CHAPTER XIX 



FEEDING THE BREEDERS 



This is the most important chapter in the book for those who 

 produce eggs for hatching whether for themselves or hatcheries. 

 And right here I am going to make a very radical statement, and that 

 is "that you can't hatch chicks that will amount to anything from 

 stock that has been stimulated by a too stimulating diet for more 

 than one generation." 



It can't be done, because their vital organs have been so over- 

 worked that they have no vitality to put into the egg. What is not 

 in the parent stock cannot be transmitted to the offspring. The feed- 

 ing, then, of the breeding stock, should be considered more than it 

 is, but the facts are, people only consider the quantity of eggs they 

 can get, and quality remains an unknown feature of poultry raising. 

 But in the end the price has to be paid in losses, so it is far better 

 to learn in time. 



Now the question is: What are the stimulants for poultry, and what 

 constitutes a stimulating diet? 



First among stimulants are drugs, condition powders, poultry 

 mustard, Cayenne pepper, etc. Some of these are sometimes useful 

 in cases of sick fowls, in fact everybody uses such things in times 

 of need, so that even drugs have a place in poultry culture, but their 

 place is not in the feeding or dosing of breeders. If breeding poultry 

 are not in fit condition to breed, make them so by removing the unfit 

 and feeding the best on good sound grain and vegetables. 



Second, and now we come to the ration proper, of fowls. Drugs 

 are neither food nor drink, therefore not to be classed as a diet or 

 ration. The greatest stimulant we have in the food line is green bone, 

 or fresh ground bone as it comes from the butcher. If this is fed 

 to breeders, it must be in very small quantities, say one-quarter ounce 

 to each hen and only two or three times a week. The next is beef 

 scrap, in fact all kinds of animal food act more or less as a stimulant 

 to poultry, and yet some is necessary to keep them in a natural healthy 

 condition. So it is not with the animal food itself that we find the 

 harm, but in the quantity that is fed to produce eggs. A little ground 

 bone, or meat of any kind is all right and may be called a proper 

 article of diet, but when you feed more than a hen would be likely 

 to get under natural conditions, then it is harmful. 



And now the third and most dangerous stimulant, I say dangerous 

 because it is generally considered so harmless, is mash. I don't care 



