1914, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
816 
The Henyard. 
Identifying Young Ducks. 
How can one tell young (this year’s) 
ducks and drakes from old ones? The 
breeds are Indian Runners and Pekin. 
New York. b. s. b. 
The bill of a young fawn and white 
Runner drake is yellow; of an old drake, 
greenish yellow. A young duck’s bill is 
yellow, spotted with green ; an old duck’s 
dull cucumber green. These are the only 
general differences. In the case of Pe- 
kins there are no general differences by 
which one can distinguish all birds. The 
owner of a small flock might know the 
individual birds and thus distinguish 
them. Otherwise they should be kept in 
separate pens or wear leg bands. 
W. II. IIUSE. 
Sour Milk for Chicks. 
Much has been said about feeding sour 
milk to growing chicks. One of the pens 
entered in the laying contest by the 
Connecticut Agricultural College has 
made a remarkable record, and this pen 
has been fed on sour milk from their 
earliest chickhood. It is believed that a 
good deal of their success at the trap- 
nest has been due to this diet. In a re¬ 
cent news note Prof. Kirkpatrick, of the 
Connecticut College, makes the following 
statement about this feeding of sour milk. 
‘‘One commercial poultryman in the 
State who brooded 7,000 chickens last 
season has unofficially reported to the 
Station that he believed he developed 
his pullets a month earlier than in pre¬ 
vious years by the use of sour milk. The 
plan of using the milk is to allow it to 
thicken and put it before the chicks so 
that they can help themselves at all 
times. As a matter of fact the Station 
believes in the use of milk so thorough¬ 
ly that all of its commercial chicks have 
their beaks dipped into the milk as they 
are taken from the incubator in order 
to be sure that they get started in life 
right.” 
We understand that a good many poul- 
trymen throughout the country are com¬ 
ing to this same belief, and they are feed¬ 
ing the milk freely. In one case that we 
know of a poultry company is using a 
commercial bacteria or starter, which 
when put into milk sours it in just the 
right way to produce the desired effect 
upon hens. 
Care of Litter. 
A few weeks ago I saw a question in 
regard to the length of time litter should 
be used for poultry without being 
changed. My experience has been that 
some times it lasts much better than at 
others, and I have found that by using 
a garden rake, to pull the litter out from 
under the dropping boards and towards 
the south side of the houses it lasts 
much longer than when this is not done. 
I usually do this about every day or at 
least every other day, and I believe it 
pays well for the labor spent. 
New York. c. a. castle. 
Eggs for Hatching. 
As you are generally considered an 
oracle I would like you to inform me of a 
place where I can get eggs for hatching. 
Oklahoma. j. d. t. 
If we have any such reputation we 
would gladly shed it without delay. The 
oracles had the reputation of emitting 
wise remarks, but their wisdom was so 
complicated that no one could tell just 
what they meant. They needed one or 
more interpreters. The R. N.-Y. does 
no bragging about its wisdom. We try 
to speak the thought of our readers in 
such language that anyone can tell what 
is meant. An oracle needs interpreters. 
We try to cut them out, and we can tell 
you where to get the eggs. 
Dried Brewers’ Grains for Poultry. 
A. C. T. asks about dried brewers’ 
grains for poultry. I have been using 
the following mixture for at least three 
months, and have as good results as when 
using a different mixture: 125 pounds 
dried brewers’ grains, 125 pounds 
malt sprouts, 100 pounds hominy, 100 
pounds gluten, live pounds salt. This 
really is my cow feed, but I use 100 
pounds of this mixture and 100 pounds 
wheat middlings, to which I add 20 
pounds beef scrap, and keep before the 
hens continually. Dried brewers’ grains 
are cheaper than wheat bran, higher in 
protein, and help to lighten up a heavy 
feed, as M. B. D. says. I also feed them 
to my horses in place of bran with ground 
corn and rye. II. E. 
New Paltz, N. Y. 
White Leghorns as Sitters. 
Many persons think Leghorns will not 
sit or will not make good sitters and 
good mothers. We find this a very mis¬ 
taken notion if they are handled in the 
following manner. We leave the hens 
wanting to sit on the nests until the sec- 
end or third night, and choose only those 
which show the most gentleness and 
quietness when handled. At night re¬ 
move each hen to a separate coop or large 
box, in which we have prepared a new 
nest, and then place hen on one or more 
nest eggs. Have this coop or box tight 
to keep her in and darkened with old 
sacks or old carpet. Leave hens entirely 
alone the first day, putting feed by her 
at night or the next morning. Seven 
out of 10 hens will thus make good sit¬ 
ters, and eggs can safely be put under 
them the second or third day. Feed in 
coops and never let hens out until the 
chicks are hatched. W. II. M. 
California. 
R. N.-Y.—Most Leghorn breeders pre¬ 
fer hens that do not want to sit. At the 
Australian egg contest the sitting Leg¬ 
horn is regarded as a nuisance and breed¬ 
ers are advised not to use them in breed¬ 
ing pens. 
