1920.] 



few hours before each early morning meal, the crops of the birds 

 were never empty, from the first meal given 24 hours after 

 hatching until the last meal early in the day on which they were 

 sold. From the second week these birds acquired the habit of 

 " over eating." They were, therefore, never very active, and 

 although they had free range were living under what was prac- 

 tically fattening pen conditions. 



The following foods were used : — biscuit meal (chicken grade) 

 at fid. per lb. ; flake oatmeal at 6fd. per lb. ; dry chick feed (con- 

 sisting of broken maize, wheat, peas and rice, hemp seed, dari, 

 &c.) at 7 11). for 2s. fid. : granulated meat at 6d. per lb. : wheat 

 at 24s. per cwt. (damaged^ : maize at 30 lb. for 6s. 6d. All these 

 were bought in small quantities, the highest prices being paid. 



During the first week the average cost of feeding was very 

 slightly under Id. per bird per week. By the fourth week it had 

 risen to nearly 2Jd. per bird, and kept roughly to this figure 

 until the seventh week, when it mounted to slightly over 3d. per 

 bird. This average remained fairly constant to the end of the 

 experiment, except that on the tenth week the reintrcduction of 

 "biscuit meal and granulated meat into the diet raised the average 

 cost to nearly 4.U1. 



One of the problems each week was to ascertain the cost of 

 producing 1 lb. live weight of chicken during the week. At the end 

 of the first week, after reckoning the cost of the eggs for hatching, 

 the food of the mother hen and chicks, the cost of producing 1 lb. 

 live weight was 3s. lOd. By the end of the second week it had 

 fallen to 2s. lljd. : the third week to 2s. 3Jd. ; and the fourth 

 to Is. lid. By the sixth week the cost had dropped to Is. od. 

 It then fell by slight stages each week until, by the date of sale, 

 the cost of producing 1 lb. live weight was Is. Ofd. The birds 

 when sold realised 2s. 8Jd. per lb. live weight. 



For each of the first four weeks the birds put on an increase 

 of 50 to 00 per cent, on their previous week's weight. In the 

 fifth and sixth week this percentage of increase dropped to 

 40 per cent. In the seventh week the increase was 27 per cent. ; 

 on the tenth it had fallen to 23 per cent. During the first week 

 tie.' cost of putting on 1 lb. live weight was at the rate of Is. 9d. ; 

 and after ten weeks the figure was 9Jd., but during this period 

 feeding was more costly. Tn the ninth week, when only wheat 

 and maize were fed. the cost of putting on 1 lb. live weight was 

 as low as 6Jd, Tt follows that the "finishing" is a much 

 cheaper process than the production of a 2 lb. bird. 



The feeding and the results attained in the eighth and ninth 



It 2 



