THE POULTRY YARD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 28

THE POULTRY YARD

(By

By GEO. H. AMBLER.)

FEEDING OF CHICKENS

TIIE knowledge of how to feed correctly is a most important part of the poultry-keeper’s business. The rules for correct feeding and rearing are, in the main, only such as common sense and a knowledge of the chicken’s constitution will dictate. Treat them as you would children, by giving them suitable food at frequent intervals, and not too much at a time.

It can be tritely summed up in “a little and often.” Never leave food before them to jade their appetites, but recognise that they demand unremitting attention if they are to be kept growing. For the first fortnight, see that they are fed at intervals not exceeding two hours, the first meal being given as early as possible after daybreak, and the last just before darkness. No matter whether chickens are confined to a covered run or a shed, or are on free range, they should be fed at fixed times. Those, however, which have full liberty, and are thereby able to procure much natural food, will not require so much at the second and third meals. A chicken is formed from the white of the egg, and the healthy chick, just prior to releasing itself from the “hell, absorbs the yoke into its stomach. Nature thus provides it with the necessary nutriment, and. no matter how hatched, the chick requires no food whatever for the first 36 hours of its existence. Thereafter the food supplied, as regards the proportion of nourishment and moisture, should be in composition similar to their previous diet as supplied by nature, which favours the survival of the fittest, and those managed most nearly in accordance with nature’s laws are the most likely to survive. FIRST FEED

The first feed should consist of fine grit, followed by a good brand of dayold chick food or brown hread crumbs. I do not advise the use of hard-boiled eggs, as if used in a wholesale fashion it is not only costly, but decidedly dangerous. The youngsters become surfeited, the delicate digestive organs are unable to cope with so much rich food, and bowel trouble is the result. This trouble, generally-brought on by thoughtless feeding, every year causes the death of thousands of chicks. As soon a 3 the food is prepared, it should be put on a clean board in front of the coop, and immediately the hen commences to peck It she will call her chickens. If the youngsters are

being artificially reared, the feeder can attract them by tapping with his linger-nail upon the wood. If anything comes naturally to animals of any kind it is eating, hence if chickens are lively and tolerably strong there will be no need to go to the trouble of teaching them to eat. CHANGE OF FOOD

Afterwards the meals should consist alternately of hard and soft food. : The soft food may consist of oatmeal mixed with cold milk until of a crumbly nature—this is one of the finest and safest foods that can be given. After a fortnight, the last feed should consist of broken wheat or hulled oats. Where chicks have not access to pasture, they should have a liberal supply of grass, lucerne, or lettuce, cut very fine. Without vegetable matter of some form they cannot thrive. It must always be perfectly clean, and must not consist of coarse greens, such as old cabbages and the like, especially when the chickens are young. Finely-cut lawn trimmings may be given in a feeding trough. Afther four or five weeks, the number of feeds may be reduced to, say, four daily, and the rice omitted from the diet: but as the chickens are then growing fast, and making bone, it is important that they should be fed with good, sound, hard grain as late as possible at night, as this diet will sustain them much longer than soft food. At six weeks to two months the chicks will be able to leave the hen, and if the weather is cold, put a liberal supply of sawdust or chaff at the bottom of the coop to keep them comfortable, and also to prevent the breast-bone from becoming crooked. At this age a handful or two of peameal can with advantage be added to the oatmeal, and pollard mixture, and this food may be given twice daily for some time. SEPARATING THE SEXES When ten or twelve weeks old the cockerels should be separated from

the pullets and the culls weeded out. When this plan is adopted the chicks thrive much better and settle down more kindly than when both sexes are allowed to run together. Should the cockerels commence fighting, put an old cock in among them to keep them j in order, and let him remain with them during the season. ANIMAL FOOD In cold weather chicks should have a small quantity of animal food. It acts as a tonic, but it is inadvisable to give very much, as harm instead of benefit will be the result. On unlimited range they need no meat or animal food, as they find sufficient in their rambles. After chicks have had their first meal let them out, and after a time call them up and observe their behaviour. They will simply peck a ! little and be off foraging again. At four months reduce the meat ration, as meat fed to pullets as they are reaching maturity will have the effect of bringing on laying, and small eggs. ! Forced maturity should be avoided. ; Never give sun-warmed water. Add pure alum, one tablespoonful to half ; a gallon of water, and this will destroy all impurities in the water. The fountains must be kept sweet and clean. If milk can be spared it should be used, as it is ten times more beneficial than water for rearing chickens after the first fortnight. Many people imagine that there are no feeding properties in skimmed milk, but this is an altogether erroneous idea, as it will do equally as well as new milk. When giving milk do not make the mistake of feeding a meat diet as well, otherwise you may find your chicks overfed, as milk contains 3.5 per cent, of fat, equal in heating value to 7.9 per cent, of carbohydrates. Provide plenty of grit from the start, and add a little powdered charcoal occasionally in the soft food to correct stomach troubles. In feeding chickens a variety of food is essential, for they relish a change of diet as much as human beings do. The object should be to feed first for a framework and then for flesh. The results of overfeeding and want of exercise are weak legs, cramp and rickets. Let the youngsters fee! the sharpness of their appetites once in a while and they will always be on the alert. Never give green cut bone to ch'ckens before they are eight weeks old. and discontinue supplying it as advised with regard to meat feeding. HARDENING OFF Chickens should be hardened off at the earliest possible moment. As the birds grow there is the choice of two things—put them into larger quarters such as the chick colony house, or if this is not possible, reduce their numbers. Chickens naturally crowd when sleeping on the ground; hence they should be brought up on the fresh-air

. system. Rather than keep half-grown ? fowls in closed coops, turn them Into 1 any old shed where they can have j plenty of air and yet be dry and free » from exposure. Let the places be 1 well bedded, and see that the quarters 1 are kept “sweet.”