64 



HOW TO FEED POULTRY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH PROFIT 



thickened with bran, that they will eat. They may not 

 eat as much in all as they ordinarily do, but they do not 

 need quite as much, and if they eat fairly well of light 

 fe*ds and take about half the usual amount of grain in 

 one way or another, they will keep growing. 



The question of providing a plentiful supply of suc- 

 culent feed, not only for hot spells but for possible 

 periods of drouth, is one that the wise poultry keeper con- 

 siders at planting time in the spring. It rarely is safe to 

 rely entirely upon the green feed on a range to supply 

 the needs of a large stock of chicks for this class of feedrf. 

 The modification of rations for hot spells ought atso to 

 be a matter of forethought with the poultry keeper, and 

 especially so when his ration generally carries a minimum 

 of the feeds most necessary in hot 

 weather. Chickens that always have 

 plenty of milk and green feed before 

 them will balance their own rations, 

 but comparatively few chickens ex- 

 cept moderate-sized flocks on general 

 farms are so supplied. Most growing 

 chickens elsewhere get only enough 

 of green feed or of milk, or of both 

 together to keep them in fair condi- 

 tion with a heavy grain ration in tem- 

 perate weather. 



A large proportion of flocks of 

 growing chickens are in places where, 

 both in their coops or houses, and in 

 the yard or on the ground near and 

 around it, the air simply stagnates in 

 a hot spell. The circulation of air is 

 none too good in ordinary still 

 weather, but when the atmosphere 

 generally is almost motionless and 

 very warm there is no circulation in 

 these places at all. Coops and houses 



should be designed to afford the best possible ventilation 

 in extreme hot weather, even though there may not be 

 occasion to use it fully except at long intervals. With this 

 provision to make the chickens as comfortable as possible 

 when the weather is hot, the poultry keeper ought to 

 keep an eye constantly on the weather and try to antici- 

 pate weather changes which make modifications of rations 

 expedient. On the occasional hot days in spring and early 

 summer he should feed light and give as much vegetables 

 and milk as possible at the hottest parts of the day. He 

 should learn to know what the chickens relish best under 

 different conditions, and to judge at once by the appetite 

 they show whether a feed offered them is one that they 

 want and will eat freely, and to judge also how far a 

 manifest lack of inclination to eat at a regular time is due 

 to want of relish for what is offered, and how far it may 

 reasonably be attributed to lack of appetite for any feed 

 as a result of continuous hearty feeding. 



It is this habit of observation the cultivation of 

 sound judgment as to 'the attitudes of poultry toward 

 feed under different conditions and the development of 

 skill in catering to the appetites of the birds, at the same 

 time keeping them keen for their meals and ready to take 

 square meals of almost anything in the feed line that is 

 at all appropriate to conditions at the time of giving it, 

 that make the skillful, practical feeder. That part of his 

 craft cannot be learned from books,- or from the instruc- 

 tion of others, but comes only with careful, interested ob- 

 servation and experience in discovering and correcting his 

 mistakes in feeding. 



How Stock Becomes Adapted to Certain Rations and 

 Conditions 



In judging the effects of any particular feed or sys- 

 tem of feeding upon any lot of chicks, it is important to 

 take into consideration the constitutional attitude of the 

 flock or of different members of it toward that feed or 

 system of feeding. In the statements about rations given 

 out by various authorities, the importance of making 

 gradual changes in rations often is emphasized. Poultry 

 often refuse to eat much of a feed to which they have not 

 been accustomed, and often those that eat freely of a new 

 feed immediately develop some form of trouble in the di- 

 gestive tract. But individual birds differ greatly in this 

 respect, and where a stock is fed year after year in just 



THE LAST BITE BEFORE GOING TO ROOST IN THE EVENING 



the same way, the flock, by a process of natural selection, 

 eventually is made up of individuals that the method of 

 feeding suits. The others do not thrive and are gradually 

 eliminated from the flock. 



Beginners in poultry keeping usually have a great 

 deal more trouble in feeding than those with longer ex- 

 perience, not merely because of the beginner's lack of 

 experience and knowledge of feeding, but because the 

 stock is being adjusted and adapted to a new diet one that 

 perhaps suits a part of it better than that to which its 

 race has been accustomed, but is likely to be more or 

 less unsuited to another part of it. If as is usually the 

 case a beginner's stock is from a number of different 

 flocks, he is likely to get uneven results the first year. 

 The next year the results will be more uniform because 

 that part of the stock to which the ration was ill adapted 

 will have been culled out, and those to which it was at 

 first not particularly well adapted will generally have be- 

 come accustomed to it. 



A poultry keeper can adapt his stock to almost any 

 ration or system of feeding that supplies the necessary 

 nutritive elements with reasonable regularity, or he can 

 develop a stock that takes kindly only to rations similar 

 to those to which they have been accustomed and that, 

 to give best results either in growth or in egg production, 

 has to be humored a good deal in the matter of eating; 

 or he can develop a stock that will eat at any time any- 

 thing suitable for poultry that is offered it. The use of 

 rations with a few ingredients and rigid adherence to the 

 same schedule of feeding day after day tends to make 

 chickens "fussy" about what they eat. Chickens may be 



