CHAPTER XXVII 

 FEEDING POULTRY 



By J. E. DOUGHERTY, 

 Associate Professor of Poultry Husbandry, University of California. 



In order to feed poultry intelligently, we must try to analyze 

 and fully understand the combination of causes whose effect will 

 be an abundance of eggs, rapid growth or quick fattening. It is 

 the common practice of some farmers to feed laying hens nothing 

 but shelled corn and then they wonder why they do not get good 

 results. Practically any hen will lay some eggs in the spring, which 

 is the natural laying period. It is the hen that will lay well not 

 only in the spring but throughout the year that returns a net profit 

 to her owner; and it is only by correct feeding, i.e., the feeding of 

 the most suitable feeds in the best proportions to produce eggs, or 

 increase in body weight, that one can expect to obtain the most 

 profitable results from poultry feeding. 



Productive feeding requires that one be familiar with (1) the 

 action of the fowl's digestive system in utilizing the feed eaten, 



(2) the maintenance and productive needs of fowls of different 

 ages and fed for different purposes, such as eggs, market, growth, 



(3) the nutrient qualities of the feeds fed and their fitness for use 

 in any particular ration. 



The Digestive System. — Poultry have no teeth with which 

 to grind or tear feed before letting it pass from the mouth into 

 the crpp. Neither can they swallow feed into a storage stomach 

 and later regurgitate and masticate it at leisure ("chew the 

 cud"). Poultry of all kinds must swallow what they eat just 

 as they find it and, for this reason, can only use such grains, 

 pieces of bone, stone, etc., as can be swallowed. Green herbage, 

 vegetables, meat and other soft and easily torn materials can be 

 broken apart into sufficiently small pieces with the strong muscular 

 jaws and horny beak. Young chicks cannot eat as coarse materials 

 as older fowls, so that grains, etc., for chick rations must be 

 ground or cracked more finely than those intended for older 

 fowls. 



After being picked up, the feed passes directly from the mouth 

 into the crop, which is a good-sized, bag-like enlargement of the 

 oesophagus serving the purpose of a storage stomach. It is 

 336 



