ECONOMY IN FOOD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 28

ECONOMY IN FOOD

JUST as we ourselves have less desire and less need for a substantial diet in the •warmer weather, so it is with the feathered flock: and at this season much economy may be practised in connection with the adult flock in the way of food.

Where birds are on a free range, nature has provided for most of their needs. Insects, worms, and grubs are to be had by them in abundance, while herbage and the necessary salts and vitamines they contain are about at their best. To feed as much mash, whether wet or dry, as was fed in the cold days of winter, is extravagance, and waste in the extreme. Where one is not personally attending to the poultry, this is an important matter that requires present attention, and where the inexperienced attendant has to be informed and instructed as regards present needs and requirements.

The number of meals, for one thing, may be cut down by one meal. That is, where poultry always on free range were supplied with three hand-fed meals a day, two should now be sufficient, and where birds are confined or semi-confined, their midday meal can b© reduced.

This plan is an economy not only m food, but in labour as well, but if the owner feels dubious about reducing the meals in number, then let the same number be fed. but reduce the quantity proportionately. One will find, by observing the habits of the birds themselves, that if the same amount is continued, It will not be eaten, but left lying about, to get trampled on and become sour, and a source of danger to health.

Adult birds, as a rule, go off their mash at this season, preferring their grain feed. Their likes and dislikes, which indicate their constitutional needs, are a very safe and reliable guide to follow, and these should be noted by everyone who has the care of poultry. The food, of whatever nature, whether mash or grain, should contain in the warmer days a very much smaller proportion of a heatgiving substance, as heating food has a bad efTect on the birds' systems. One will observe that where boiled potatoes in the mash were eaten with relish during the colder days, the birds will pass them by and pick the other food round about them and away from them. Their system does not need the potatoes, and nature teaches them to avoid them. In the same way, maize should be fed in hot wea-

ther, either in the mash or in the grain. Good oats cannot he beaten, and owing to their composite constituents are the most suitable grain. There is one feed that may with advantage be given liberally where the birds are confined, and that is the green food. It is so very necessary for the health of fowls that they should have plenty of this, and where there is a scarcity of it the need may be supplied in sprouted oats. The sprouting of the oats entails a little work, but the green shoots supply a need, and the grain itself, increased in bulk and weight, is more easily digested by the birds than the hard grain, so it has its advantages, and one is recompensed for any labour which it entails.

It must be clearly understood that the foregoing is applicable only to adult birds. There must be no reduction in the feeding of growing stock. It is the other way about with them. As they grow they require an increased amount of food to build up thetr frame. BROODINESS During the summer and autumn most flocks of fowls have several broody hens that are producing nothing, and thereby cutting down the profits from fee rest of the flock. If left to their Ithoice, many of them will sit for months, and become so poor that it will take a long time to get them back in laying condition; but if they can be broken of the habit as soon as they become broody, they will be back into laying in a few days. It takes continuous attention to keep a flock free from broodies. Many magic, as well as severe, remedies have been advocated for curing the broody hen, but most of them are not advisable, as they injure the hen, and tend to reduce her production rather than increase it. The best method that has been devised so far effectively to deal with the broody hen and get her back into laying, is to confine her in an airy coop, where she cannot sit on a nest. Broodiness i 3 a feverish condition. For this reason, a slatted bottom coop should be used which will tend to cool the hen’s entire system. An ideal coop is one with a slatted bottom, slatted on wire sides, solid top, and hung under a tree. It is well to have two compartments to the coop, so that the hens put in on different dates may be kept separated. Compartment No. 1 can be filled on the first night; compartment No. 2 filled the third night, the ones in compartment No. 1 released on the fifth night, and refilled, thus keeping each hen confined four days, which is sufficient time, providing they are caught regularly, and haven’t been broody too long.

The broody coop should be provided with feed trays and water pan, and the hens fed liberally on rich feed while in confinement. It is a mistake to starve a hen to break her up. She should be got into good condition for laying, while she is confined. Most hens, if properly handled, will lose only from six to ten days as a result of being broody, while if not cared for they may lose as much as three or four months. Hens lay when fat —not too fat—-

and stop when thin. Look for fat on the pelvic bone; if you find it the hen is fat, if you don’t the hen is thin. OVERCROWDING Overcrowding of poultry is often found among both large and small poultry-keepers, resulting in disease being started, usually roup, caused by the birds’ packing together too closely at night, when they become heated and they then take a chill when let out in the morning. It has been proved over and over again that it is far better to keep six good laying hens of a first-class strain than 12 mongrels from which fewer eggs will be obtained, and it is an acknowledged fact that when a fewer number of birds run together better results are obtained.

Cleanliness is the keynote to success among all poultry-keepers, keeping the fowls’ bodies free from insects by occasionally dusting under their feathers, and next to their skin with a good insect powder, painting the whole of the perch and the sockets into which this rests with Yama, otherwise Red Mite will, in time, make their home in the perch sockets, and these get on to the fowls during the night, robbing them of a good deal of blood which should be used to produce eggs.

A fowlhouse should be always large enough, weather and draught-proof, provided with large windows to give ample light, and always top ventilation.

The floor, whether this be earth or boards, should be higher than the outside ground, to ensure its always being dry, and this should be covered with five or si* inches of dry and suitable litter such as leaves, straw or bracken.