POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 30

POULTRY NOTES.

• By Terror. N.E.V. —I think it’s rather early to put down eggs for incubation, August or September are the best months, as the chickens hatched then come into being when nature provides the young growth of green stuff, such food as insects, worms, etc., in great plenty, and it is well that they should escape the wintry conditions of earlier months. As to how to care for the chickens when hatched read the directions you will find in this week’s notes. The Approaching Show.—l gather tnat the entries in all sections for the Dunedin Fanciers’ Show are, if not a record, very encouraging, and that this is attributable to a great extent to the enthusiasm displayed by the organising committee, who have left no stone unturned in efforts to attract entries. Their efforts will be crowned with success if the public shows the interest it should in a show of the finest dogs, poultry, canaries, pigeons, etc., owned in Dunedin and neighbourhood, competing, as they will be. with exhibits from leading breeders further afield. Show time approaching, a few’ hints on preparing birds for exhibition will, no doubt, be appreciated. In the first place the selection of birds should be made a few weeks before the show—certainly not later than now. so as to allow time in which to train the birds to stand and show themselves to the best advantage. Training pens should be as large as possible, and contain plenty of clean chaff. When

first placed in the pen the bird should bd allowed to settle down and get accustomed to its quarters before actual train* ing commences. For the first day or two the bird should be fed often, only a few grains of wheat being given at each time. Let the wheat be eaten out of the hand, as this gives confidence to the bird. Titbits of meat, etc., should be given several times each day. When the bird becomes tame it can be stroked and moved gently round in the pen with the hand. Then later the judging stick can be introduced, and the bird taught to pose. When sufficiently tame the bird should be allowed to have a few hours each day in the run, and returned to the pen each evening. Condition and bloom will then be kept up. The usual washing and oiling and sponging down and polishing up of feathers is best done before returning the birds to the pen each evening. Thus a bird will be gradually brought up to concert pitch. Thefts of poultry at Springvale are causing some anxiety among residents (reports the Dominion, Wellington). It iA stated that for some months fowls and other poultry have been disappearing at night. The police have been informed, but householders have formed themselves into voluntary vigilantes, not so much to trap the thieves, but to protect their own property. One man who owns a flock cf valuable pigeons spends bis nights guarding them. Chicken Psychology.—The University of Michigan has shown that if chicks are put in a dark room and fed by placing the food so far back in their throats that they did not get the sensation of having it pass through Their bills, they lose the instinct of pecking in 16 days. They will then starve in the midst of piles of grain if not fed artificially.

The Feeding Value of Bran. —Properly used, the feeding value of bran is a very different thing to the value of bran as a food. As a poultry food, by analysis, bran has a place very near the bottom of the list, and many poultry keepers, noting this, avoid its use; but, even considered as a food, it abounds in body-building materials and, at its price, compares favourably with other foodstuffs as value for money’. Good, sound, broad bran has, however, a very great feeding value, apart from the actual food it contains, for what may be called its mechanical action. Besides giving necessary bulk, it divides the finer and more expensive meals, and so exposes them more fully to the digestive process-. A mash composed of one part (by weight) bran to four parts of the other meals is more thoroughly digested, and in every way more economical, than one of all meal. The best way to make use of bran is to soak or scald a sufficient quantity some hours before, and to dry it off with the other meals when required. By’ this method the bran is softened, and to some extent predigested. If not sufficiently soaked, the roughness is apt to irritate the bowels and cause scouring. Speaking of battery brooding, Professor Raymond T. Parkhurst, B.Sc. (Agr.), M.Sc., director of the National Institute of Poultry Industry (England), says: —At the National Institute of Poultry Husbandry there are at present four different types of battery brooders being used in studying the problems of battery’ brooding: the American, the Cope and Cope, the 5.P.1., and the Stuwa electric. Attention is being paid to the nutrition of the chicks, and the rations are being studied as to their protein, vitamin, and mineral content, as well as their concentration. Various foodstuffs have also been compared. The effect of various rations on light and heavy breeds and upon males and females is being observed. As these studies are not completed at the present I time, it has only been possible to indicate some of the observations to date. In conclusion, it is possible to see just as good chickens in a battery brooder as in a colony hover —and just as bad. We do not know about either method of brooding, but we know less about battery brooding. It will be several years before we know what we need to know—the effect of the continuous use of batteries on successive generations. In the meantime, those of us who have seen the batteries used successfully are willing to pin our faith in their ultimate success.

