CARE AND FOOD 



53 



So far as practical results go, leading producers of market 

 eggs and table poultry have demonstrated that a large 

 percentage of corn in the diet of the fowls is necessary and 

 desirable in producing a healthy, plump, meaty bird and 

 good, large, heavy, yellow-yolked eggs. The heavily wheat- 

 fed egg is usually pale and not pleasant to look at when 

 served for table use. Heavily wheat-fed fowls become hard 

 meated and get out of condition easily and quickly. You 

 can feed wheat too freely and so make your fowls sick. There 

 is less danger in corn, but it must be well supplemented with 

 green or vegetable food. 



It would not be fair to say, however, that the experi- 

 ments conducted thus far by experiment stations are con- 

 clusive in demonstrating the superiority of either corn or 

 wheat rations, but they have proved that rations containing 

 a high percentage of corn are more generally satisfactory to 

 date than those containing a high percentage of wheat. 



The points in favor of a heavy corn diet are: A greater 

 number of eggs, a lower food cost per egg, better and heavier 

 eggs, fowls in better condition and of higher average weight 

 at the close of the season, and an earlier and better molt for 



heavily corn-fed fowls than those receiving a high percentage 

 of wheat. 



It is a well-known fact with practical poultry feeders 

 that you can "stall" fowls, that is, get them off their feed or 

 suffering from indigestion more quickly by heavy wheat 

 feeding than you can by heavy feeding of corn. It is only 

 during the season of extremely hot weather, particularly 

 when fowls are confine'd in runs where there is very little 

 shade, that the birds suffer any apparent injury from heavy 

 corn feeding, and at such times they will usually do better 

 with a heavy feeding of oats than a heavy feeding of wheat, 

 in spite of the fact that oats contain more than twice as 

 much fat as wheat and practically the same percentage of 

 fat as field corn, the difference in the heating character of 

 field corn and oats lying apparently in the lower percentage 

 of contained carbohydrates of the latter grain. 



In Canada, in England and in Europe oats are fed 

 heavily, particularly in the ground form, for the purpose of 

 fattening fowls for market, the oat-fed product possessing 

 the light-colored or so-called "white fat" preferred by English 

 and foreign markets, instead of the yellow corn-fed fat so 

 popular in most of our own American markets. 



FEEDING CHICKENS BALANCED RATIONS 



FROM HATCHING TIME TO MATURITY— SUITABLE FOODS AND QUANTITIES FOR THE 

 DIFFERENT PERIODS OF GROWTH— FEEDING THE NEWLY HATCHED CHICK— BAL- 

 ANCING THE RATIONS— RATION FOR GROWTHY YOUNGSTERS— FORCING LATE 

 HATCHED CHICKS FOR SHOW— ANALYSIS OF FOOD IN COMMON USE BY POULTRYMEN 



\ 



ROBERT H. ESSEX 



CHICKENS need a far narrower ration than do ma- 

 tured fowls — a ration containing considerable ani- 

 mal food, and this is one of the points I wish to im- 

 press upon readers. Experience has caused me to realize 

 its importance. In the early days of Buff Plymouth Rocks, 

 their combs were too large, and knowing that meat, even in 

 small quantities, tended to increase the size of the combs, 

 I avoided its use as much as possible. By this course the 

 size of the combs was governed to a certain extent, but what 

 a difference was visible in the growth of the young birds 

 which were supplied with animal food and those which were 

 deprived of it. We. all like to experiment, and it took me 

 a few years to find out that not only do chicks need animal 

 food, but they need it in liberal quantities. It has long 

 been demonstrated that some meat is necessary, but in the 

 case of young chicks it is not generally fed in sufficient 

 quantities. 



Feeding the Newly Hatched Chicks 



Study nature. Wild birds in feeding their young have 

 preferences, even in the selection of vegetable foods.. Some 

 prefer weed seeds, others the young buds of trees; many are 

 partial to fruit and other vegetables, but a very large ma- 

 jority gather in the flies, bugs, beetles and worms that ven- 

 ture within their range, and upon these 

 the young warblers thrive, grow fat and 

 feathers, and are in a very short time 

 in show condition. Have you ever noticed 

 the quills on the nestlings? How fast 

 they grow. Seldom do we see a chick 

 feather so fast. The food that produces 

 feather rapidly is the best food for chick- 

 ens, and they should be well suppKed 

 with it, at least until they are through their 

 first molt. Such food will be chiefly animal 

 food and will compose a very narrow ration. Homemade drinking 



It is well known that the yolk of the egg is absorbed 

 by the chick before and after hatching. Thai; is nature's 

 food and must be good. Is it a wide or narrow ration? It 

 is extremely narrow. One part protein to three parts fat is 

 considered very narrow, but this first food of a chicken is 

 even more so. It is composed of one part protein to about 

 two parts fat (15.7:33.3), and please remember it is about 

 one-half water — one-half water. Milk is another natural 

 food for the young, and just as good for chickens as for 

 babes. How is it proportioned — 3.3 protein to 4 fat. Add 

 the starchy contents, and approximately it reaches the pro- 

 portion of 1:2. Quite narrow, is it not? Yet the young live 

 and thrive upon it. 



Nature teaches us, therefore, that the food of young 

 chickens should contain about one part protein to two parts 

 carbohydrates and fat. This is from two to three parts 

 narrower than is generally advocated, but it has given bet- 

 ter results than any other I have tried and my experiments 

 have been not a few. Then, too, as we have shown nature 

 upholds it. 



Do not feed hard boiled eggs in large quantities. Such 

 food may be balanced correctly, but it is indigestible for 

 the very young chicks, and remember that of all foods only 

 the portion digested provides nutriment. If you must feed 

 it, let it be well broken. Let the par- 

 ticles be thoroughly separated by the use 

 of stale bread crumbs, then nearly the 

 whole of it will be digested. It is far 

 better, however, to use uncooked eggs. 

 Mix them with bread crumbs, shorts, 

 cornmeal or all of these, so that the food 

 shall not be sticky or pasty. Use some 

 bran if you choose, but not too much, 

 and if you are tempted to add a little 

 clear sand, don't be timid about it. The 

 fountain for little chicks shorts or middlings may be found too 



