CARE DURING THE MOULT
WHEN we want rich quality of feather in our Borders—and it is a fundamentally important feature in this breed—we must have our stock in a good state of health before the moult sets in. In my opinion, fresh green food, especially the wild, seeding plants, do no harm, but on the contrary the birds receive much benefit from them, both as regards quality, colour and health.
Run your eye carefully over your stock and select all those which you think conform to show standard. All the remainder, except those you may require for stock purposes, should be sold as early as possible so as to provide more room for the exhibition stock. Overcrowding at this time is detrimental.
All specimens intended for show should be moulted in separate cages, where room and financial considerations will allow. See that these cages are well washed out. This is the exhibitor’s “honey harvest”, and the whole success of a show season hangs on a successful moult quickly carried through.
Where the Early Bird Scores
The moulting season begins in July for early-hatched young, and may not finish until December in the case of really late-hatched birds. I am a firm believer in three nests only, so I neither start early nor continue late. The two first rounds of youngsters always enjoy the best moult, and thereby make the best and most satisfactory show birds. With late-bred birds you have a difficulty in getting them to finish the moult.
They may finish in a way, but are always more or less patchy in colour and never so level and fine in feather as their more fortunate brothers and sisters whom Nature favoured by sending into the moult a few months earlier when the weather was warmer. The moult is undoubtedly the most critical period of a bird’s life; indeed, its whole after-life depends on it.
A prolonged and faulty moult is the same to a young bird as distemper is to a young dog, and, therefore, quite as liable to produce the same results if neglected. I have found a young cock which has had a prolonged moult is rarely capable of fertilising his first nest of eggs, and some do not even impregnate a single egg in a season. Further, if they do their progeny are mostly puny things.
Take again the case of the hens that pass through the same protracted moult. Many of them never lay a single egg, and if they do hatch out young, they make very indifferent mothers.
Now if either of these is kept until another year, and has a good and quick moult, you will have the exactly opposite results. I might go on to cite many more cases to illustrate the ill-effects of a bad moult, but the above will suffice to show how important it is to pay marked and strict attention to all birds at this time. Any neglect of duty then is sure to be attended by much vexation afterwards.
First Symptoms of the Moult
The birds show the first signs of the approaching moult by becoming a little drowsy and listless and inclined to toss their seed about for something which, seemingly, cannot be found.
To the beginner it looks as if some illness is overtaking them, which is not far wrong. The birds themselves do not seem to know exactly what is upsetting them. When the above symptoms are observed the best thing one can do is to provide an entire change of diet.
Put them on to boiled rape with a little ground sulphur sprinkled over it. A few groats should also be given among the shell gravel in the bottom of the cage. The gravel should be replenished twice a week if possible.
Never forget to be up early at moulting time in order to prepare the birds’ breakfast, which should consist of half-a-teaspoonful of egg-food with four drops of chemical food added. Also give in the water a pinch of salts for two days. Change the water and give it clear for two days, and then add a piece of sulphate of iron the size of a split-pea. The iron stains the drinkers and must not be used in any glasses you intend to use in your show cages.
In a few days, if your birds are in good health, several loose feathers should be found in the bottom of the cage. In old birds they will be tail and flight feathers as they always throw such feathers first. A few feathers down the breast will also appear disarranged, and in a few days these also will be shed.
In their place you will observe two narrow strips of feathers more brilliant and deeper in hue. These are the new feathers coming. The old ones, having faded in colour, look pale and washed out beside the latest arrivals.
A Safe and Speedy Moult
If the feathers appear in this way it is a sign things are progressing well. The more vivid in colour these stripes become, expanding towards the back and also appearing on the point of the wing, the better sign it is of your birds enjoying a safe and speedy moult.
Keep them warm at this period. Great care should be taken to avoid all draughts. Do not open the windows, or give the bath on raw, foggy days. Chills acquired at this period either result in a lingering illness, termed “stuck in moult”, or in death.
If your birds are all progressing favourably, when they appear to be a little more free in their movements, hopping from perch to perch as you handle their cage, stop the boiled rape, and feed as follows until they are gone three weeks in moult (when it may be necessary to change their diet somewhat so as to give to their feathers that fine glossy shade so much sought after by exhibitors).
Blow out their seed boxes every morning and refill with fresh canary seed, which should at this time be the best procurable. It often happens that your birds are good judges of seed and refuse to eat poor stuff.
When Birds are off Colour
You may find they shell a boxful, but actually eat very little. Whenever you find them acting in this manner, check over the seed and look to their health, as this is often the first sign of a bird being out of sorts. If you think your seed is at fault, change it.
If, on the other hand, you see clearly that your bird is out of sorts, give twelve drops of magnesia in the drinking water, and if the trouble is not of long standing, two days will be quite sufficient to use it.
Select a good seed, and every day fill your boxes with it. Every other day add to it a third of German summer rape. On the days you are not giving the rape, give half-a-teaspoonful of egg-food, and, once a week (say, on Tuesday) some hemp seed in the cage bottom amongst the gravel I like them to hunt for this.
On Thursday give a few groats, and on Sunday a little maw and linseed in the corner of the seed boxes. Give no green food after the days become colder, and the birds are fairly into the moult unless, once a week, perhaps, for a change some seeded grasses, chickweed, or mouse-ear. This should be gathered and laid up to dry a few days before being fed to the birds.
Also place between the wires a small piece of boiled carrot, and keep a small piece of mutton suet there for them to peck at. Give the bath once a week now on bright days. Add to it a little essence of quassia, the quantity depending on the size of bath used.
A good - sized cage should be kept especially for bathing purposes, and after use it should be washed out and allowed to dry. When dry, keep it covered with a piece of paper so as to exclude all dust. You will find the use of the bath a great help in promoting the growth of the new feathers. Rain-water is preferable, but it must be clean.
While your birds are in the bath cage, clean out the living cage thoroughly. Sponge out all dust you can see on seed-box or wires. Also attend to the perches and, when dirty, wash with hot water. The cages will then be fit for the return of their inmates.
PREPARATION FOR SHOW
BY this time you will have a good idea which of your birds are going to turn out fit for show, and you