POULTRY NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 29

POULTRY NOTES.

By

Terror.

Housing the Brooder. —The essentials ol a brooder house are roominess, sufficient ventilation, dryness, sanitation, and warmth. Adequate room should be provided for the hover. In addition, there must be plenty of space for the chicks to exercise and to prevent crowding at night. A satisfactory allowance for baby chicks is one square foot of floor space for each three ehicks. At eight weeks allow one square foot of floor space to each one and a-half chicks. For example, a house 10ft by 12ft will care for about 350 chicks at the start and about IDO chicks at eight weeks of age. The house should supply plenty of fresh air without draughts. The chicks gave off a large amount of moisture and poisonous gases, which must be removed. The floor should be made of wood and placed at least one foot off the ground. It should be made of tongued and grooved flooring. These precautions will ensure its being dry. Before the chicks are placed in it the house should be thoroughly cleaned and then sprayed with, a 5 per cent, solution of any standard disinfectant. In some localities it is advisable to line the house with boarding, particularly when the hover used is of a type that does not heat the room.

Biooder Chicks.—The following remarks relative to chicks brooded under a hover apply equally when any other kind of brooder is used:—“Alany people do not use thermometers at all. The best guide is the comfort of the chicks. Any woman knows that if the chicks stand crowded together or huddled against the stove they are not warm enough, and then you cannot shake down your stove and make a better.fire too quicklyi If chicks pant they are too hot. If chicks under two weeks old -'are ever allowed to get really cold you are likely to have a heavy mortality. The time when the most trouble is caused among chicks, however, is at night. It is wise to take a look at your chicks and at the brooder stove the last thing before you retire and the first thing in the morning. If you find the chicks crowded close around the stove in the morning you may be sure they have been too cold. The hover should be warm enough both night and day, so that the chicks are warm lying in a ring just outside of the outer edge of the hover. Even in the morning before you touch the fire they should not be any farther under the hover than just inside the outer edge. Never forget that you have fought two-thirds of the battle with your, chicks if you keep them warm enough.”

A Wyandotte Breeder’s Complaint.—A correspondent wrote to a Belfast paper and complained that from a bird purchased at a high price some grey chickens had appeared. He considered this to be a sign of crossbreeding, and asked if he had any remedy. The reply given was as follows:—“ Our correspondent cannot have a very extensive experience of Wyandottes. The male that throws an odd grey chicken is a most valuable breeder; he will throw snow-white progeny—never

a brassy one. Furthermore, the grey chicks will be snow-white, and are always kept by one world-famous breeder for his own pens. We do not want creamcoloured Wyandottes; they should be a pure white, a colour by no means as easy to get as some think. For example, many hens have a distinct touch of cream; these will breed the brassy cockerels, and, if they have put up good records, the people who buy their eggs in order to hatch cockerels are greatly disappointed. As ofie well-known Irish breeder, who works for ‘ good lookers ’ as well as good layers, says, ‘ I find people want high records and large eggs, but when it comes to cockerels they want a perfect show bird.’ Our present correspondent will be more likely to get the perfect show bird from this cockerel she complains of than from many she may buy.”

In brooding chickens under hovers of the “ canopy ” type many poultry-keepers arrange for a wire-netting “surround” to keep the chicks from straying too far from the heat. It is suggested by an authority that a wooden, canvas, or metal surround is needed for best results, as it not only helps to confine the heat in the desired quarter, but prevents outside draughts. A surround about 2ft high is recommended.

Chicks With Weak Legs Need Sunlight.—Leg weakness is a common occurrence amongst chicks, and results when chicks do not get sufficient exposure to direct sunlight, writes J. R. Beach and S. B. Freeborn, in Circular No. 8 of the California Agricultural Extension Service. Leg weakness is apt to occur whenever there is a long period of cloudy or rainyweather during the brooding season,” they continues. “ Relief is obtained by making certain that the chicks get one or two hours of exposure to direct sunlight every day Sunlight that passes through an ordinary glass window is of no benefit. Cod-liver oil possesses the same property of preventing and curing leg weakness as sunlight. It is uually easier to give codliver oil than to see that all chicks get sufficient exposure to sunlight. Feeding mash containing one quart of cod-liver oil to each lOO’.b to an affected flock will quickly stop- the occurrence of leg weakness. Feeding such a mixture throughout the breeding season will entirely prevent the trouble.

There is a great outcry at* times about the smallness of the eggs laid by extremely prolific strains of hens. But is it reasonable to expect a hen doing 230 eggs to lay as large ones as a hen doing 150? Within - reason we can do almost anything in breeding. We can have size or milk in cattle; weight of" wool or quality of mutton in sheep; speed or strength in horses; great aptitude for fattening or great prolificacy in pigs; table qualities or great laying in fowl: but what we cannot have is perfection of all qualities in any one animal. Reilly’s Report.—The supply of poultry coming forward is not sufficient to meet the demand. Unfortunately the birds on offer, particularly the hens, are not in good condition, and the pullets offering are very small. Some - very fine Aluscovy ducks came to hand, but there is not a keen demand for these, and the result is prices were in favour of buyers.. A large yarding of turkeys cam% to hand, unfortunately too many to meet the requirements of the trade, and prices were easier. We sold: —Hens: 12 at 6s 2d, 15 ss, 5 4s Bd. 15 4s 4d. 17 4s 2d, 7 3s lOd. 25 3s Bd, 32 3s 6d. 2 3s; cockerels: 13 8s 6d, 5 7s, 13 6s 6d, 12 4s lOd, 12 4s 4d. 2 4s 2d; pullets: 2 6s. 8 5s Sd, 14 4s lOd, 3 4s; ducks: 4 8s 2d, 5 7s, 5 Cs 2d; pigeons: 5 Is lOd, 5 Is 4d —all at “per pair.” Turkey gobblers: satlo Jd per lb, 7 9Jd, 12 91d. 16 9d; hens: 6 9d, 6 Bd. Eggs: These have.been coming to hand freely, and merchants have been selling at prices which we consider to be very unprofitable to poultry farmers, Is 8d to Is fld per dozen. ,