The elimination of the unthrifty hen is an important economic factor on the poultry farm. No matter how good the parent stock may be, or how high their inherited producing qualities, there will usually be some unprofitable birds among the progeny, and it is only by the systematic culling _ of such undesirables that poultry keeping can be run on economic lines. It is poor business to feed hens that lay only a comparatively limited number of eggs during the plentiful months of the year and spend the rest of their time idle. Such birds are merely boarders, and are liabilities to their owners. A number of poor producers in a flock will soon eat up the profits made by their more industrious sisters. It is, therefore, most important that all culls should be disposed of as early in life as possible. The right time to cull is not once a year, or_ at any fixed season, but is a matter which demands attention all the year round. There are many means of distinguishing the good layer from the bad one. and it is by these indications that culling may be carried out. A strict .watch must at all times be kept on the flocks, and the moment tbe first signs of unthriftiness become apparent in a bird that bird should be culled without delay. Reilly’s Report.—An exceptionally keen demand was experienced for our pullets on Wednesday, and considering quality offering, prices secured were extremely high. Good cockerels sold well, turkeys, unfortunately, met a dragging sale, owing to excess of supply to the demand. Stud Poultry.—A fair demand for good breeding pens, white Leghorns, brown Leghorns, Minorcos, Andalusians, Rhode Island Reds, and black Orpingtons, prices ranging from 7s 6d to 20s. We sold:—Hens—l2 at 5s 6d, 14 4s 2d, 10 4s, 14 3s lOd 12 3a 6d, 31 3s 4d.-14 3s 2d, 14 3s, 14 2s lOd, 22 2s Bd, 10 2s 6d, 2 Is 4d, 4 Is 2d. 9 Is; cockerels —13 Us. 5 10s, 13 9s 6d, 6 9s, 12 8s Bd. 6 8s 2d, 12 6s lOd, 12 6s Bd, 12 6s, 5 5s Bd, 12 5s 6d. 6 ss, 12 4s 2d, 4 3s 6d, 2 3s; geese—3 7a, 3 6s Sd, 6 6s; turkeys—l2 gobblers 103 d lb, 13 gobblers lOd lb; ducks —2 8s 6d, 12 7s, 6 6s, 23 5s -Id, 4 ss; drakes—l 13a 6d. Holmes’s breed: pullets—l 6 17s 6d, 15 17s. 19 16a Gd, 13 12s, 14 10s 6d, 21 10s. 17 9s. 16 8s 6d, 13 Bs, 3 2a, 2 Is. all at “ per pair.” Eggs.—These ars still being cut in price, and sales are slow on a basis of 2s Id to

2s 3d per dozen, preserved eggs making Is 6d. REARING OF CHICKENS. Directions, for the artificial rearing of chickens formulated by the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, New South Wales. — (a) The Brooder. — The brooder should stand at 90 deg F. to receive the chickens. This temperature must be maintained during the first week. When the chickens are in the brooder the temperature may rise to lOOdeg F., but must be brought back to 90deg’ F. as soon as possible. After the first week the temperature should be reduced from 3dcg to ideg per week, until the chickens are hardened off to do without heat at five or six weeks of age. The themometer should be hung in the brooder at such a height that the bulb will be 2in from the floor. As the chickens withdraw from the brooder early in the morning, early regulation is necessary to maintain the temperature at the required height. — (b) Feeding.— 1. Chickens coming from the incubators are fasted during the first 36 to 48 hours. 2. Then fed for two days on dry rolled oats. 3. From that time up to six weeks of age they receive—(a) Most mash (four feeds per day) : One-third bran, twothirds pollard, mixed with hot skim milk, if procurable. One ounce of fine salt dissolved in water to every 51b of meal should be given in at least two feeds per day. (b) Chicken mixture (one feed per day) : Ground wheat 201 b, ground maize 131 b. kibbled or hulled oats 71b, bone meal 31b, hemp seed 21b; nutritive ratio of the above is approximately 1 to 5. Green feed is given each day at mid-day after the chickens are one week old. 3. From six to twelve weeks old —(a) Moist mash as above (three feeds per day). (b) Wheat and cracked maize (one feed per day). Two-thirds wheat, one-third cracked maize; nutritive ratio of the above is approximately 1 to 5. 5. From twelve to twenty-four weeks old—(a) Moist mash (two feeds per day) : Pollard 601 b, bran 201 b, lucerne dust 121 b. meat meal 81b, common salt 220 z; the salt should be dissolved in water before mixing with the mash. (b) Wheat and cracked maize (one feed per day) : Twothirds wheat, one third cracked maize; nutritive ratio of the above is approximately 1 to 4.5. The grain mixture is always fed as the evening meal. —Mixing Mash-for Chickens.—

The method of mixing the food for chickens is as follows:—Take the proportion of bran—say, about one-third—place it in a bucket or other receptacle, then pour over it as much milk or other liquid as will allow of about two parts of the pollard to be absorbed by it, working the whole into a crumbly mash. Should the pollard be finer than the average, up to half bran may be used. There is little or no objection to the use of that quantity of bran, because in food value there is so little difference as not to make any material alteration in the nutritive ratio or value.