies some interesting particulars respecting the exhibits at the World's Poultry Congress at Leipzig. In the course of his report he says:— „ "A novel gadget on a German pyramid hover, which we have never previously seen and which might be well worth considering, is a humidity coil. In the top of the hover is a bath of water in which is placed the end of a thick round lamp wick. The damp wick is then led beneath the hover and coiled in a circle over the heads of the chicks in between the electrical elements. “Another new design on a German cabinet incubator was a dust and fluff collector. This consisted of a series of water trays one above another in the centre of the machine. An electrical fan drives the dust down on to the trays and it is forced into them by hitting against a series of metal baffles placed above the trays. “An effective demonstration of the German method of fattening geese was exhibited. The geese were penned up very closely from six weeks till killing and fed on wheat, oats, potato flakes, with a little fishmeal and chalk. They appeared well feathered." Protein from the Air Visitors to the congress had an opportunity of seeing some remarkable nutritional research at Leipzig upom synthetic protein. Owing to the cost of food, an attempt is being made to produce protein from the air, and the result, a compound of nitrogen and carbon, is being fed experimentally, in conjunction with corn, to cattle. The German Government provided a number of unusual educational ex-

hibits, in addition to two vast halls, one completely' occupied by the birds participating in a National Stud Register scheme and the other by a show of German poultry comprising 10,000 exhibits. An educational exhibit which was extremely popular was that showing the early stages of incubation of the egg under a magnifying glass. At 72 hours old the embryonic “heart” in the centre of the yolk could clearly be seen pulsating. Since German poultry-keepers are feeling the pinch of high food prices through their restriction schemes, efforts to find substitutes are energetically pursued, and a demonstration! of the use of sweet lupin seeds In place of animal protein was staged. The British national exhibit was the most instructive in the show. Not only did it give a complete outline of the poultry industry in Britain, but it also provided a thorough insight into all the most successful systems and branches of poultry-keeping adopted in England. It reflected the utmost credit upon Miss E. E. Kidd, who was largely responsible for its arrangement, and upon Major MacDougall, who chiefly assisted her. Unfortunately, the money so far subscribed has not covered the cost of staging it. The exhibit of British breeds fully confirms all that we said in regard to breed propaganda abroad. The exhibit was good in quality, but poor in numbers. There were not nearly enough representatives of good laying strains, for which there is a world demand. To have, for example, only one trio of Light Sussex —admittedly a good one—when Denmark, a short distance away* in the exhibition, had half a dozen liens, some of them bedecked with trapnest records, was particularly galling.

Auto-sex-linkage Michael Pease (Cambridge University) is responsible for the following: “In pure breeds of poultry, the males carry two “ doses ” of sex-linked factors, the females only one. The sexlinked barring factor produces on the downs a light head patch. On black downs there is ho difference between the double dose light head patch and the single dose light head patch. On brown stripe down the barred factor in the homozygous state (male) produces a far greater effect than it does in the heterozygous state (female); the distinction is clearly seen. This is the principle underlying auto-sex-linkage. “ Thus the presence or absence of the black factor determines whether the light head patch character behaves as a dominant or not”

A Definite Limit to Production Dr Charles Crowther has figures from the Harper Adams Laying Trials to show that there is a definite high level of production beyond which no breed seems able to go. This level may be roughly indicated, as when 450 pullets out of every 1000 produce 200 eggs. The White Leghorn and then the White Wyandotte both overstepped the limit, and tended to fall back. ' The Rhode Island Red is about steady now at the limit. A race of super layers will never be produced. The problem is to maintain the same production amongst the best strains as was experienced 10 or even 20 years ago. It is not sufficient just to breed from slightly lower records. Nor to be especially careful over the choice of cockerels. There is, in our opinion, far too much loose breeding and far too much reliance is placed in outcross cockerels. How many cockerels that a breeder rears would he breed from himself? And yet he unhesitatingly buys half a dozen five-guinea cockerels from a popular strain and plumps them into his best pens, mating them to hens which may have taken years of careful breeding to produce. Is it to be wondered at that he is sometimes let down? The trouble is that tested stock and proven sires are rare because they do not live long enough; and a breeder with an increasing order book cannot resist the temptation to enlarge his farm to a point beyond his own control.