FEEDING CHICKENS FOR GROWTH. 93 



EFFECTS OF AGE. 



In order to compare the gains made with chickens of different 

 ages, twenty of the same hatch that were used in the previous 

 tests were taken for the later feeding. When the former tests 

 were started the birds were one hundrd and thirty days old. 

 This test was commenced when they were one hundred and 

 seventy days old. During the time that their mates had been 

 shut up for fattening, they had the libertv of a large yard with 

 an abundance of green food. They had been fed mash in the 

 morning and mixed grain and cracked corn at noon and night. 

 They had been growing bone and muscle but were not meaty. 

 Twenty of them were put in the small coops — four in each one — 

 and fed from the same meal and milk mixture that was used in 

 the previous tests. When the experiment began, October nth, 

 they weighed 100.2 pounds. They were fed twenty-one days 

 and then weighed 117.5 pounds having gained 17.5 pounds., an 

 average to each bird of .87 pounds. They consumed 144 

 pounds of the dry meal and the same relative amount of milk as 

 in the earlier test. 8.2 pounds of the mixed meal was required 

 to make a pound of live chicken. With the confined young 

 birds in the previous test but 5.94 pounds of food were required 

 to yield a similar amount. The gain per bird of .87 pounds was 

 markedly less than that of the younger birds of 1.48 pounds 

 during the first twenty-one days of their test. 



When these chickens were put in the small coops twenty-five 

 of their mates of the same hatch were put in a house nine by 

 eleven feet with a yard twenty feet square, and fed twice a day 

 on the same mixture of meal and milk. None of the birds 

 received green food. During the twenty-one days they gained 

 23.2 pounds, an average per bird of .92 pounds, while in the pre- 

 vious test with the young yarded chickens, the average gain 

 during the first twenty-one days was 1.59 pounds. 



This decreased gain in the case of the older chickens corre- 

 sponds with the recognized law in animal feeding, that the 

 younger the creature is the less the quantity of food required 

 to produce a pound of growth. For the moderate difference 

 (6 weeks) in the ages of the two lots of chickens this variation 

 in the amounts of food required to produce a pound of gain 



