BREEDING 



15 



Feeding the Breeding Birds 



There are almost as many good methods of feeding 

 breeding stock as there are men who make poultry keeping a 

 business. The most important thing about feeding, in spite 

 of what the chemists and "scientific feeding experts" tell us, 

 is to supply a variety of wholesome food; i. e., some grains 

 or grain mixtures, green food and vegetables, the fresher the 

 better, and some good pure meat food. In addition to these, 

 grit, oyster shell, charcoal and pure water should be supplied. 



Of grains, corn, wheat, oats and barley are the staples, 

 and we consider them all essentials. Personally we prefer to 

 feed only dry grain mixtures of whole and cracked grains 

 chiefly because it is more Convenient for us to do so and the 

 results are entirely satisfactory. We buy or make up a 

 scratching grain mixture and feed it from a hopper. One 

 of the best mixtures we have used is a combination of two- 

 thirds cracked yellow corn (clean and free from mould or 

 must) and one-third either hard red or amber wheat for 

 winter feeding. In summer the corn is reduced to about 

 forty or fifty per cent and the wheat increased. When good 

 heavy clipped white oats can be had cheap enough they are 

 often substituted for wheat and sometimes barley and oats 

 are used. The parts are by measure, not weight. Scratch 

 ^rain mixtures used when they can be had cheaply and con- 

 veniently are usually about the following composition: 

 Whole corn, 20 lbs; cracked corn (yellow), 40 lbs; wheat, 

 120 lbs; oats and barley (one or both mixed) 12 lbs; kafEr 

 -corn, 5 lbs; sunflower seed, 3 lbs. This hard, dry grain is 

 kept always on hand in the food hopper where the birds can 

 -eat it at will. In bad weather a little is sometimes scattered 

 in the litter to encourage the birds that scratch. In another 

 hopper or compartment there is always a good supply of 

 pure, sweet, wholesome beef scrap. Grit, shell and charcoal 

 they always have before them and plenty of water. 



Green food and vegetables are supplied daily if possible, 

 in a wire pocket tacked on the side of the pen. Give as much 

 as experience teaches that the birds will clean up in one day. 

 We use whatever is available, refuse cabbage, cut green rye, 

 •clover, split turnips and beets, apple and potato parings, 

 ■etc. Table scraps fed at noon help out the ration of small 

 flocks. 



For those who like a moist mash the following ration is 

 -a good one: Equal parts by measure of wheat bran, wheat 

 middlings, corn meal, yellow gluten meal and ground oats 

 or oat feed with ten per cent cut clover (scalded and salted 

 first) and six per cent beef scrap (scalded). Mix all ground 

 grain stuff dry, then add to water containing scalded clover 

 .and^scrap and mix into crumbly mash. Feed all the birds 

 will clean up in twenty minutes at noon or an hour before 

 roosting time as convenient five days a week. Give some 



hard whole grain to finish off on. if mash is fed at night. For 

 morning feeding give a handful of scratch grain per bird in 

 litter. Night feed of hard grain should be given in trough 

 or feed box where the birds can quickly get all that they 

 want. On days when no mash is fed give cut green bone at 

 noon, all that the flock will clean up quickly in about fifteen 

 minutes. Cooked or fine cut raw vegetables may be used in 

 the mash, or feed vegetable and green food as advised in 

 dry ration. 



We make no claims that these rations are better than a 

 thousand or more others that are in general use today. They 

 have given us good results and we have had good fertility 

 and good vitality. The other essentials, not forgetting to 

 breed only from healthy, vigorous stock, are all quite as im- 

 portant as the method of feeding. You cannot get good 

 results and half starve your birds at the same time. The 

 most important part of feeding fowls is to supply plenty of 

 wholesome food and a sufficient variety to keep the appe- 

 tite from failing. 



Pure water for drinking purposes we named as the fifth 

 essential in maintaining health and vigor. Too many other- 

 wise careful poultrymen neglect this _ important item of 

 poultry necessities. The fowl's body and her eggs are made 

 up very largely of water, approximately 75 per cent, and we 

 cannot be too careful to see that the supply is pure. Let the 

 drinking water be fresh and clean and from a source that you 

 would not hesitate to drink from yourself. Foul drinking 

 water will cause disease; and barnyard seepage, sewage, 

 sink-drain waste and the wash of hog pens, poultry yards 

 and other filth will contaminate and produce foul water, 

 rendering it a dangerous and virulent poison. Get clean 

 pure water for your birds and keep it clean if you want to 

 keep them healthy and have them yield you the maximum 

 number of good strong-germed eggs for hatching. There is 

 only one safe substitute for water for stock birds and that is 

 new, clean, recently fallen snow and only in the open country, 

 remote from railroads, trolley lines and well travelled high- 

 ways. Town and city lot fanciers cannot safely use snow as 

 a substitute for drinking water for their flocks. 



If the reader will study and apply the information given 

 in this article he can secure a good percentage of fertility 

 from his flock and count on good strong germed eggs for 

 hatching, but if his birds are even in a small degree lacking 

 in vitality it may take three or more seasons of careful work 

 to get the best results. It will often take three to five gene- 

 rations of careful breeding to repair faults and deficient 

 vitality induced by one season of carelessness. It is always 

 easier to make a mistake than to remedy the results of an 

 error. The only real and sure way to prevent trouble is to 

 avoid it. 



A FINE BROOD 

 Rare Oriental Bantam Chicks bred from birds recently brought from Nagasaki, Japan. These little oriental game Bantams are as plump as 

 quail and not unlike wild game in their habits. These particular chicks were hatched under perfectly natural conditions by the mother bird stealing 

 her nest under a cedar tree. — F. L. Sewell. 



