212 POULTRY CULTURE 



The same ration may be used for young and old poultry of the 

 same kind. Young birds do as well on feed given to old birds as 

 on rations designed especially for their size and tender age. Not 

 every ration that might be used with good results for half-grown 

 and adult stock is suitable for small birds, but a number of the 

 rations in common use are suitable, or may be made so by very 

 slight modification. The almost universal practice of babying and 

 coddling young poultry has added greatly to the trouble and cost 

 of rearing them. The feeding in particular has often been made a 

 burden by the use of methods which hardly touched at any point 

 the methods used for adult stock. It is natural for the young of 

 all kinds of poultry to eat from the first the same foods as the 

 adult birds. Their ability to feed themselves from the start is one 

 of the principal points determining their usefulness in domestica- 

 tion. It is easily demonstrated that, under favorable conditions, 

 normal, healthy young birds will thrive on rations appropriate for 

 old birds. If the stock is weak, or badly hatched or brooded, or 

 kept under unfavorable conditions, the simpler diet and methods 

 used for rugged adult stock may be insufficient, 1 because, like de- 

 bilitated adult stock, the young birds require dieting and nursing. 

 Young poultry intended to be marketed at a very early age (as squab 

 broilers and green ducks) can be brought to marketable size more 

 quickly on a special ration. This exception is in accordance with 

 the statement that special rations are needed only when the object 

 can be accomplished within a short period. 



Forcing rations. A forcing ration is any ration which furnishes 

 food in excess of what birds would take of their own inclination, if 

 abundantly supplied with food in general variety (grain, green stuff, 

 and animal food). The same ration may be a forcing ration for one 

 bird, not for another, and for the same bird a forcing ration at one 

 time, not at another. The most familiar illustrations of this point 

 are found in the relations between rations, conditions, and results 

 in feeding laying hens in extreme warm weather and in warm winter 

 weather. In extreme warm weather hens which can select their own 



1 Insufficient to keep the weakest birds alive, or to secure as good results under 

 the conditions ; but, as a rule, it will be found that when weak and debilitated 

 young poultry are given natural conditions and simple diet, those which survive 

 the hardening process develop better than they would under treatment which 

 brought a larger proportion to maturity. 



