GENERAL FACTORS IN POULTRY 'FEEDING 



carbonaceous elements other than fat, except in very 

 small quantities in the liver. This absence of the starches 

 and sugars from the dead body does not mean that they 

 are not highly essential to the nourishment of the living 

 body. All that it signifies is that they are not stored in 

 the body in the form in which they are taken into it. 

 That poultry need such feeds, and in large quantities, is 

 plain, for they consume them, and generally prefer what 

 the feeder considers a too-carbonaceous ration to a 

 more nitrogenous one. The reason for this is apparent 

 when we consider that what an animal eats not only 

 builds up and keeps in repair its body, and provides ma- 

 terial for a product, such as milk or eggs, but must first 

 keep up the heat of the body and provide the energy re- 

 quired for every motion and function. 



day's rations meet the needs of the birds. But poultry 

 of all kinds are much like human beings in their tastes and 

 in their likes and dislikes for particular things. 



The common feed elements they require can be pro- 

 vided in many different combinations. Birds accustomed 

 to a particular combination are often so reluctant to take 

 another that they will eat of it only enough to maintain 

 them, but not enough to give theii best growth or pro- 

 duction. We cannot say that this is always purely taste 

 or whim something that they should be forced to over- 

 come, and will overcome if they can get nothing else. 

 Birds brought up on a certain diet have their digest've 

 systems especially adapted to it, perhaps to such an extent 

 that they are poorly adapted to some other diet which may 

 be given them. To force them to a diet they apparently do 



LOW-LYING PASTURE LANDS AND THEIR PONDS AND BROOKS ARE IDEAL FOR DUCKS AND GEESE. 



Scene on Brook View Farm, West Newbury, Mass. 



In the requirements for the growth and maintenance 

 of their bodies, poultry are like animals, but in the re- 

 quirements for reproduction another element comes in. 

 For the shells of their eggs they need much more lime 

 than is contained in any vegetable or flesh feed. This they 

 evidently obtain in a state of nature by eating small bits 

 of stone, shell, etc., that will supply it. In domestication, 

 with egg production extended through much longer sea- 

 sons, and with birds kept so long on the same areas that 

 all material of this kind at or near the surface has been 

 consumed, it becomes necessary to supply shell-making 

 material libe'rally. 



Art and Craft in Poultry Feeding 



For reasons which will appear as the subject is de- 

 veloped in succeeding chapters, the feeding of poultry 

 could not be reduced to an accurate science, even if all 

 poultry of the same kind had precisely the same taste 

 and capacity for digesting and assimilating feed. It 

 would still be necessary for the feeder to rely upon his 

 judgment in many circumstances, and to be governed 

 largely by temperature in his endeavors to make each 



not relish is not good policy, unless it is known to be a 

 good ration, and unless also it is a ration which the poul- 

 try keeper intends to feed regularly. 



From what was said earlier in this chapter the reader 

 will rightly infer that poultry can be brought to adapt 

 themselves to almost any diet or system of feeding by 

 which they obtain enough to eat. But this is true of poul- 

 try, or of a kind of poultry, only in a general way. Individ- 

 ual birds vary both in the extent of their adaptability, and 

 in the direction of adaptability; and the adaptation of a 

 flock to a diet or a system of feeding unsuited to some of 

 them is really brought about by the extermination of the 

 individuals not adapted to it. They do not grow as oth- 

 ers do. They are more susceptible to disease. So by a 

 process of natural selection they disappear entirely within 

 a few years. 



Whether it is policy for a poultry keeper thus to 

 adapt his flock to a particular system, depends upon his 

 object in poultry keeping and the real merit of the sys- 

 tem. In general, the good feeder works by the opposite 

 rule, studying by every means in his power to provide the 

 rations that are most palatable to the birds and that give 

 the finest development. 



