PREPARATION OF FEEDS FOR POULTRY 



Making Large Batches of Mash in Mixing Boxes 



Making a Scalded Mash The process in this case 

 is the same as in the use of small mixing boxes; but on 

 a larger scale, and with attention to a few points that do 

 not have to be especially considered in handling small 

 batches. The meal being scalded in the vessel on the 

 cooker and vegetables (if any are to be used) having been 

 handled as in the preceding case, the other ingredients of 

 the mash are spread evenly over the bottom of one end 

 .,f the mixing box, as a mason spreads the sand in a mor- 

 tar bed before running his slaked lime on it. Drawing 

 the material a little high at the sides of the box will pre- 

 vent the mush from sticking to them, and ridging it 

 across the bottom of the box will prevent the mush from 

 spreading past it. All this can be done with a few mo- 

 tions of the mixing shovel. 



The scalded mush being turned in on this, the mass 

 is mixed with shovels. The work is done rapidly and 

 thoroughly if after the mash is about half mixed it is 





FEED WAGON AND POWER MASH MIXER AT KEITH 

 DUCK RANCH, EASTON, MASS. 



The mash mixer in the upper part of the picture is self- 

 dumping- and empties into the feed wagon below. 



simply shoveled to the opposite end of the box, turning 

 each shovelful over as put down. Shoveling it over this 

 way two or three times should be enough. After one 

 gets the knack of it, this can be done quickly, especially 

 by two men working together, one on each side of the 

 box. In all mixing of large batches of mash, whether 

 moist or dry, two men can do the work in about one- 

 third of the time required for one man to do it. As two 

 men usually do the feeding where it is on such a scale, 

 there is no occasion to let the services of the extra man 

 in mixing mean loss of time in drawing him from an- 

 other job especially for this. 



Making a Cold Mash As in making small batches 

 by this process, the corn meal is wet and then handled 

 just the same as when scalded, and the same attention 

 must be given to the use of smaller proportions of bran 

 and more of the finer materials. Where convenient the 

 meal may be wet for twelve hours or so before mixing. 

 This can be done either in pails or in the mixing box. A 

 method used by some poultry keepers with very satisfac- 

 tory results when a liberal amount of meat scrap is used 

 in the mash, is to spread the scrap on the bottom of the 

 mixing box and pour on it as much water as it will ab- 

 sorb when soaked for about twelve hours and be quite 



wet. The amount of water this material will take in this 

 way is much greater than one who has never tried the 

 plan would suppose, and is usually sufficient to saturate 

 the mill stuffs of the mash when they are added and the 

 whole thoroughly mixed. 



Mixing Moist Mash By Machine 



Machine-made mashes are so far as the writer's 

 knowledge goes always cold mixed. Where machines 

 are used it is mostly necessary to make a number of mix- 

 ings, and to undertake to scald or partly cook the meal 

 for them would make a great deal more work and trou- 

 ble than would be warranted by any possible improve- 

 ment in the feed as a result. As the reader may infer 

 from the emphasis placed on the importance of manip- 

 ulation of ingredients to utilize as fully as necessary in 

 each case the cohesive properties of the finer and heavier 

 ingredients to bind the coarse and light material, the 

 principal advantage in scalding mashes is to bring out 

 the cohesive property in meal, especially in corn meal. 

 In mixing mash by hand it is easier to get the consistency 

 desired with corn meal that swells nicely than with any- 

 thing else. To get similar consistency with the corn 

 meal only wet and wheat products furnishing the binder, 

 takes much more power in mixing. This is a decided 

 drawback to cold mixing by hand, but a machine driven 

 by engine or motor has all the power that is needed for 

 the work and to spare, hence where the machine is 

 used, cooking or partial cooking is superfluous. 



From what has been said of the power of mixing 

 machines, such as are used on large poultry plants, it 

 may be inferred that it makes no particular difference in 

 what order the ingredients go into the mixer, which 

 usually is large enough to mix a batch requiring a hun- 

 dred-pound bag of each ingredient. The custom of start- 

 ing with the meal probably is most widely followed, 

 much as a matter of habit. In mixing on this scale the 

 mixer, which is a large heavy machine requiring a firm 

 foundation, is usually on a cement floor on the ground 

 floor, or basement, and the feed is stored in a room over 

 it, with an opening in the floor just over the mixer so 

 that the ingredients can easily be poured directly into it. 

 Three men are usually required to operate such a 

 mixer to advantage, one in the feed room, one at the 

 mixer to put in the water and to dump the batch when 

 mixed, and a third to take away the mash as turned out 

 on the floor, either shoveling it into pails or boxes in 

 which it is to be distributed, or into piles out of the 

 way. The water is sometimes put in with a hose, some- 

 times by the pailful from barrels of water at hand. This 

 last admits of exact measurement of the water to be 

 used, but some men become so expert in judging with- 

 out measuring that they use the hose letting the water 

 run as the grains are poured in and shutting it off when 

 the appearance of the mash indicates that enough has 

 been used to give the desired consistency. 



When cut green feed is mixed with mash in making 

 it on this scale, a fourth man may be used to cut it and 

 bring to the mixer as required. The time consumed in 

 mixing a batch of mash in this way is usually about five 

 minutes. These big mixers are used principally on duck 

 plants. When the subject of feeding ducks is considered 

 in detail the reader wiH see that even with this quick 

 work quite a little time must be given every day to the 

 mixing of feed on a large duck farm. 



General Notes on Making Moist Mashes 

 To make the description of methods under differ- 

 ent conditions as connected as possible, we have in the 

 foregoing pages kept closely to the plainest mashes that 



