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, i.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 their 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 cud”). 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 @sophagus serving the purpose of a storage stomach. It is

similar in this respect to the rumen or paunch of a cow. In the crop, the feed is mixed with digestive juices which soften and prepare it for the second stomach (proventriculus). This latter

the partially digested feed is passed on to the gizzard, an extremely powerful grinding organ having a tough and convoluted lining, where it is ground to a very fine state by means of the abrasive action of the stones or grit which the fowl swallows. Pieces of glass have been taken from the gizzard of a chicken that were rounded on the edges and worn as smooth as though ground and polished by hand, and pieces of iron have been removed that had been bent double. Such instances give an idea of the toughness of the gizzard lining and the enormous muscular power of this natural grist mill.

The feed passes from the gizzard into the intestines, where the process of digestion is completed; the digested nutrients are absorbed by the walls and pass into the blood, which distributes them to all parts of the body. The indigestible parts of the feed eaten, together with waste matter which is thrown off by the body and dumped into the lower intestine, are carried on into the cloaca and voided in the form of manure. In poultry the urea and all fecal matter are voided together, the whitish part of the normal droppings representing the urea.

Feed Components.—The body of a fowl is composed of approximately 44 per cent dry matter and 56 per cent water. The dry matter consists of 21.6 per cent protein, 17 per cent fat and 3.8

a

per cent ash.

Protein is needed to furnish materials with which to build new body tissue, as muscles and feathers, and to replace the old, wornout body tissue and feathers. The albumen of the egg also consists of proteid material so that the laying hen draws quite heavily on the protein in her feed to meet this need.

Carbohydrates furnish muscular energy and heat to keep up the body temperature. The carbohydrate nutrients left after meeting the needs of the fowl's body for heat and muscular energy are stored in the form of body fat or used to make up the yolk of the egg, which is largely fatty material.

Fat performs exactly the same function as do the carbohydrates. It is, however, two and one quarter times more 'concentrated and efficient.

Ash, including various salts and mineral materials, is essential to a proper functioning of every part of the fowl's body. Among other things it helps build strong bones and rich blood; strengthens the nails and feather quills, and furnishes the material for the shell

Crude Fiber.—This is the coarse, woody material in the feed; the seed coats of the different grains, the stems of clover, alfalfa, and hay and straw are high in fiber. It is only slightly digestible and has practically no nutritive value for poultry, but it is a very essential part of a ration because it adds bulk and performs the mechanical function of keeping the feed in the digestive organs loose and spongy so that the digestive fluids can easily penetrate to and act on every part. In the absence of such coarse, fibrous material, the sticky and more concentrated feeds would form a hard, mucilaginous mass in the digestive organs which the digestive juices would not readily penetrate. Digestion would be checked, unhealthy fermentation of the partially digested materials arise and indigestion follow. Fine-cut alfalfa and bran added to a mixture of flour and corn meal make a porous, crumbly, wet mash. Without the alfalfa and bran, the flour and corn meal would form a sticky, lumpy and unpalatable mass when mixed and moistened. A moderate amount of bulky material is always essential to a well-balanced, nourishing ration, but too much of such material is detrimental because it compels the fowl to pass through its body large amounts of useless, indigestible materials.

Feeding standards have not been worked out for poultry to the extent which they have for other kinds of farm livestock. With the larger livestock, standard amounts of feed eaten per day for animals of different ages and used for different purposes have been quite accurately determined but with poultry this has yet to be done. To date the general statement to “feed all the fowls will eat up clean” and nutritive ratios for different purposes represent the extent of our standards for poultry. Undoubtedly curves of feed consumption for different types of poultry, for poultry of different ages, and for poultry used for meat or egg production will eventually be worked out and such curves will prove of inestimable value in more definitely guiding the inexperienced feeder than the above general statement can and in throwing greater light on production and maintenance costs.

The foregoing applies to ducks, turkeys, etc., as well as chickens. Feeding standards are not in any way iron-bound, but they are valuable guides to the feeder in aiding him to mix rations which many years of careful feeding investigations, borne out by practical experience, have found to be most suitable to the needs of poultry.

Growth. The growing chick requires quite a large amount of protein in its feed to build the new bone, muscle and feathers which develop as growth goes on.

Laying. The laying hen, on the other hand, has stopped growing, and less protein in the ration is needed to repair the con

FIG. 98.-Farm poultry colony house, 8x10 feet, capacity 25 to 30 birds.

stantly breaking-down body tissue, but for the production of eggs proteid material is required in considerable amounts for the making of albumen, so that a laying hen requires almost as narrow a ration as growing stock.

Fattening. The mature fowl that is being fattened for market should be fed a wider ration than laying or growing stock as it is being fed largely for the purpose of developing fatty tissue. Such fowls are fed only enough protein to repair body waste and supply sufficient extra protein material to lay on some new meat tissue mixed in with the fat so that the resulting carcass will be juicy and well marbled. To properly fatten, a fowl must lay on a mixture of lean meat and fatty tissue; if lacking in fat well interspersed