POULTRY NOTES.

Shannon News, 19 January 1926, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES.

SELECTION OF STOCK. Wlieir you go tQ a breeder for a cock and hens, advised a w.ell-kiiown poultry authority, don't ask for unrelated stock. No doubt you have heard a lot about in-breeding, and are frightened that unless you have unrelated birds you will go wrong. The fact is.' that you might get gome fine stuif from unrelated stock and then, again, you might not. It is really a fluke to produce champ-ions from unrelated birds. Champions are the' result of years of careful breeding from the same line of blood, and when you buy birds go to a good man and leave the question of selection to him —don't bother your head about' the bogey of in-breeding. You go to him because he is an expert and knows more than you. For Iris reputation's sake he will give you what you want. When you consult a doctor you accept, without quibble, what he gives you. The skilled poultry-man'is'©very whit as much a specialist as the doctor, so your end of the business is to take what he gives you. Another thing—don't go to one man for a cock bird and to another man lor hems, but get tooth from the same inan. S M ay-be your idea was to cross them and get the .best.attributes from each, but you are more likely to get the bad. As an example, one breeder may breed for pullets, and the result of several years' work with this line puts a distinctive characteristic Into the flock. Another man has acquired a reputation with his male birds. You buy, audi mate birds from each breeder and get—what? Anything and everything, or youi may fluke something good. You have two opposing strains fighting—that's what it amounts to—and anything may happen. Get all youir birds from one man and stick to him until he fails you. Disease follows in the wake of filth. ! ' Do not have high roosts. Add a little sulphur, aibout a pinch per bird to the daily mash of the flock. Give immediate attention to the simple cold. Golds quickly spread, and a wheezing flock means a slump, in the profits. \ LIQUID MEDICINE. The proper method of administering liquid medicine to poultry is as follows: "Procure from a chemist a 4oz to 6oz glass syringe and a piece of stout red rubber drainage tubimg (bore, a third of an inch in diameter, length about 6 inches). Slip this over the end of the .nozzle, of the syringe and tie. Gut the other end with a long slaiijt. Fill the syringe and mark varying doses half, one, two, three teaspoohslul. To operate draw the necessary dose through' the tubing into the glass syringe. Let an assistant hold the hird firmly,, compressing wings and legs. The operator now opens the bird's 'beak, passes the ruibboir tube over the tongue, and presses it slowly down into the crop, at the same time keeping the neck well stretched. Then discharge the dose, which lodges in the crop. When treating a flock for worms, with turpentine and oil, this is the proper and only certain ■ method. A man and two boys can dose a flock of 500 in an afternoon. By taking more time each bird can be examined, and after receiving the dose.have comb and wattles cleaned, and legs treated if necessary to prevent scaly-leg, etc. Individual birds should always be dosed in this manner . The use of a spoon for administering turpentine very often results in accidental choking and death. In dosing for worms the object is to deliver the exact dose into the crop, so that it can then pass on and act where required, i.e., in the gizzard and' intestines. The dose per bird for worms is two teaspoonsful of a mixture containing one ; ipart refined turpentine and two parts olive or cotton-seed oil. The dosing of a bard suffering from a cold, or roup, is vyith a different object Here the trouble is in • the mout hand the nasal sinuses, therefore the spoon method is proper. The dose for colds, roup, etc., is olive oil, one teaspoonful, kerosene and euicalpptus oil, of each three drops. It is, in many cases, an excellent plan tosvririge the nostrils, both through the nasal opening and also through the slit in the roof of the mouth. For this pure kerosene may be used.' With a judicious expenditure of force the kerosene will be driven into all the small sinuses of the nasal cavity, germs will be destroyed, and all foreign matter driven out.