37 



profitable either to hold them until they are large enough for roasters 

 or to force them forward as rapidly as possible and to dispose of 

 them as broilers.* 



The cockerels should be separated from the 



Preparation of the pullets at the age of about nine to ten weeks. 



Cockerels They will develop best and make the most 



for Market as rapid progress if they can be given a large 



Roasters. range on grass land. With such a range, their 



principal feed may be, first : cracked corn, and 

 later whole corn, but they should have a plentiful supply of beef 

 scraps, which may wisely be kept before them at all times. A few 

 weeks previous to the time when they will be marketed, it will be 

 wise to place the birds in confinement and to give them from 

 half to two-thirds the total amount of food they will consume in the 

 form of a moderately moist mash made up principally of corn 

 meal, with which, however, it may be advisable to mix wheat bran or 

 middlings in the proportion of about one-fourth. During the fatten- 

 ing period, as earlier, the beef scraps should be continued. 



The system followed in the Maine Experiment 

 Preparing for Station and described below has not been tried 

 Marketing Early, in Amherst, but is presented on the strength of 

 Maine System. their approval. t 



"When the chickens are aboUt nine or ten 

 weeks old and the cockerels weigh a pound and a quarter to a pound 

 and a half, the cockerels are put by themselves into vacated brooder 

 houses, I GO to a house. Each house has a yard in front, about 

 twelve feet square. They are fed on porridge, three times a 

 day, in V-shaped troughs, with four inch sides. The porridge is 

 made of six parts corn meal, two parts middlings, one-half part lin- 

 seed meal and two parts beef scrap. Not having milk, it is mixed 

 with tepid water. It is made thick enough so that it will drop and 

 not run, from the end of a wooden spoon. They are given all they 

 will eat in half an hourj when the troughs are removed and cleaned. 

 When the yards get dirty, they are bedded down with sand, straw or 

 hay. The birds will stand this feeding for two or three weeks with 



♦ In some localities it has been found highly profitable to caponize the cockerels and 

 to dispose of them when practically full grown as fancy roasters. This branch of poultry 

 keeping has not been tried at the Experiment Station, and it will not be discussed in this 

 bulletin. 



t Bulletin 144. 



