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, 1.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 thejr 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 crop. Neither can they swallow feed into a storage stomach 
and later regurgitate and masticate it at leisure (“chew the 
eud”). 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 
cesophagus serving the purpose of a storage stomach. It is 
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