268 POULTRY BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



mash ; for chicks on range with the hens, the grain mixture 

 may be hopper-fed. 



After Eight Weeks. Moist mash in the morning; grain 

 noon and night. An increase in the proportion of animal 

 food will hasten the development of the chicks. 



FEEDING AND MANAGING THE GROWING STOCK 



Food requirements vary according to stage of maturity. 

 The fact that most fowls have more or less free range and 

 are able to find much natural food, which helps to supply 

 any lack of nutrients in the ration fed them, in other words 

 enables them to balance their ration, lessens the importance 

 of varying the feeding according to special needs of pro- 

 duction. It is true, nevertheless, that the food require- 

 ments are very different for the chick from the shell to the 

 end of the brooding period, and from the end of the brood- 

 ing period to maturity; also for the laying hen and the 

 developing pullet and for the pullet and old fowls. The 

 small growing chick must be furnished with materials for 

 the growth of frame and feathers; the laying hen for the 

 making of eggs; the market fowl for the production of 

 meat. The non-laying moulting hen requires foods rich in 

 feather-making material. Young chicks eat more accord- 

 ing to size than mature fowls. During the growing stage 

 a large part of the food goes to produce frame or bone and 

 feathers. The young fowl, or chicken, has less flesh or fat 

 than the mature fowl. It has a smaller percentage of 

 edible meat than the mature fowl. The reason is, the food 

 is used more largely for frame building. The fowl, there- 

 fore, that is building a frame needs more frame material 

 than one whose frame is already built. The skeleton of the 

 fowl is made up largely of mineral matter lime, phos- 

 phorus, iron, etc. which are all grouped together under 

 the name of ash in the ordinary food analysis. 



