CHAPTER X. 

 FEEDING PRACTICES AND APPLIANCES. 



FEEDING PRACTICE. 



Basis of Feeding Practice. — ^There is no other class of live 

 stock that surpasses poultry in the difficulty of successful 

 feeding. With the larger animals, and particularly the 

 dairy co'w, with which the laying hen is most nearly com- 

 parable, the individual may be dealt with, and individual 

 tastes and peculiarities catered to. 



With poultry, the value of the product of a single indi- 

 vidual is not sufficient to warrant individual care and atten- 

 tion. The best that can be done is to build up feeding 

 practices that meet the requirements of the average hen. 



In order to make such practices really efficient, however, 

 it is necessary to have every hen in the flock approximate 

 fairly closely the average hen. It means little to feed the 

 average hen intelligently if the extremes on either side of the 

 average vary from the Mediterranean to the Asiatic type, 

 as is frequently the case in mongrel flocks. The first step 

 toward making a rational and efficient feeding practice 

 possible is building the foundation for a uniform flock by 

 grading or by establishing a pure-bred flock. 



The Feeding Problem. — "Skill in feeding is the art of 

 stimulating the appetite." The factors which enter into 

 the problem of inciting the fowls to a large consumption 

 of feed include (1) variety, and (2) palatability which have 

 received a full discussion elsewhere. The further factors 

 which have to do directly with feeding practice are (3) 

 regularity, (4) compelling of exercise, and (5) gauging the 

 amount to be fed. 



Regularity. — Fowls of all sorts are highly responsive to 

 regularity in feeding. Where regular feeding hours are kept 

 (376) 



