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HOW TO FEED POULTRY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH PROFIT 



may be so long, and the amount of feed consumed in it 

 so great, that the operation is unprofitable. If the poul- 

 try keeper watches the condition of the stock as he should, 

 none of the old birds need ever get so low in flesh that 

 they cannot be made as fat as necessary for market with 

 two weeks' feeding of a ration composed largely of corn. 

 Any of the rations for fattening roasters will quickly make 

 hens and cocks that are capable of taking on fat at a 

 profit, as fat as the consumer wants them. The exces- 

 sively fat hens that are often seen in the markets, which 

 careful buyers avoid because the most of their fat can 

 be utilized only in cooking operations for which cheaper 

 fats will serve, are mostly nonlayers that have been in 

 this condition for months. 



Some of the special fattening methods which will 

 shortly be described frequently fatten old fowls quicker 

 and better than ordinary methods but, on the other hand, 

 they so often unfavorably affect individuals, and some- 

 times the entire lot on which they are used, that the re- 

 turns, on the whole, are no greater than if no effort had 

 been made to finish stock before marketing. The poul- 

 try keeper will almost always find that his best policy 

 is to feed for growth, or for eggs, and always with a 

 view to keeping stock in good condition, and then when 

 the time comes to sell a bird for market, whether as 

 broiler, fryer, roaster, or fowl, he can put it in as good 

 condition as the market requires with from one to three 

 weeks' feeding for that purpose in ordinary coops and 

 yards. 



Crate Fattening 



Crate fattening is the feeding of chickens confined in 

 crates or coops in which they have little more than 

 standing room, supplying mashes of the consistency of 

 thin mush or gruel, fed to- them in troughs outside the 

 coops, from which they eat by reaching through the slats 

 which form the front of the coop or crate. Some birds 

 take readily to this diet and method and put on fat and 

 increase more in growth during the period thay can stand 

 it than when fed in the ordinary way and given more 

 freedom. Some it does not suit at all, and the matter of 

 first importance where crate fattening is practiced is to 

 judge at the beginning of feeding what birds can be 

 profitably fed in this way and what cannot, and not use 

 the method on birds with which : t does not agree. This 

 is something that of course can only be learned by ex- 

 perience, and the novice must expect to make some 

 mistakes. 



Crate fattening, or any other special process of fin- 

 ishing poultry for the table, is of some interest to every- 

 one who grows any considerable amount of poultry. It 

 is worth while to know something of these methods even 

 if the poultry keeper has no occasion to use them reg- 

 ularly. There are times when ordinary methods are not 

 giving results as quickly as desired. Thus when it is 

 important to put chickens in good shape for killing in 

 hot weather, and they either have a poor appetite for the 

 ordinary hearty ration, or it does not seem to agree with 

 them, the soft, semiliquid feed mixed with milk, which is 

 preferred in crate fattening, can often be used for as 

 many feeds a day as seems advisable. This feed, in fact, 

 is much like the mashes mixed with milk which are rec- 

 ommended for chickens in hot weather, except that it is 

 thinner, and instead of using bran to make the mash light, 

 corn meal, oatmeal, or other substantial feed is used. 



Consideration of the points involved shows quite, 

 clearly that to add to ordinary fattening processes what 

 may be of particular value in special fattening methods 

 does not necessarily call for the appliance and the 



:i 



method used in crate fattening. The essential things in 

 fattening are to get the bird to eat as much as possible 

 of highly nourishing feed that agrees with it; to keep it 

 contented, comfortable and quiet, that all the nutriment 

 possible may go to fat, or to flesh and fat; and either 

 to modify the ration to meet requirements when it seems 

 to be having slightly unfavorable effects, or when these 

 are more seiious, to dispose of the bird before it loses 

 any of what has been gained. The crate is simply a con- 

 venience, adapted especially to the use of fatteners who 

 do not grow their poultry, or to times when a poultry 

 grower finds it more convenient to feed a few birds this 

 way than to give them space that he needs or can use to 

 advantage for other poultry. 



It makes little, if any, difference whether the birds 

 being fattened eat the grains given them in the form of 

 an ordinary mash, and drink a certain amount of milk 

 with it, or take the same groud feeds mixed in the milk. 

 After feeding a soft, semi-liquid mash for a time on 

 cannot well go back to hard grains without more di 

 turbing effects on digestion than the soft feeds are cau 

 ing, but while the birds are accustomed to a considerable 

 part of hard grain in their diet the increase of soft feeds 

 and milk mean greater efficiency in the use of the hard 

 grain consumed. Up to the point when indigestion be- 

 gins, the birds will eat more of a mixed hard and soft 

 diet than of either alone; after that they will be likely 

 eat more and benefit more on all soft feeds. 



Rations for Crate Fattening 



Bulletin No. 21 of the United States Department 

 Agriculture gives detailed reports of the fattening 

 nearly 900,000 chickens at commercial poultry fattening 

 stations where buyers of poultry were equipped to keep 

 and feed large numbers of poultry as long as profitable 

 gains could be made. The following were the rations 

 which gave the best results in this work. For conveni- 

 ence in reference, numbers are given following those in 

 Chapter VII. 



Ration No. 42: 



I Corn meal 3 parts, low grade flour 2 parts, shorts 



1 part. 



II Corn meal 3 parts, low grade flour 2 parts. 

 Ill Corn meal 5 parts, low grade flour 3 parts, shorts 1 



part, 5 per cent tallow. 



IV Corn meal 3 parts, oat flour 2 parts. 

 V Corn meal 4 parts, low grade flour 2 parts, shorts 

 1 part. 



These mixtures were all fed in the same way, mixed 

 to the desired consistency with condensed buttermilk, 

 fresh buttermilk, or water, as available. When the sup- 

 ply was sufficient, 10 gallons or more of condensed but- 

 termilk, or the same quantity of semisolid buttermilk 

 suitably diluted, was fed with 100 pounds of grain. It 

 was found that when an expert and careful feeder at- 

 tended the chickens and saw that they had all they would 

 eat twice a day, the gains were the same as when the 

 birds were fed three times a day, while the consumption 

 of feed was a little less. With indifferent attention to 

 feeding the results were more satisfactory when three 

 feeds a day were given. In warm weather, rations with 

 the lowest proportion of corn meal and flour, and with 

 large amounts of buttermilk, gave best results. At this 

 time the period required to fatten was usually about 

 fourteen days. In the cooler weather of fall, when heavier 

 rations could be used and the birds' appetites were bet- 

 ter, the usual length of the period of feeding was six or 

 seven days. 



In commercial fattening the feeder has many diffi- 

 culties to contend with that the grower need not have. 



