OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 294, 6 May 1911, Page 6

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

(By "Cock o' the North.") All foods are composed chiefly of protein, fats, carbo-hydrates and water, and on the quantities of these various constituent parts the value of each food is determined for any given purpose. When the strength or quality of any food is heing ascertained by analysis, it is usually divided, into one hundred parts, and each constituent part is given its proper quantity, as, for instance, an egg divided into one hundred parts contains 72.7 of water (nearly three-quarters), 15.0 of fat, 11.5 of protein, and 0.8 of mineral ash; total, 100 parts. In fixing the value of a food, however, the poultry man need not bother himself in regard' to water, as it is of no more value to the bird than the water she drinks. Hence the value of a food needs to be computed on the quality of its solids. In these solids there is in vegetables or grain foods, and in some animal foods, husk or fibre, and this has no food value whatever. This has been tried over and "vcr again, and the result is always the s'ime. There remains, then, protein, fats, carbo-hydrates, and mineral ash, and in regard to the latter, as most foods contain a sufficient quantity for the fowl's needs, it can also be dispensed with, and only the three chief constituents dealt j with. Protein is the most expensive element in any food, and it is therefore obvious l that to use it in an extravagant way is to make the ration an exceedingly expensive one. More than this, protein fed in excess of the amount required defeats the very object it is desired to attain, if this object is eggs. Ido not, of course, mean by this that the poultry man or farmer need? to run about with a pair of scales in his hands and weigh everything he feeds. As long as he keeps a good general average lie cannot go very far wrong. But if the excess of any one constituent part be large, the results are going to suffer. I know plenty of pouUrymen who would feed plenty of bran and pollard with wheat, maize, oats and animal food, when all of these are very cheap; but if the price of, say, pollard or bran rises, he will give any rubbish he can get hold of, or. as is very often the case, he will discontinue it altogether and feed inferior grades of barley or badly shrunken wheat. This is all right as far as it goes, but where the colossal ignorance is displayed is in the fact that many of these people actually think they should get eggs from such a ration as this. I might as well tell my readers that they might as well feed a good sample of sawdust for egg production as to <do as above. I have again, in some districts where maize is largely grown, seen fowls fed solely on this grain, and in the first few months (as pullets), if allowed to be on free range, they laid very well, but after two or three months they dwindled off and finally began dying in all directions.

One case of this sort was brought under my notice at Makauri, near Gisborne, where a lady had a splendid 'lot of fowls, but they were dying off in threes and fours every day. When I saw them I asked how tliev were fed, and it was maize each morning, noon, and night —nothing else—with the result that they got enormously fat and developed liver complaints. lat once advised a change of diet, which was given, and also for three weeks a heaped up t<vispoonful of Epsom salts in a quart of drinkin™ water, with three day intervals of clean water, to every dozen birds, and at the end of three weeks they were nearly all down in good laying condition, and laying splendidly. The lady murmured at first at the cost of the ration I advised, but she acknowledged afterwards that though my ration was much dearer to buy, it was by far the most economical in the end. JOTTINGS. Cold snaps ave beginning to set in now. Ijook out for colds and stop them. If your flocks develop colds all round, the simplest way to stop the colds is to spray the fowls at night with a spray which makes a sort of fine mist with a mixture of Pearson's antiseptic or Jeyes' fluid, (10 to 1 strength. Remember that a very cheap incubator will most likely cost you about 500 per cent, dearer than a good one, but kapai the good old drunken turkey hen. Cheap goods mean dear eggs from the producer's point of view, ° i