Inbreeding. 
I raised a beautiful pen of White Or¬ 
pingtons last Summer, eight pullets and 
one cockerel, all vigorous and well de¬ 
veloped birds, but I 'do not want to use 
their eggs for hatching this Spring, as 
the cockerel is a direct brother to the 
pullets. The pullets have been laying 
heavily all Winter. My intentions are 
to get a setting of eggs from some other 
fancier with good stock and raise a cock¬ 
erel to use with these eight when they 
maybe you could beat Mr. Barron at 
making them lay. 
It is true that mating the cockerels and 
pullets of your own flock would be in- 
breeding, but that is not necessarily an 
unwise thing to do; probably Mr. Barron 
has inbred his fowls for a good many 
years. When you inbreed in this way, 
however, you should be careful to select 
only big, strong, healthy, and vigorous 
fowls of both sexes for your breeding 
pens. Carefully cull out all weak, in¬ 
ferior, specimens from your breeders and 
you can safely inbreed for years, per¬ 
haps as long as you keep hens. Getting 
a Barron cockerel from some other flock 
to mate with your Barron pullets would 
still be inbreeding, though not as close¬ 
ly. M. B. D. 
Horse Feed for Fowls. 
Is horse feed good for dry mash for 
chickens? I used bran, oats and corn- 
meal. F. N. 
New York. 
A mixture of wheat bran, ground oats 
and cornmeal, while not especially, 
adapted to the needs of hens or chickens, 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you'll get a quick reply and a 
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HENRY DERBY 
453 Y, St. Paul’s Ave., Jersey City, N. J. 
arc coming two years; then I think I 
shall get results. I have refused to sell 
or use myself, any eggs this year for 
hatching. Under these circumstances am 
I right or wrong? w. s. P. 
New York. 
If these pullets have laid heavily all 
Winter, the ehanees are that the eggs 
may not prove very strongly fertile, and 
yet, they may. The fact that the cock- 
oral is a brother to the pullets need not 
debar you from breeding from them if 
they are all well developed and vigorous. 
This, of course, is inbreeding, but in- 
breeding is not necessarily a mistaken 
practice, though if done indiscriminately 
it would probably lead to more rapid de¬ 
terioration in a flook than indiscriminat- 
ate out breeding. Any breeding, whether 
in or out breeding, should be done by 
selection, and if you select for siz -, vigor, 
type, and productivity, you need not fear 
to mate close relatives. M. b. d. 
Hemorrhage of Oviduct. 
I have lost about 40 hens, Leghorns. 
They seem to have difficulty in laying, 
which causes them to have a hemorrhage. 
It does not affect the Wyandottes. Any 
information as to the cause would be 
greatly appreciated. c. E. p. 
Connecticut. 
Hemorrhage from the oviduct is a 
symptom of inflammation of that organ 
supposed to be due to irritating food, con¬ 
diments, overfeeding with heavy laying 
and lack of exercise aud perhaps an in¬ 
herited weakness which predisposes to 
trouble with that organ. I would sug¬ 
gest giving the flock as much range as 
possible and feeding an abundance of 
green stuff with little meat or other stim¬ 
ulating food. M. B. D. 
Breeding Leghorns. 
I am going to start some S. C. White 
Leghorns, and I want a good variety. I 
can purchase some good Leghorn eggs at 
$4 per hundred but they are not the Tom 
Barron strain. Would it be advisable to 
purchase these eggs and cross pullets 
with Tom Barron cockerels? Would that 
make the pullets the Tom Barron strain 
as they are counted the best strain? 
Would it be advisable for me to change 
the cockerels with the pullets as I 
thought that the cockerels and pullets 
would be related and that would be in- 
breeding. But would it change it if I 
got a thoroughbred Barron bird from a 
different party, still keep the strain, and 
inbreed? F. w. M. 
Pennsylvania. 
Your purebred—the word thorough¬ 
bred is applied only to horses—White 
Leghorns would not be the Tom Barron 
strain unless all the males and females 
in the flock were descended directly from 
his stock. By mating Barron cockerels 
with some other strain of purebred White 
Leghorns you would mix the strains 
while keeping the variety pure; in other 
words, you would have a mixed strain of 
purebred White Leghorns. You might 
get a very excellent floek in this way. 
but you could not call them the Barron 
strain since he would be responsible for 
only one-lialf the blood in the flock. 
After breeding them a few years you 
could call them your own strain, and 
may be fed to them, of course, as they 
are all good poultry foods. For very 
young chicks the oat hulls might better 
be sifted out, and the addition of meat 
meal iu the proportion of about one- 
eighth part by weight would improve the 
mixture. The fowls should also have 
mixed whole grain as part of their ra¬ 
tions. M. B. D. 
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46 
