POULTRY NOTES.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 278, 4 July 1908, Page 6

POULTRY NOTES.

Cooked maize does not carry 3uch a large proportion of fatforming material as does raw maize, while cooked does not affect the plumage in the saine detrimental manner as when fed raw.

In figuring the profits in poultry raising, it is necessary to figure by the year, to get a true showing of the balance. Many people make the mistake of figuring the profit and loss only on certain months. The result of this must be that in some months a large profit will be shown. This is due to the fact that poultry do not yield eggs every month equally. Also, in some months, about the only items are expenses. The same is true when trying to figure out the cost of producing eggs. Some figure the value of the feed given a certain month and place against it the number of eggs received. But it is evident that the true showing only will be made when the nonproductive periods are figured in. The real food cost of getting eggs is the food for a year when set over against the eggs produced in a year. Thus, summer eggs cost as much to produce as winter eggs, for the same hen has to be supported both summer and winter.

Any person that has much to do with fowls is forced to notice the greater vigour of some when compared to others. In a flock of fifty fowls perhaps ten will show exceptional vigour. These should be kept for breeding, and the fowls with weaker constitutions should be disposed of. This vigour means a greater power to produce flesh if flesh is wanted or to produce eggs if eggs are wanted. The vigorous fowls are the ones that resist disease the most effectively. The disease killing factors in their blood are more powerful than in the less vigorous fowls. Therefore with such fowls the losses from disease are sure to be less than if other fowls are kept. The less vigorous birds are the ones that first fall victims to any poultry disease that comes along. Therefore the quicker they are fattened and made into meat the surer is the owner of getting his money out of them. The less vigorous fowls are doubtless as good for food as any others, and that is wheie their greatest utility will be found. This question of,vigour has not leceived Hie attention it is worthy to receive, for it counts for much in the development of the farmdr’s flock.

It is quite within the bounds of possibility that thhse who keep a small number of fowls, even up to 50 head, may overfeed, although, at the same time boasting that the cost per bird is on the low side. The danger lies in the amount of household scraps or refuse supplied. In the case of a largo family the scraps, etc., put aside for the fowls would possibly make a meal for. 50 head of poultry if thrown to them withoutthe addition of pollard or bran, but when these are added the whole makes too heavy a meal. To avoid this danger there are alternative methods —either (1) thiow the

scraps without the added pollard or bran; (2) reject a portion of scraps before making the other components of the mash ; or (3) keep a greater number of birds. A well-known fancier whose

fowls were -overfed thought it was better to give the birds a little more than might be good for them than to waste good food: and no doubt he would have continued the suicidal habit, notwithstanding that it meant loss of eggs, had he not accepted the advice of a more experienced poultryman and kept an extra pen of fowls. It does not pay a breeder or fancier in throwing a heavy mash in the morning to think that matters will be squared by giving a light feed of grain at night for’ fowls are not satisfied, even though they are over-fat, with having to go to roost with a half-empty crop.