POULTRY NOTES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 31, 31 October 1942, Page 5

POULTRY NOTES

Topping-off Birds For

Christmas Market

(By

New Laid.)

Poultry-keepers who have young prime condition birds ready for marketing at Christmas should be able to look forward to ready sales and good prices under the special conditions existing just now. Given good birds, well grown, topping-off is not a difficult matter, but no amount of special feeding can make birds that, are stunted in growth into prime table poultry, as such birds lack tiie quality of flesh that is necessary. When the priming process is . begun, about three weeks before the birds are to be sent to market, they should be confined in small runs or in coops with little scope for exercise in batches of up to 20 Only soft food should be given, and it must lie of good quality and ample, to lay on flesh rapidly. Feeding hard grains when the birds are confined to a limited space is apt to cause digestive troubles. A simple ration that has proved its worth is two parts of bran, and one part each of ground maizemeal and wheatmeal. Five per cent, by weight ot 'meatmeal can be added, the mixture being moistened with hot water or skim milk. This should be fed three times a day, giving as much as the birds will eat in about 20 minutes, and removing any that is not then cleaned up. If skim milk is available it can be given in considerable quantities to drink. The birds should always have access to a supply ot grit. It is important that the fattening quarters and the birds should be free of insect pests, as birds that are tormented by vermin cannot put on weight. Another proved ration during the three weeks topping-off period is a wet mash of pollard 30 per cent., wheatmeal 20, oaten pollard 15, maizemeal 15, bran 10, and semi-solid buttermilk 10 per cent., or in place of the buttermilk lib. of milk powder to each gallon of water used for mixing the mash. This mash can 'be mixed to the consistency of batter and fed from troughs outside the coops or yards, in which case little or no wa_ter is given the birds to drink. The mash can also be fed mixed to the usual consistency, and liquid—water or miik—given as drink. The liquid mash, if well managed, usually gives the best results. Salt at the rale of 4oz. to each 201 b. of mash material, calculated as dry matter, should be dissolved in the liquid used for mixing the mash. AVhcre milk is used for tins purpose it is best to dissolve the salt in a portion of water and pour it into the milk before mixing the mash. Alilk curds arc preferable to whole miik. Regularity in the time of feeding the three daily meals is important. Referring to the topping- off of cockerels, James Iladlington, formerly head ot the poultry division of the New Souta Wales Department of Agriculture, maintains that generally too much reliance is placed on the class of food to be fed and too little on the .prevailing conditions; whereas the latter can play Quite as : big a part as that of special feeding. for instance, growing stock are taken clt a large run of free-range and placed m very small enclosures in small batches, tho gain in ilesh is often surprisingly good. That is to say, where the birds can take but little exercise, they cannot “run the ilesh off” themselves. . The fact is that quite a considerable gain can be made in this way .without special feeding, but only for about throe weeks, because exercise is essential for the growth ot frame and constitutional strength. References are often, made to a week or 10 days as a period for fattening. Such a period may suffice where fattening is done by “cramming” carried out 'by experts at the process, but in ordinary topping-off three weeks are required to get the best results. Here, again, that period is the limit advisable, even with fully-grown birds, because) if given longer under forced conditions the birds usually go back m conditloThera are two methods by which cockerels may -be given the three weeks topping-off before being marketed. One is to pen ithem in small lots of, say, a dozen, to twenty, in pens or housing with little or no run, the idea being to restrict their activities. The other is .by use ot a battery system of cooping in numbers ot three itO six in a coop. There is also a choice of two methods of feeding. Tpe one is to feed mush four times daily ■with, perhaps, a very little grain in the last one and very little greenstuff. The other is to fed a “sloppy” mash in watertight troughs at such a thickness that it can be poured from a dipper or jug. . Drinking water is withheld, except on very hot The mash in each case may consist of the usual ingredients, less the meatmeal or, at any rate, only a small percentage in one feed daily, in the absence of any other animal food, soup or milk. Either of the latter, in which salt has 'been dissolved at the rate of one ounce to each 51b. to be mixed, should be used for mixTwo desirable articles in a ration for this purpose are oaten pollard and peameal 20 per cent, of the former and 5 to 10 per cent, of the latter, where procurable at rates that can be regarded' as economic. The balance should consist of about 30 per cent, wheaten pollard, 20 of ■bran, and the same amount of maizemeal. In the absence of oaten pollard and pea■>nieal, their places might be taken wholly or in part by wlieatmeal —not ground wheat, but the article known as whole wheatmeal. , . Proper treatment, during the toppingoff” is of only slightly less importance than the food ration. For the first day or two the fowls should receive little if anv food in order to get them keen for it. If ‘a teaspoonful of Epsom salts can be given to each fowl at the outset it will help.