14 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 10,02. 



TWENTY-FIVE CHICKENS (MATES TO THOSE IN THE TABLE ABOVE) CON 

 FINED IN SMALL HOUSE AND FED 21 DAYS ON THE SAME FOOD MIX- 

 TURE AND MILK AS THOSE IN THE TABLE REFERRED TO. 



Live Weights. 



Increase in Weights. 



October 11. 



November 1. 



Lot. 



Each. 









.932 pounds. 







Pounds dry meal mixture used, 177. 



Pounds skim milk used, 360. 



Pounds mixture required to produce a pound of gain, 7.63. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



Small coops vs. houses and yards — Including the test reported 

 in Bulletin No. 64, this Station has made six group trials of close 

 confinement against partial liberty, in fattening chickens. These 

 have comprised the use of 35 separate coops and 6 houses. 

 Three hundred and twenty-one chickens of different ages have 

 been fed in these 41 lots, in periods of 21, 28, or 35 days each, 

 and the occupants of all coops have had weekly weighings. 



In 1 1 of the coops containing 4 birds each, the gains have been 

 greater than in the houses and yards containing from 20 to 68 

 birds, with which they were matched. In the 24 other coops, 

 the gains were less than in the houses and yards with which they 

 were similarly matched. In five of the six groups, the gains 

 have been greater in the houses and yards, and in one of the six 

 groups the gain has been greater in the coops. 



These results show that close cooping is not necessary in order 

 to secure the greatest gains in chicken fattening, and that the 

 chicken made greater gains when given a little liberty than when 

 kept in close confinement. 



The labor involved in caring for birds in small numbers in 

 coops, is greater than in caring for an equal number in a house 

 and yard. The results are so pronounced that we regard them 

 as conclusive. 



Relation of age to fattening — The tables show plainly that 

 with poultry the periods of cheap and rapid gains in weight come 

 early in life. The greatest gains were made in one of the tests 

 reported in Bulletin No. 64, where in a feeding period of 35 days, 

 40 chickens confined in coops gained an average of 2.23 pounds 

 each, and 20 others of like age and condition fed in comparison 



