POULTRY FEEDS AND FEEDING 



SHRINKAGE IN DRESSING POULTRY 



There is considerable shrinkage in dressing poultry 

 which must be considered in comparing the profits of 

 live and dressed fowls. The shrinkage in hens, where 

 the birds are merely killed and picked is about 13 per 

 cent and the same shrinkage is found in chickens ; broilers 

 averaging 14.3 per cent and roasters 14.7 per cent. If 

 the hens or chickens are drawn as well as killed and 

 picked, removing only the body contents the shrinkage 

 will be about 21 per cent, increasing to 28 per cent if the 

 head and feet are removed. Dressed poultry, except for 

 home sale, is sold undrawn as it keeps better undrawn 

 than after it has been drawn. Dressed poultry is always 

 put into cold storage undrawn on account of its better 

 keeping qualities in that condition. Experiments on the 

 keeping qualities of dressed and undrawn poultry con- 

 ducted by the U. S. Department of Agriculture gave re- 

 sults considerably in favor of the common practice of 

 putting dressed poultry into storage without drawing it. 



Many poultrymen are able to sell in the summer and 

 early fall the best of their surplus yearling and two- 

 year-old hens to other poultry keepers who desire these 

 hens for breeding stock. Hens sold in this way bring a 

 considerably higher price than they would be sold at as 

 live or dressed fowls on the market. Pullets will give a 

 greater return over feed cost than yearling or older hens, 

 therefore the poultryman culls out the number of hens 

 needed to make room for his pullets. 



In experiments conducted by the U. S. Department of 



