Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 126, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1915 — Injudicious Feeding [ARTICLE]

Injudicious Feeding

The feeding of poultry is both a sd•nce and an art It requires the exercise of Judgment and the greatest of care. You may say that you are careful in your selection of rations, and that you nevertheless find your results are not what they should be. In that case the question for you to consider is, Are you feeding those rations properly? i<

Properly feeding your stock means more than simply mixing the feed in the proper proportions. It means more than the selection of the proper kind of food. Judicious feeding means that the fowls must eat the right amount of each ingredient. To better my point, it will be preferable to give an Illustration. The feeding of the Cornell ration is the best example to be governed by. In the morning scatter about one-quarter as much grain food as the flock is to eat during the day. This grain mixture is as follows: 60 pounds cracked corn, 30 pounds oats and 30 pounds buckwheat.

At noon open the dry mash hoppers containing the following mixture: 60 pounds corn meal, 30 pounds wheat bran, 10 pounds alfalfa meal, 10 pounds oil meal, 50 pounds beef scrap and one pound of salt. At night close the hoppers ajid feed the grain mixture, feeding about three times as much at this feeding as in the morning. Of course they have grit and shell always before them. This ration should be supplemented with beets, cabbage, sprouted oats, green clover, alfalfa or other succulent foods, unless running on grasscovered range, in order to feed the ration properly. The fowls should eat about one-half as much mash by weight as whole grain. If they eat too little dry mash cut down on the morning grain feed. If they eat too much dry mash increase the morning grain feed. All grains should be fed in a deep, dry, loose straw litter. Make them exercise and work after every particle of food fed. Make it a rule to have them go to roost with a full crop. No matter how well you feed your hens, if you fail in making them exercise sufficiently you fail not only to keep your fowls healthy, but to get a good egg production as well.