Show P ky M WILL PAY RAISER TO GRADE PULLETS weaker should be given a fair break one of the easiest mistakes a can make Is to grow a lot of good pullets and then upset their usefulness for some time by wrong handling when putting them into permanent laying quarters says the rural new yorker yarker the vermont station gives some excellent and timely advice by emphasizing careful se be lection in making up pens about equal in development the slower maturing pullets left on the range will then grow faster because they are not bossed by the more mature ones being chased about and pecked prevents these smaller birds from getting an equal chance st at the feed and apparently even eren breaks their spirit so that they take for graded that they are underlings and never fully recover another point of great importance Is that the permanent quarters should be ns as nearly like the range conditions as practicable so that the pullets will not feel strange going about craning their necks and trying to make up their minds where to roost to la a bad eign they should feel happy and at homed home As the birds on range have had airy houses they should not be closed in too tightly at night of course there must be no drafts on the ro places or OP cool nights but ample ventilation that will prevent any feeling of stuffiness Is needed opinion on matter of heat in poultry house A friend of ours interested in the ventilation of poultry houses asked us recently it if we thought the temperature of the average household refrigerator was too cold for a hen to do good work in we replied that we thought it would be too cold he having checked up on the matter reminded us that the optimum temperature for a poultry house Is 45 degrees to 60 50 degrees F and that the average household refrigerator Is seldom lower than 45 degrees F unless ibbe an electric plant set to freeze tee ice cubes this leads us to believe that it if one can keep the temperature of his poultry house from going much below 40 degrees F V in the winter time the egg production will not be disturbed very much provided of course the hens are properly fed hoards boards dairyman inspection may help in looking over some poultry houses afew a few days ago small cracks were discovered in the back of the house just over the roosts boosts think of the enormous amount of heat that is lost from froin the house also consider the large amount of cold air that will drive in from the north that crack may appear perfectly harmless and yet it may be the source of much trouble later chickens cant stand that kind of a draft the colder temperature as a result of the presence of cracks may not influence Indu ence egg production but it la Is very apt to and it Is best to give the chickens fresh air in some other way where eliere the cracks ore are small patching plaster is very helpful but with the layer more strenuous measures must be employed the moral Is to chunk up the cracks for turkey raisers the plan now Is to raise the turkeys in confinement the turkey ben with tier her boults Is fenced in A small shed Is used for shelter the reason for this Is that the boults get the black blackhead bead from infected ground over which the chickens have been allowed to forage the far end of an orchard would be a good place for the turkeys A mash made of oat meal bran and with about 10 per cent of meat ineat scrap would make a good feed milk to drink would be all right do not teed feed corn and do not overfeed when the boults are old enough to fatten you can begin gradually on corn give the boults to the turkey hen rear them in an enclosure on new ground and fee feed them little if any corn hens need lime for eggs I 1 for a hen to produce economically she must be supplied with all the ingredients necessary for the completed eggs plenty of good balanced food with fresh water at all times she must also be supplied at all times with a plentiful supply of calcium lime this lime Is needed not only tor for shell formation but also tor for body maintenance A good limestone grit will supply this lime efficiently and economically and at the same time aid in grinding the food handy fowl catcher take an old rake handle or an old bamboo fishing pole and a piece of stiff wire about 30 inches long insert one end of the wire firmly into the end of the handle for about a foot then bend the rest of the wire back nearly against itself and let the free fre end flare out a little with this device devic eyou you can reach into a flock and catch individual birds by the leg without hurting thorn them or frightening the flock herbert J dehler debler in wisconsin I 1 agriculturist |