1909.] 



Milk Chickens. 



283 



MILK CHICKENS. 

 Edward Brown, F.L.S. 



Lecturer on Aviculture, University College, Reading. 



There are three periods in a chicken's life when, without 

 any special feeding, its flesh is most abundant and palatable. 

 The exact age. at which these stages are reached varies con- 

 siderably, in accordance with the breed and the method of 

 feeding adopted. Certain breeds are better at one time than 

 another, or are better at an earlier age than other breeds. 

 These three stages are (1) when from five to nine weeks old; 

 (2) from eleven to sixteen weeks old; and (3) when seven to 

 nine months old. This does not mean that all chickens 

 can be killed at five weeks, but that it can be done in the case 

 of specimens of the more precocious breeds, although the 

 same stage of development in another breed may not be 

 reached until it is a month older, when probably it would be 

 larger in size. 



It is with birds in the first of these stages that we are now 

 dealing. Of these, however, there are several kinds. The 

 milk chickens of Britain, of which the number produced is 

 very small, are larger than some of the poulets de lait of 

 Belgium, though of late the tendency in that country has 

 been to produce bigger birds, more like the petits poussins 

 of France. Recently the main source of supply for the 

 English markets has been Hamburg, the birds being drawn 

 from a wide district around that city, where the rearing is 

 carried out extensively by small holders and others.* These 

 smaller Hamburg and Belgian birds weigh 6 to 8 oz., whereas 

 the larger Belgian, English, and French run from 8 to 12 oz. 

 Across the Atlantic, what are called squab-broilers are still 

 larger, weighing 12 to 16 oz. each. These differences in 

 weight are to some extent due to the class of fowl used, 

 but also to the way in which the birds are fed. When, the 

 entire lot of chicks hatched are fattened as milk chickens, 

 they may be killed earlier than where cockerels alone are 

 selected, for in the latter case time must be given for the 

 sex-characters to appear, more especially the comb. 



* Some information as to the production of milk chickens in Germany was given 

 in this Journal in April, 1909, p. 24. 



X 2 



