Poultry-keeping

Jungle-fowl, and Some Feeding Errors

By H. Charles Reed, of Samoa

ONLY recently has a little well-deserved attention been given to the keeping of the utility-breeds of domestic fowls in the Pacific Islands.

Except perhaps in Hawaii—where poul try-keeping is modernised —one usually sees the funny little “hen-fruit” called eggs which grace the market-places of Bombay, Cairo, and similar places.

The fact is that poultry thrive as well in the Pacific Islands as in most parts of Australasia. But, like the growing of vegetables, poultry-keeping is largely relegated to the native labour of the Islands. Many folk keep a few hens of the Island type, have a coconut scraped daily for their food, and leave the hens at that. Do the hens then return good sized eggs for their keep? No, sir, they do not!

It certainly pays to keep a few fowls, especially where the table scraps may help to feed them; but the coconut is by no means a complete food for poultry, and when solely on this diet the poultry get “fed-up” of coconut and will leave it on the ground untouched.

It is just as essential that the hens should have right feeding, pure water, grit and shelter in the Pacific Islands as else where. It is just as essential to import new blood, new roosters, to improve the Island stock. This, the Oriental would never think of. He is quite content with undersized eggs of, often, undecided “freshness,” that he has always known.

Of course, all eggs are eggs; and, in the Islands, one is expected to pay the same price for the bantam-sized egg as for a respectable egg; and the Chinese restaur ants are buyers of eggs of every descrip tion (including those known as "too fresh”).

So degenerate are the general run of poultry in the Islands that a decent sized Rhode Island Red rooster appears as a giant among the native-bred stock, while eggs of two to three ounces in weight are wondered at. The native-bred hens of the Islands are known by the Polynesian name of “Sa’a” (meaning short and small). The jungle-fowl or bush-hens, are known as “Moa-ai-vao” (fowls that feed in the bush). These are very plentiful, and are in-bred with the domestic fowls to a great extent.

In the villages one sees the jungle-roos ters being carried about as pets by the

boys, who use them to decoy their fellows in the bush. The birds, when set down to a “challenge,” will begin to crow direct ly, and will soon entangle any adversary, who should take up their challenge, by means of a cord attached to the left foot of the pet bird.

But, to return to the Chinese poultry keeper of the Pacific: He will buy all the poultry he can (at the Chinese value). He will cut off the toes of his hens to pre vent them from interfering in his garden or scratching out his seed-beds. He will scrape up enough food to keep the hens going, and will dispose of all the eggs and fowls h’e can raise to his own com munity and restaurants.

It is in the commencement—the attempt to raise young chickepjs or ducklings —where most folks come to grief. Many people will tell you very definitely that poultry do not succeed in the Islands. This is where the Chinaman usually succeeds.

And why? Just as a Chinaman knows what is required with a poor soil, so he appears to know something of the value of foods, not alone for himself, but for the feeding of poultry. He sees the Island planter feed boiled rice or breadcrumbs to the young chicks or ducklings—and he knows that dead foods are deadly to chicks. He feeds his newly-hatched birds on live ant-eggs, and his birds thrive.

These huge ant-mounds may be found everywhere in the bush by those who will trouble to collect them. They adhere to decaying trees and, when cut down and kept in a sack, may afford food for the chicks for a week or more. Young birds grow in a really wonderful manner when fed exclusively on ant eggs, fresh from the bush trees. It is not generally known that these huge nests of termites can be had for the taking in the bush lands of the Islands. But it makes poultry-keep ing worth while to John Chinaman, who probably gains a wider knowledge of the resources of the Islands in a few months than many of his learned white brothers acquire in years.

Where land is available a small patch of white millet, maize, and the papaya fruit will greatly help in the economical feeding of a few head of cattle, pigs, and poultry. But some people never learn from experience, and daily throw out a few handfuls of dry rice to their hens or ducks, and expect the birds to fatten and thrive. Well, it simply doesn’t hap pen.

In regard to the periodical visits of “fowl-sickness” that occur in and around Apia (Western Samoa), this writer has proved that much of the soil found within the municipality of Apia is “infected” soil, and much of the “fowl-sickness” is due to picking up food infected by their own droppings during the wet season on these soils. The turning of the soil and a liberal

application of lime is perhaps the best treatment. Burnt coral lime is quite use ful, and cheaply made in the Islands.

Perhaps the encouragement of school gardens and school lectures on matters of poultry-keeping and management would do much to improve the outlook in the future for the younger generation. The jungle-fowl might then be relegated to the jungle instead of to the backyard.