POULTRY NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 119, 21 May 1903, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES.

[By Wyahbottb] I Items of interest will be thankfully receired j from poultry-raisers. Please address U ""Wyandotte," Hsws office.] OKMBRAL ITEM J. < Only pore-bred miles should be ' rued. The head of the flock should : sot be a mongrel. The poultry business consists almost J entirely of little details, all of which must have our attention if we would succeed. An orchard ii an ideal place for ' poultry. ' Absolute cleanliness is necessary at all times. The hen house should be situated on ■ an elevation. Nature has designed that fowls should scratch for a living. Aid Nature by providing scratching material for young confined birds. ' The box of eggs preserved by the 1 Ellis secret method, and sealed in - Wellington, N.Z., has (says the Chpnitt andßruggiti) been opened in I London, and the eggs, twenty months ' old; pronounced indistinguishable from \ new laid eggs. Experience (says an exchange) has > proved that the best of foods are always the cheapest. ' Fowls should never be given more < mafh than they will eat up clean in tenmiontes. ( LEG WEAKNESS. There seems to be a great deal of 1 taisooaception as to the cause of leg 1 weakness. If it is in growing stock, < we) can of course trace it at once to the too rapid growth" of the birds, coupled i with indigestion through too liberal feeding, especially of soft food, or lack of grit, and we on take steps to remedy the evil, though there are sonw breeds—Games in particular— ; that are specially affected and hard to cure. A little green bone is helpful in each cues. Bat when fall grown birds are affected we cannot look to the same cause for the trouble; here it ■ay again be indigestion, certainly, and often is so, but in more cases it is rheumatism or worms, the latter especially ; to treat such diseases by giving bone meal would aggravate the complaint. .We would look for worms first, then rheumatism. There are so many simple cures for worms it is quite unnecessary to let them trouble one after they are once discovered. For rheumatism about the only cure is the axe. MOVABLE FOWL HOUSES. The movable fowl house is excellent for farmers and orohardists. It may be built any size but a very manageable concern is one of ten feet by six feet. Have the sides and roof perfectly weather tight and the whole! standing on legs about two feet high.! The roosts should be fixed 18 inches j apart (a square hole being left in! centre for birds to fly up on to them) the roosts should be about nine inches up from the lower edge of the house. Tho roof should have a good pitch and both sides should be fitted on so that they may easily be taken off. The sides should be about two feet deep and have gable ends. A batten should be fastened on to project from each end about two feet so that they can easily be moved about by two persons, thus securing clean ground and absence from efflavia, so much the cause of roup and other diseases. These houses mxj be moved about from tima to time and an orchardist could thus manure his trees at a vary small cast as to labour. To, accustom the birds to roost in these houses some wire netting cin be temporarily secured round the legs and if they are placed in tho house at night, kept in this enclosure day, and allowed to go to roost they will return to it without any trouble. This housa keeps the birds psrfec'ly free from wet and draughts, while if a small hole is left at top end of gable it provides the best of ventilation.— M. Wabd in the Australian Ben.