POULTRY YARD

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1928, Page 12

POULTRY YARD

| BY

G. H. AMBLER

WORK IN THE FOWLHOUSE. MUCH CLEANING UP NECESSARY. Much work is necessary at this season of the year on the poultry plant. It is a time of cleaning up ia readiness for the winter, and getting the birds housed in their new places. The pullets have already' been separated from the cockerels, and if they were hatched at the right time will now be laying. These birds should be moved to their permanent quarters before they begin to lay, for if you wait until they have commenced laying they will stop for a time on account of the change. Now and then a poultryman who wants to get all the growth he can before the birds mature, will change the pullets from place to place, thus putting off the egg production. First of all, the winter quarters should be gone over. Take out all the moveable fixtures and give them a spraying with some good disinfectant, and then give a coat of whitewash. There are several preparations, which may be used in painting the roosts and interior fixtures, that will keep the lice and mites away from the building. A preparation containing a good percentage of carbolic acid mixed with the limewasli will prove a powerful cleanser. The mites especially cannot stand the fumes of carbolic acid, and will soon make their way from the premises.

Clean out all the old straw and a few' inches of the earth, if you have an earth floor in the house. Fresh soil should then be placed in the building, and on top of this a quantity of oaten or wheaten straw. The latter will brighten up the feathers of dirty plumaged birds in a short time. It is a ■wise plan to whitewash the interior of the poultry house. It will have a fresh, clean smell, aud the birds will enjoy the light airy surroundings. LOOK TO THE NESTS. Now something about the nests. Do you appreciate the fact, that nests attached to tlie building are simply an invitation to lice to come in? Well, they are. Have your nests either on legs or hung bw hooks to the wall in such a way" that the back of the nest does not touch the side of the house. Have you ever removed a nest- that has been nailed to the side of the building, to find the back of it covered with red mites? That is the result of an attached nest. If you can have the nests sc arranged that' you can remove them once a week for cleaning and spraying, y'Pu will not have this trouble. Lice and mites will come unless you keep up a warfare against them. The only thing to do is to have the fixtures so that you can take them out once in a while' for cleaning. With a good hand-sprayer and a whitewash brush you can fight the enemy in good style. It pays to have these things, and to keep up the war against the enemy, even when you cannot see them. You may think that there are no lice, and that everything is going along serenely, but all of a sudden the egg production shuts off and the liens act as if somethin" were the matter with them. _ You examine a hen and then you begin to fight. But it much easier to fight them

when there are but few than when they have a foothold. SUPPLY FOR DUST BATHS.

You will need to lay iu a supply of material for dust baths. The writer does not, personally, favour dust, for the reason that it is pretty dirty stuff when you stop to think of it. There is better material than this, and that is good, dry earth, with some fine ash siftings in it. You can put some sulphur iu this, and it will make an acceptable dust bath. If the floor of your poultry house is of earth, you will not need to have this. Possibly the earth is of loam, and hence stays moist to quite an extent; if so, you have an excellent dusting place for fowls. It is not that they prefer the dry earth for a dust bath, but they take ft because they can get nothing else. Have you ever noticed hens when they have their freedom ? They will dust in moist earth in preference to that which is very drv. They like to get the cool, moist earth about them and seem to take keen delight in the process. The moist earth does not take the oil from the feathers nor make the plumage dry and harsh. However, you must provide some kind of a dust bath for the winter, so make preparations for it now. GREEN FOOD FOR THE WINTER. The time to plan for the winter sup I ply of green food is at hand. Make pro vision for all the green crops possible and if these fail, arrange to feed sprout. led oats. At this time of the year it is 1 well to clean up your brooders and other small coops. Do not put there, away or leave them in a state of uutieanliness to remain so throughout the ’ winter. They should be cleaned and (disinfected. If you can whitewash them Ido so, and you will have coops ready for business when spring comes and you need them again. Now, just a word about this cleansing process. Here on our planet we are so particular about this that we even scrape the bottoms of the brooders and other small coops with a putty knife. We get right down to the board floor, and do not leave a particle of filth to accumulate anywhere. When this is done every part of the interior is gone over with a solution for disinfecting and for keeping away lice and mites. While this process is gone through with at frequent intervals there is a general cleaning in the autumn, making the coops ready for the spring work. There are good prospects ahead for the poultryman and if lie would enjoy the best of prosperity lie should do all the work on the plant when it is time to do it. Never put off the work from day to day. “Do it now” should be the | motto on every poultry'plant. ' A WARNING AGAINST DISEASE. Do not blame anyone but yourself when disease breaks out iu your flock this autumn if you are using old coops for conditioning birds without thoroughly disinfecting them. It is not unlikely you will put your choicest male —the one you count on for the cup—in a coop you used last season as a hospital for roupy fowls. Such coops are sure to be full of germs, and a menace ,lo the flock. The poultryman who does i not appreciate the necessity of care in I just such matters is courting failure. Ilf you cannot buy new coops, clean and |paint up the old ones.