POULTRY NOTES

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10638, 17 May 1912, Page 6

POULTRY NOTES

(By Utilitarian.) ANSWERS TO (ORUESPOXD ENTS. BEGINNER.— As lam ifoiak 1 :!.; «.f----keeping a. few fowls for .profit, will you (let me know, through your column, (hc-.v much it should' cost a year in •feed, them? Answer.— Owing to tli3 ona-rrxiis prices ofall classes of poultry feed al present, you cannot allow uiU'jli Icjc jfchf.ll 8s per bird per annum, if aft the feed has to he purch.aeod. This w:<!l, perhaps, emphasise to you. tlio urgent necessity of keeping only the very beet strains obtainable. WANT TO KNOW.— Do you consider June too early to commence setting eggs ? Answer.— It depends on circumstances. If you desire to rear a large aunriibti' and cf a heavy hreed, .t'ommc'iiee :'«■ Juni;? by all mcian&, and cease in September ; on ■tiic'.o'ther hand if only light breeds are your aim,, August is scon enough, and ieveni with itflieso tlie end cf September is quite late" enough to finish hatching. Again;, if yoii desire ito .be possetese'd of a large num'ber of light Ibreed birds, it is obvious tfhat unless yoxv have ample incubiator capacity, and the eggs to fill the/m, yen will aieed .to start. Earlier, say in July. Keep this irf view, tha'fc at lis better to hatch rather too early than <too late.

The New Zeailand Poultry Asetocia'triou is issuing, now, to its inemibers, a very mice'ly got up member's ticket, on (Which- is aleo printed a-fc the bottom, "You help to strengthen the Association when you induce .other poultry men to join. - ' Every poultryman. Who 'really 'has the welfare of the industry at heart?; who wishes to see 1 it- a-Lso up on a level wit'h other pur- [ suite, and Who 'believes- that 00-oper-aUiors is greater than individualism, should send a. modest donation along to rtlio Secretory, iM/r Merrettj, Box 588, Chrisk'iuircli. I awry be 'hauled, over the coals for again bringing up ■tliis matfor, biuiil I feel that it is all to poultry-men's interests to do what he caiii to encourage ithe Assoeiatiion. We, in th*o district, know full well wha)t a magnificent Association the iodil A. and ; P. has become, and the great- value of it-s 'work to farmers in general, and th'jre is no reason why pouta-ymen ,'Jhould not tiaive an- equally strong organisation if they would financially assist the movemc-mlt. There' ure already in! Mlaeteaiibn s'c-veraf: mern'be'i'S belonging to the Poultry Associatioa, and* tiher'e is itoom (for you all, no matter mhciiher ycui own. haCf ». dozen fowls or a (thousand. Joiii mow!

>Wh&:i -mating rfc) clicks and drakes it is ! as welil ito put the two -sexes together (three or 'four weeks before it is desired to save'the* eggs for hatching, for it'hey 'are' ofteii excessively clannish, and take a consider atble- time before l they will even! inix wi.'h each other. Whew 'any diuck 'farmer wkh.es to divide his birds ratio pens, aad has a running .creek for their iise, there is often some difficulty am awaking the fences duck-proof where they cross ,'bhe h later. Ihey are-ii±'st persistent ill diggiaig into the banks a.nd working theii' way round from one pen to ithe 'other. The <wri J d:r has solved the difficdl'ty Iby fixing a piece bf cdiinary wire-netting from one ibanlk to the other, leaving it iso long that the bottom of it cad be' 'weighted with .stones ahd the rest of the .netting bent up over them and fastened just out of •the -water. Care should he taken that' the netting is carried some little distance wp each back to prevent' them j working .round it. A few Silver Wyandotte 'dhickeuo which the proprietor of the Utility Poultry Farm, a little over two imionths aigo la.s an experiment for the- ta'blei'tii'alde have, so far, come on remlarka'bly well. It- does aiot appear as if they could have made better progress than* those- hatched in ;lhe .Spring ■months. I-t iis\perMa,ps due- to the f atot 'that they fliave heen reared under <i (glass roof, though* -they .have had plenty (of /liberty, and -a'leo amply supplied with meat.