VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 39 



FEEDING THE COCKERELS FOR MARKET. 



When the chickens are moved to the field the sexes are sep- 

 arated. The pullets are cared for as explained above. The 

 cockerels are confined in yards, in lots of about 100, and fed 

 twice daily on porridge made of 4 parts corn meal, 2 parts mid- 

 dlings or flour, and one part fine beef scrap. The mixed meals 

 are wet with skim milk or water — milk is preferred — until the 

 mixture will just run. but not drop, from the end of a wooden 

 spoon. They are given what they will eat of this in the morning 

 and again towards evening. It is left before them until all have 

 eaten heartily, not more than an hour at one time, after which the 

 troughs are removed and cleaned. The cockerels are given plenty 

 of shade and kept as quiet as possible. 



We have found our chickens that are about one hundred days 

 old at the beginning to gain in four weeks' feeding, from one and 

 three-fourths to two and one-fourth pounds each and sometimes 

 more. Confined and fed in this way they are meaty and soft 

 and in very much better market condition than though they had 

 been fed generously on dry grains and given more liberty. 

 Poultry raisers cannot afford to sell the chickens as they run, 

 but they can profit greatly by fleshing and fattening them as 

 described. Many careful tests in chicken feeding have shown 

 that as great gains are as cheaply and more easily made, when 

 the chickens, in lots not to exceed 100, are put in a house with a 

 floor space of 75 to 100 feet and a yard of corresponding size, as 

 when they are divided into lots of 4 birds each and confined in 

 latticed coops just large enough to hold them. Four weeks 

 has been about the limit of profitable feeding, both in the large 

 and small lots. Chickens gain faster while young. In every 

 case birds that were one hundred and fifty to one hundred and 

 seventy-five days old have given us comparatively small gains. 

 The practice of successful poultrymen in selling the cockerels at 

 the earliest marketable age is well founded, for the spring chicken, 

 sold at Thanksgiving time is an expensive product. 



A very large proportion of the chickens raised in this State 

 are sent to market alive, without being fattened, usually bringing 

 to the growers from twenty-five to thirty-five cents each. The 

 experiments referred to above indicate that they can be retained 

 and fed a few weeks, in inexpensive sheds, or large coops with 

 small runs, and sent to the markets dressed, and make good 

 returns for the labor and care expended. The quality of the 

 well covered, soft fleshed chickens, if not too fat, is so much 

 superior to the same birds not specially prepared, that they will 

 be sought for at the higher price. The dairy farmer is particu- 

 larly well prepared to carry on this work as he has the skim milk 

 which is of great importance in obtaining yield and quality of 

 flesh. 



