Poultry Notes.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 243, 12 November 1903, Page 4

Poultry Notes.

(From the Australian Hen,) Study strict cleanliness. Watch for summer ailments. Carefully tend the chickens. A woman's care means a " chick's paradise." Put the male bird in a pen. by himself if ybu intend to Veep him another year. Sell as soon as you can all the pure stock that will not be wanted for next year. You maj; have lo make a bit of a sacrifice, but it is better than feeding them through the moult. On the other hand it's a good chanco for the amateur, to get a start with good birds cheaply.

Get rid of all the cross-bred st<xk between now and Christmas ; if you want broodies next year you can by them then. They will cost a bit more than you will get for your old hens now, but the difference wouldn't pay the feed bill through the dull time.

In the case of the farm stock clear out all the males and the old hens that will not profitably bland another season.

Give the early pullets a little special attention ! You will be repaid a little later on.

Young maturing stock cannot thrive if their growth is retarded by placing them amongst adult birds. Get your breeders into a good pen where they can rest after the season's labours, and get into good condition for the moult which will he on them betcre you know it. Set aside the birds that have laid best this year, for breeding operations next year. Guess we'll have a look round for lice ! Don't think there are any kicking round, but are going to make sure. An ounce of disinfectant judiciously administered is worth a ton of lice.

If you don't keep your houses and runs clean thjs weather you'll get so as you won't care to approach them at all. And the longer you neglect them tho further you'll have to stand off.

How refreshing a cool glass of water is on a hot summer's day ! Suppose we treat the hens to one. An American paper (not a poultry paper) tells in all good faith (apparently) of a hen that laid 29 perfect eggs in one day. Ye Gods ! " Let the non-laying hen go to pot," says an exchange. Don't throw the food on filthy ground.

Cleanliness is next to success. Six o'clock is early enough to feed the morning meal. Give the chickens first feed; let the old birds wait. What about a little green cut bone occasionally ? Don't waste the broken crockery ; crack it up for grit. Barley fed occasionally will prove a good change, and will help to keep up egg production. Increase the proportion of bran in the mash as the weather grows warmer.

A liberal supply of lean meat tends towards an early moult. Commence giving it late this month and continue through December. The demand for strictly new laid eggs will never fail ; they constitute one thing that will neker become a drug on the market. An egg is nearly eighty per cent, water, and yet many keepers of poultry negject to keep the birds under their care supplied. We talk about scientific egg foods, and neglect the simplest details that tend to heavy production. If water was put up in bottles at half a crown per quart and labelled " Aqua pura, the great egg former," some people would supply it regularly, whereas their fowls now have to depend on stray bog holes and the accumulation of thick muddy liquid found in old paint and jam tins, to quench their thirst.