POULTRY NOTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 8 January 1913, Page 7

POULTRY NOTES.

(By "Utilitarian.")

In England, at one time, (and may bo still).' there wcro purveyors of cat's moat who wore wont to cry their I wares from door to door. If there I were such "similar individuals in this [country who would purvey scraps of meat for town and surburban poultryI keepers it would, doubtless, be much appreciated, for it is often a very difficult matter for people to obtain anything like the quantity of meat they would like to use. True, we have substitutes, such as dried blood ant', meatmeal, but the quality is not always to be recommended and it idouhtful if the chickens appreciated it a.s much as a good soli;! tug and game of tag with a fresh piece of liver. Apparently it is more profitable to convert otherwise waste ment inro sausages and fertilisers. As the portion is now, housekeepers mav be. ■seen vicing with each other for their butcher to leave them a liver or a bone that they might let their feathered friends hove an occasional taste. We have known of a rsoultrvkeeper emnloying a boy to do little else than dig fir worms. During the past spell of fine weather one would not envy the hoy's job, heat would he plentiful and worms at a discount. Though most fowls and ducks will be easing off laying now, they require shell-grit just the same, that is, always kept before them. There are some handv sized bags waiting for any of you at Mr H.J. O'Leary's blacksmith shop, in Queen .street. While you are there have a talk to him concerning 'the advantages of joining the Utility Egg Circle. It is more than probable that some fresh developments will shortly issue from one of the Wellington Province Egg Circles. The time is not yet ripe to divulge anything definite, hut "wait and see." Watch these notes. Given favourable weather now is a good time to sow a few oats for late autumn and winter green feed for poultry. Any surplus; can be dug or ploughed in for some subsequent crop to advantage. Green oats have the advantage that several cuttings can often be made, and at the same time, thev help to keep down the weeds. Emohasis has fneouenfch- been made in this column to the value of green food .and we go so far as to say that unless one. can arrange to have fresh green food, either growing l on the farm, or elsewhere easily obtainable, poultrykeeping is best left alone.

I Pmiltrykeepers should now bo able to form a fairly accurate estimate of the number of pullets they «ill have for next winter'.? laying. I hev should all be parsed the weakly stage of oxjisvfiieo and. most of them too full grown to tempt cats and rate. These fpe.s J 's vvill (coasirinally touch poiiUiy at any age. but this is not co union, fortonau'ly Stoats and weasels will, however piove .troublesom? to some owners and for these we have found baiting an ordinary rat trap with a dead chicken on the vermin's run is well worth trvinjr. The trap itself should be jult buried and the'chicken •suspended right over so that the pest will have to step on it to reach tlie coveted morsel.

In these days of frequent flittiiigs of householders from one town to ••• ■

other those who have a. love of poultry are perplexed at times bow to accomodate birds without going to much expense. This can be got over, to a <rreat extent by building; moveable houses out of some cheap material, such ats a largo packing case, or from the frames in which corrugated iron is packed. A half a dozen yards or so of netting will make a run long enough for about half a dozen hens if moved about frequently on to fresh 'rrn.ss.