POULTRY FOODS 17 



Canary Seed. The best known balanced ration for 

 cage birds is canary seed; young chicks also enjoy a 

 little of this seed, on which they will thrive when they 

 do not do well on other grains. All waste canary seed 

 should be fed to chicks, but this feed is too costly to 

 use except in an emergency or to save the waste from 

 cage birds. 



Rape Seed. German rape seed, or bird-seed rape, is 

 a better food than millet seed for young chicks. It is 

 a fattening food, rich in protein, and dark or chestnut 

 brown in color. Rape-seed grains are smaller than 

 millet seeds. For ailing or weakly chicks, rape seed 

 is boiled for 5 min., turned into, a fine, funnel-shaped 

 sieve, and left to drain over night. A small quantity 

 of this food is given in the morning and evening. Only 

 the true German rape seed is fit for this use. 



VEGETABLES 



Mangels. Of all the vegetables and roots that are 

 fed to poultry as substitutes for green foods, mangels 

 are the best; they are fine-flavored, sweet, and nutri- 

 tious, and impart these qualities to the meat and eggs 

 of the fowls. No objectionable flavors are introduced 

 into either the flesh or the eggs as a result of feeding 

 mangels liberally. Mangels are rank growers, keep 

 well throughout the winter if protected from frost, are 

 easily fed, and are freely eaten by fowls. 



Beets. There are many kinds of beets, all of which 

 are eaten freely by poultry. If too many raw beets 

 are fed, however, the bowels of the fowls may become 

 so loose that diarrhea will result, especially if the 

 use of beets is long continued. Raw beets should be 

 sparingly fed, but if they are cooked they make a 

 valuable addition to a ration. 



Turnips. As a poultry food, turnips are not so 

 desirable as beets. If turnips are fed raw, they taint 

 the flavor of the eggs and do not improve the meat 



