POULTRY NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 281, 26 November 1937, Page 18

POULTRY NOTES.

SUMMER FEEDING.

CAKE OF GROWING STOCK.

(By ORIMNCTON.)

After the first six wpeks on a good starting ration, growing chickens require a diet that is not too high in added protein foods. If early hatched birds are given much meat meal, or feed of that nature in their mash, they will come into lay at four and a half months or so, provided they are of a good laying strain, but will lack body size and good egg size right through their lives. And while it might be thought from this that later batched chickens would lx* the better of a good proportion of protein, practical experience proves that it spoils them 100, through forcing. Such are likely to be the young layers that break down early ill their career, affected with prolapsus or dying of rupture nf the oviduct, or merely Ix'ing "delicate" and indulging in a pullet moult in winter when they should be

laying. There is, too. the <|uestion of cost in feeding the growers to lie considered. While it makes little difference what ingredients ar« used in a starter mash, because the very small chicks eat enmpa iat i \ civ little", by the time they are two monlhs old. potential layer.- ca i

get through a remarkable amount of fond during the i|uick growing stages of from two to live months, \oung ducks ami cockerels are even more greedy. While there is much to lie said tor keeping t lit* in a little shot t (lining the (lav, if they have good free range nver the farm, this is not wise or economical it tbpy are at all con lined. It merely results in small birds of poor i tii >n that are no good either as la vers nr for table. X elect during the growing time, either in the way of under feeding or ill letting stock lie so overcrowded in their night quarters that they cannot digest an adequate amount of food, call never bp properly counteracted later, l'or laying to capacity or even fattening to advantage (in the case of roosters and drakes) it is necessary for the young crops to lie quite full each night. Otherwise the birds will not be capable later on of eating enough to produce an egg a ,|hy over a long period. Ihe capacity for storing 4oz or ."io/. of feed (dry) in the crop each night by the time they are adults is necessary for the very best laving pullets. And every farmer knows also how hopeless is the task of trving to fatten stock that lias been neglected early. Mash or Grain.

So what the growers need in their feeding is a bulky inash. not high iu forcing value and of suitable meals that cost as little as possible. Wheat is excellent for the growers, and alone would be the perfect feed where they have range to get some insects. Except for the wheat grower, the price prohibits its use other than sparingly, for late afternoon feed. Oats share the same disadvantage and are too fibrous ami difficult to digest until the chicks are four months old anyway, and should still be clipjied. Hulled oats are splendid and can well be mixed with wheat for the last feed of the day.

I n tensi vely-kept chicks, those that have only a small, bare run. even when kept on a farm, require a proportion of maize in their ration. The need is nhown in practical fashion in the ca*e of White ijeghorns, when their shanks are not as yellow as they should l>e. Many would say they don't mind their birds' shanks being imperfect. but lack of yellow pigment in young birds indicates a lack of vitamin A. which they can get, alternatively, through a really adequate supply of green feed, such as is jwissible on range over good grass. While two or three months' chicks can eat whole maize of the small varieties, better feeding value is derived from this grain always, even for layers, when it is slightly The way a growers' mash is made up must dejicrid largely on the circumstances under which tlicy are kept. While, as stated, they need little protein anyway, chickens on free, range near swamp, scrub, etc.. teeming with insects, worms, and so on, need none at all, while confined birds should never have less than 8 per cent.

Curd for the Growers. The amount of milk or curd available has to be taken into consideration before using meat meal, because that, of course, contains a high proportion of protein itself.

Where unlimited curd is available for feeding growers the main care should lie to see that its protein value is reduced by the inclusion of bulky green feed. Short laWn clippings mixed with dry curd, up to .'lO to r»0 per cent, make an ideal feed for growing stock. Being very high in minerals it is good for making frame and size. Pollard can be used to dry ofT the curd or a bulky dry mash of equal parts bran and pollard with, if possible, 20 per cent maize meal, can be put in hoppers in the chicken house, while curd is fed alone to them in troughs outside. This means that a mixing of mash once a week only need be made, but hoppers must be of suitable defign or there will l>e waste.

<irowers can be fed suitably on dry mash only in hoppers always before them and with a grain feed in the afternoon. If limited curd or house scraps are available "wet" and dry feeding can lie combined, or they can, of course, have two feeds of wet mash and the' one grain feed and no dry mash. Unless range is particularly good they are the better of a midday meal until four months old.

Early-hatched pullets fed on curd alone during a dry summer are apt to be precocious. The diet is too rich and needs grain, chaffed greens, pollard, etc., along with the curd, although hens in lay can do with curd alone. Mash Mixtures. Mash mixtures that can be recommended for pullets from eight weeks to four and a half months of age are: 401b bran, 401b pollard, 121b maize meal, 81b meat and bone meal, jib salt; or 301b bran, 501b wlieatmeal, 121b ground barley or maize meal, 81b meat and bone meal, £Ib salt; or 5 parts dry curd to 1 part pollard. Either of the first two mashes can be fed "wet" or dry. Grain to be recommended is two parts small wheat, one j>art hulled oats (or later, clipped oats), and one part kibbled maize.