GROWING POULTRY 



285 



Fig. 314. 



Goslings three or four 

 days old 



medium-sized to large Leghorn stock (males weighing 5^ pounds 

 and upward, females 4 pounds and upward) will often weigh as 



much at ten or twelve weeks as 

 Brahma chicks from parents of 

 more than double the Leghorn 

 weights. After that, chicks of the 

 larger breeds rapidly outgrow the 

 others, growing much faster and 

 for a longer period. The ordinary 

 young chicken weighs about i|- 

 ounces (rather less than more) 

 when twenty-four hours old. At 

 three to four weeks it should 

 weigh ^ pound ; at six to eight 

 weeks, i pound ; at nine to" eleven weeks, 2 pounds ; at three 

 months a chicken of the medium-weight breeds should weigh from 

 2^ to 3 pounds, the cockerels 

 generally being the heavier birds, 

 though the largest pullets will 

 often outweigh the average cock- 

 erels. From this time birds of 

 this class should grow at the 

 rate of about i pound a month 

 (a little less for smaller speci- 

 mens, a little more for larger ones) until from six to eight months 

 old, when they should be full grown and of average weight for 



specimens of the kind, in fair 

 flesh but not fat. 



In the smaller breeds the period 

 of growth is a little shorter, but 

 not so much as would be expected, 

 considering the rapidity of early 

 growth and the size of the birds 

 at maturity. In the larger breeds 

 growth is very rapid. The best- 

 FiG. 316. Goslings nine weeks old growing specimens in all breeds 



are usually a little ahead of the others from the start. In Asiatics 

 these specimens often begin, about the ninth or tenth week, to grow 



Fig. 315. Goslings three weeks old 



