Fattening rouLTuv i'(»k Table PuRrosES. 44'i 



FATTENING POULTRY FOR TABLE PURPOSES. 



1{esults of Experiments at Grooteontein. 



By S. W. Nash, Asst. in Poultry, Grootfontein Si'liool of 

 Agriculture, Middelburg, Cape Province. 



When requiring a bird for the table, most farmers go into their fowl 

 run, seize the first fowl they are able to catch, kill it at once, have it 

 cooked within an hour, and are generally disappointed in that it is^ 

 rather thin, and not quite as tender as they expected. But by putting 

 the bird in a coop and feeding it on soft food for tMo or three weeks 

 a very considerable amount is gained in weight ; the flesh becomes 

 much more tender and improved greatly in flavour. The extra cost 

 is only Id. (one penny) per bird. 



A fattening coop can be made out of any old packing case, put- 

 ting a few slats at the bottom and in front, and a dish for the food, 

 so placed that the birds can reach it easily. 



The text books and poultry journals generally advise the use of 

 vSussex ground oats, barley meal, wheat meal and fat. We only used 

 the class of food that every poultry keeper is likely to have on hand, 

 viz., mealie meal, pollard, and separated milk. 



The experiment covered eighteen days. All the cockerels used 

 were unsuitable for sale as breeding stock, in fact were the very poorest 

 specimens we could find. 



As a rule the daily ration of the birds in our runs is about 2 oz. 

 of bran and pollard mixed with a percentage of meat meal in 

 the morning, green food ad lib. at noon, and If oz. to 2 oz. mixed 

 grain at night^ — the whole costing about 5d. per bird for the eighteen 

 days. 



Each bird used in tliis experiment received per day, while in tlie 

 fattening coop, 3i oz. of common mealie meal and pollard (three 

 parts mealie meal and one part pollard) mixed with enough separated 

 milk to make a thin paste. Charging the meal and pollard at current 

 rates and the milk at 3d. per gallon, the cost of feeding was 6d. per 

 bird for the eighteen days, or only one penny more than s])ent on those 

 in the runs. 



After selecting our cockerels they were carefully weighed and 

 placed in the coop, and starved for twenty-four hours in order to make 

 them hungry; they received their first meal at 6 a.m. on the first day, 

 and their second at 6 p.m. ; thereafter they were fed twice daily. They 

 were always ravenous for the food and consumed every scrap. No 

 drinking water was given as there was sufficient moisture in the food, 

 and, of course, we withheld green food. 



Two White Leghorns, one each Black and Brown Leghorn, and 

 one White Orpington were marked and put back in the runs and fed 

 with the flock in the ordinary manner as a check against the birds in 

 the fattening coop. _ 



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