MAIZE AND MOULTING

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 17 February 1915, Page 7

MAIZE AND MOULTING

Many poultry-keepers imagine that moulting fowls require a good proportion of maize to enable them to bear the strain incidental to the changing of the plumage. A little extra help is needed by the birds, certainly during the time they are growing new feathers, but be it understood, very little help in the way of strength and feath-er-forming elements can be got out of maize. True, maize contains oil in abundance, and oil is a useful factor in the production of feathers, but the iatter cannot be produced from oil alone. A little maize given during cold snaps will prove beneficial, but a lot of it will be worse than none at all. The majority of fowls are inactive during rlie moulting period, and a food like maize, if too liberally fed to them, would set up indigestion, followed by fatty degeneration of the liver. Wheat is the best grain to use during the moulting season, and if this is fed in conjunction with mashes composed of bran, peameal, sharps, and table scraps, the birds, if physically strong, should get through the ordeal of changing the plumage safely.