POULTRY NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 24, 11 January 1912, Page 3

POULTRY NOTES.

PROBER MAN AG EMENT.

Fowls always appreciate a dry place in winch they can exercise or rest. They delight to wallow in dusty holes —it keeps their plumage free of annoying “fleas, ticks, mites, and lice. And to have them scratching in search of food, turning over their litter in i business-like manner, and finding something with which to fill their •fops, serves two very useful ends it enables them to work off any surplus fat there may he in their rations, and it provides them with the exercise that is so essential to their well being. Now, we may ho faddists ; we hope we arc not. But wo always consider it best to pander to the whims of poultry to a certain extent, and particularly when it benefits us as well as the. birds. Thus, then, throughout winter wo endeavour to provide them always with a dry place to which they can resort when they feel so disposed. And their inclination will he in that direction il they got to know that their trouble will bo rewarded in the shape of food. We firmly believe that the one idea 'of poultry is to eat, and they have to lie right down ill ere they refuse to

come to their food. They never appear to be .contented until their crops are so full as to protrude to an almost alarming extent, it is for that reason we give our birds very bulky soft food. We have said that there must bo no undue coddling iu the treatment of fowls at this season, it they are Co lay eggs, however, they want something reasonably warm. breakfast or warm sort food will start tne fowls for the day these cold and dreary mornings. But it must not bo a full meal. Hliort rations of mash, following by the balance in grain thrown over the scratcaing litter, will keep the fowls working ail the longer. Or this order may be reversed—grain for breakfast, always well scattered, and meal an hour or so before midday, and the results will be tbe same. No full breakfast —that is the point. Potatoes or “roots” of other kinds, boiled and mashed and mixed hot with toppings and barley-meal, and occasionally seasoned lightly with salt or pepper, make a splendid warm mash. Home poultry-keepers, we believe, strike potatoes oil the list of foods as being altogether unsuitable for fowls. We do not; but the tubers must be sound, fit to go on our own table, although too small to be handled by the cook. We do not advocate the giving of diseased potatoes to fowls, since they, like all suck “food,” are best used as fuel. We admit that potatoes are very deficient in musclemaking and bone-forming elements, but they are rich in heat and force-pro-ducing matter; lienee by mixing them with meals that are rich iu musclemaking constituents a cheap and nutritious food is produced. A good mixture for fowls is as follows :—Boil a gallon of potatoes until they break easily, pour off the water, turn them into a bucket, and mash them as soon as possible, adding salt at the rate of a tcaspoonful to a peck, or dusting them with pepper. Work iu quickly three or four halfpints of meal and some fat (three or four ounces to the peck), and sot aside for a few minutes to swell. The best meal is a mixture of barley-meal and toppings, one part of the former to two of the latter. It is best to use the potatoes on alternate days, using on the other mornings meal boiled with the ingredients that are utilised for forming the breakfast. Turnips, swedes, and mangolds can be boiled and mashed in a similar manner.

Lot us remind our readers that all soft food should be given from troughs—long and broad wooden troughs that will allow of the flock feeding without fighting for a place in the front rank. Broadcast feeding is good enough for hard grain, but we do not like it with soft food. Duning a dry season and on wellcropped grass there may be the temptation at times to make the birds hunt for their mash. But after all it is somewhat wasteful, since much of it is apt to get trampled. Even with trough feeding there is sometimes more waste than wo like, in that the birds pull it out of their troughs and trample part of it. But we endeavour always to break the mash in such a way that lumps will be avoided. We have spoken of warm food. There must be comfortable quarters. Fowls will rarely lay if they. aye. forced to stand about in cold and wet runs. For this reaspn, Then, we ad T vocate the use of scratching-sheds- ( They may he costly to erect—it depends upon material—hut they soon repay for the outlay. A costly shed and an abundance of eggs are /better than no shed and no eggs. As litter for these sheds a mixture of dry earth—road sweepings, for instance — and chaff dust or fallen leaves, a truss or two of straw, or simply peat ihoss, will be greatly appreciated. We prefer peat moss litter as the bedding if the floor is perfectly dry, since it is an excellent absorbent and keeps the places “sweet smelling.” But straw, or such a mixture as wo have mentioned, will answer, and both have the advantage of being cheaper than the peat moss. . Scratclvingsheds are not always in vogue, we know. On the farm, if the fowls do not take to the cart sheds, bullock pens, or pigsties, they often got their exercise in the rick yards, in the hedgerows, or under the trees. All these places are good, provided they are not permitted to become unduly fouled.

N.Z. UTILITY EGG LAYING COMPETITION. Pullets. Misses Bradley (23) ... 1130 A. R. Browne (31) ... 1127 T. Kennedy (23) ... 1105 Heretaunga Poultry Co (34) 1102 W. Nixon (33) 1095 Heretaunga Poultry Co (31) 10S7 W. Nixon (36) 1082 A. Tisch (30) 1069 A. R. Browne (28) ... 1054 G. H. Robinson (18) ... 1046 W. Halpin (25) ... 1035 Mrs T. Mills (32) ... 1027 O Licks ■ Heretaunga Poultry Co (31) 1192 W. Knight (29) ... 1185 A. R. Browne (22) ... 1063 P. J. Keller (27) ... 1043