OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 300, 13 May 1911, Page 3

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

(By "Cock-o'-the-North.") To feed poultry the poultry-keeper should know, in addition to th« constituents parts of any one food he is handling, how to combine several kinds of food so as to attain the object the bird is being fed for. Now, of course, readers will say, but how am I going to do this? And it is a very natural question. Well. to find the nutritive ratio of any article we may be handling is very simple, and I will do my Best to explain it to my readers. We will first take an egg (a good, full-bodied one). The analysis is 72.7 water, 15.0 protein, 11.5 fat, and 0.8 mineral ash. When trying to arrive at the nutritive ratio of any article of food the usual way is to multiply the fats contained therein by 2'/,, add "them to the carbo-hydrates, and then divide the combined fats and carbo-hydrates by the quantity of protein. In the egg it will be seen that there are no carbohydrates, but the fats (11.5) are still multiplied by 2'/ 4 , and reduced to carbohydrates, and divided by 15.0, which is the protein. Here again some reader may, rightly,' want to know why it is necessary to multiply the fits by 2% and reduce them toca'rbo-hvdratcs. Car-bo-hydrates are what may be termed the fuel of the body; they are burned or consumed to produce heat and energy, and any fed in excess of the actual requirements of the animal fed is stored in the body as fat. Fats serve the same-pur-pose, but arc 2y 4 times as. efficient for this purpose as carbo-hydrates. Hence the need of multiplying them by 2% to reduce them to the same efficiency as carbo-hydrates. Now, to proceed with the egg. The 11.5 of fats, when multipi 'hy 2y 4 gives 25.0 of carbo-hydrates, am Uiis has to be divided by 15.0 of protein. This is good as far as it goes, and there are many experts who Would leave you at that, and imagine that they had done their full duty, quite oblivious of the fact that there are many estimable-j people who would be far better poultry j farmers than many would-be experts if these people had things explained to them in a. simple homely way, and who are not prepared to go puzzling over such things as dividing 15.0 into 25.0. And fortunately there is no need to do,] so; for if it is put down as 150 instead of 15.0. and 259 instead of 25.9, the thing I is a simple long division sum, and labil will go in 250 one and two-third times. I Hence the ration of an egg is on,e pro-1 tein to one and two-thirds carbohydrates. Now, take an ordinary day's ration for laying birds, namely, bran, pollard, wheat, oats and maize. Pollard, contains 13.0 protein, and G0.4 carbo-' hydrates, with the fata added, and I : shall only mention the carbo-hydrates as. T go along because I shall add the fats thereto for the sake of simplicity. Two parts of pollard arc used. Hence double the quantity of the constituent parts' need to be put down. One part of bran is used with the pollard, and contains 15.8 protein and 53.2 carbo-hydrates. This is the morning food. In the evening equal parts of ..wheat, 11.9 protein, 7G.fi carbo-hydrates; oats (short white), IG.B protein,-08.2 carbo-hydrates; and maize, 10.3 protein and 81.0 carbo-hydrates, arc fed. By adding each pf the above together wc get a ' total in the. day's ra- 1 tions of 85.8- protein and 420.4 carbo-i hydrates. - . >

Now, instead,of puzzling with fractions, make a simple long division sum of it by dividing 4204 by 858. and you will' find that your day's ration:.works out at 1 of protein (flesh .forming matter)' to 4.2-3 of carbo-hydrates (fat forming matter).

The poultryman or ftunufr does not need to balance his ration to-a fraction. As long as he gets near the. ni'mk it will do, for this reason, that it must'he remembered no two fowls eat exactly alike, and therefore a little give and take must be allowed. I said last week that protein fed in excess of the amount actually required by the birds defeats the very object sought. I have known hundreds of poultrymen with a poor strain of layers • who gave the birds a very large quantity of' meat and other food's' of a nitrogenous nature to force them to lay. This is an error, as a fowl can- 1 not lay beyond the limit that nature has endowed her with the capability of reach-, ing, and it must never for a moment be'' imagined that because one bird of a' breed lays 200 eggs that all birds of the same breed should be able to 'do the same. This being so, if a bird which is by nature only capable of laying, say, 00 eggs in a year, is fed on a ration con-' taining an abundance of nitrogenous' matter for a 250 egg bird; but it will make the 00 vji» bird into a 40 or 50 egg bird, because protein fed in excess of the amount actually required-for the bodily requirements of the bird and egg production is - converted- into carbo" hydrates and stored in the body as fat, and as a bird becomes overfat 'she fails to lay the number of eggs she is by nature capable of doing under favorable conditions, or she dies in straining to produce an egg which her over-fat condition prevents her doing, this state being technically known as egg-bound.