POULTRY NOTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 17 October 1907, Page 4

POULTRY NOTES.

It has been clearly demonstrated on many occasions that poultry will not pay if neglected. Warm roosting-houses, properly ventilated, and dry scratching sheds are the secret of winter egg production. There are still huiidrcds of small gardens that could easily be utilised lor fowls that are allowed to be bare and empty. Change of diet is advisable, although the mixed grain, so often impressed on poultry-keepers by corn dealers, should not be used.

ISel'ore going to roost in the evening the birds should have a good Iced of whole grain. Wheat one week, for instance, and oats the next.

A rule never to be departed from is to give no more at one meal than the birds can eat eagerly, and on no account t" leave any food lying about. Of the thousands of people who keep fowls a very large proportion have 110 free range at their disposal, and have to be content with a very limited space. A common fault witli many poultrykeepers is to have too many fowls. Three hens, with room to move about freely, will lav more eggs than six crowded and cramped. Poultry-keepers will find that it will repav them if they are to rear their chickens as quickly as possible* so as to sell their surplus chickens while they can still get a high price for them. There is a disadvantage in putting chickens of different sizes in one yard; it is that the little one are trampled on bv the. bigger, and so the tiny ones cannot get their fair share of the food. (Tean°water, in clean vessels, must be fiven at least once a da\. Young hens, not overfed, not overcrowded, and kept clean, can hardly fail to prove profitable, even in a small backyard.