72 FEEDING OF FOWLS 



This method of feeding should be continued until 

 the molt is complete, after which a laying ration is 

 fed to the hens. 



Attempts to force molting are occasionally successful, 

 but the advantages derived from this practice do not 

 usually pay for the trouble caused. To force molting, 

 fowls are confined in a small house for about 3 wk., 

 are fed very sparingly, but all the fresh water they will 

 drink is given to them. The quantity of food given 

 should be gradually reduced until at the end of the 

 first week they are receiving only about one-third of the 

 usual food supply. During the second and third weeks 

 not more than 1 oz. of grain, or one-fourth of a ration, 

 should be fed per day to each fowl. This partial starva- 

 tion will reduce flesh and fat and dry the oil from the 

 feathers, causing them to drop very readily. At the 

 end of the third week the fowls should be liberated 

 and the food supply gradually increased. By the end 

 of the fourth week they should receive full rations. 



FEEDING OF POULTRY FOR MARKET 



Fowls intended for market are commonly fattened, 

 or finished, according to one of three systems: Range 

 fattening, yard fattening, and crate fattening. As 

 employed on many farms, these systems may be more 

 accurately termed stages of the fattening process, for 

 the reason that often no particular one of the systems 

 is rigidly adhered to on any one farm. For instance, 

 some fowls are simply range-fattened before killing; 

 in other cases the fattening process is carried further 

 and the fowls are more completely fattened by a more 

 or less protracted period of feeding in yards or in 

 crates. The degree of success attained in fattening 

 depends on two things, namely, the quantity of fat- 

 tening food that is fed to the fowls and the amount 

 of exercise they are allowed to take. 



Range fattening consists simply in giving the fowls 

 a quantity of fattening food for a few weeks to 



