Poultry fattening : a practical guide to the fattening, killing, shaping, dressing, and marketing of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys

Front matter

Historic, archived document

Do not assume content reflects current scientific knowledge, policies, or practices.

POULTRY

Contents

LO CHAP CO

I. BEEEDS AND CROSSES . .23

II. HATCHING AND REARING . . . 41 O "I. SHEDS AND PENS ..... 50

Preface

Past-Master of the Worshipful Poulters1 Company of London.

As a Past - Master of the Poulters' Company of London, I very willingly accepted the proffered opportunity of glancing through the following pages, while they were still in manuscript form, and it appears to me, albeit a work necessarily dealing with theory as much as with experience, to be an exceedingly useful and suggestive treatise on the preeminently practical question of fattening table poultry for the market.

I am now asked to give my own views, and with that request I readily comply, in the hope that these remarks may be accepted as a friendly send-off to a book which I regard as a welcome addition to our literature on this subject. The author, divesting himself as far as may be of mere theory, has diligently, and in a thorough- going spirit, set himself the task of solving many difficult problems which have often puzzled the less initiated. He has very properly

P BE FACE.

insisted on the canons to be observed, both in the selection of stock and in the methodical care to be bestowed on poultry, and thus points out the easiest way to a pleasurable occupation, open to the humblest of our artisans and cottagers, and above all to an industry which, in view of our large annual imports in this particular department, may be developed to an almost unlimited extent. Nor is there, as he clearly shows, any valid reason why we should not produce table poultry under conditions as favourable as those which prevail elsewhere, especially in France.

It is a satisfaction to all who are labouring to promote poultry breeding, on a rational and lucrative basis, to know that our authorities are moving in the right direction.

I may cite the many gratifying examples of success brought to the notice of Mr. E. Henry Eew, who, in pursuance of a decision of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, has been inquiring into the actual state of the poultry rearing and fattening industry of the Heathfield district of Sussex.

One of these cases, a fairly typical one, shows how a start may be made. The man referred to was employed as a farm labourer, receiving 15s. per week wages, out of which he paid 2s. per week for his cottage, to which a good garden was attached. His employer lent him 24 hens and 2 male birds, with a movable house, and allowed him to run the fowls over his fields. From this stock he reared chickens all the year round, selling them at prices ranging from Is. 8d. to 3s. 6d. each, and contriving by good management to secure a large number in April, when they brought

PREFACE.

him most profit. He spent £17 in food, but at the end of the twelve months had realised a clear gain of £20, and after returning the 26 stock fowls had still some left with which to resume operations. No doubt from this he will go on, and, with ordinary good fortune, soon be on the road towards becoming a small holder. '

In another case, that of a 200 acre farm, where both rearing and fattening are conducted on a large scale, the detailed accounts of sales of poultry for a whole year exhibit equally encouraging results, viz., after paying interest at 5 per cent, on £600 capital, there remained a substantial profit of £268. The prices obtained by rearers range from Is. 8d. in summer to 3s. 6d., or even 4s., each fowl, the highest point reached being in May. After June this scale recedes at a rapid rate. A prosperous farmer, whose chickens were sold to a Heathfield higgler at 3s. 6d. each in April, made the apparently astonishing statement to Mr. Eew, that if 100 hens are properly looked after they will yield a larger return in twelve months than 100 breeding ewes.

What should prove most encouraging to small cottagers in the rearing of chickens for the market, is, that fowls are almost omnivorous ; not only do they eat grain and vegetables, but they absolutely require variety of food, including meat or fat, and so scraps from the household may always be mixed with daily rations, and thus all leavings are utilised. In some instances numbers of coops, representing as many broods of chickens, are set out under the hedges in public highways, and it is not surprising that the chickens reared under these circumstances should

PREFACE.

thrive often better than elsewhere. The grit from the roads, and the insect life in the hedges, conduce to their general health.

One of the most discouraging features of chicken rearing by those who have not mastered the first principles of the industry is that distempers sometimes break out, from a lack of absolute cleanliness about the pens, or from the absence of a regular supply of grit or ground oyster - shells, and the very indispensable dust bath. Hence the infection of poultry on adjacent premises. Frequent lime-washing is a great preventive of disease. Weakness resulting from want of variety in feeding may be cured by a meat diet. I have been told that bullock's heart is a sovereign panacea for several of the ills that occasionally affect the chicken yard. Above all, the beginner must be cautioned against strewing the ground with vegetable leaves or remnants, which should be kept from under the fowls' feet by being cut up and placed in troughs. Experience has invariably shown that the dragging about of any kind of food in filth is one of the chief causes of disease. Some consider that a good plan is to place meat and vegetables on clean sacks laid on the ground, and covered with panels of wire netting 1^ inches in the mesh, through which the birds can pick up what they need. Russian white oats are strongly recommended as not only best for poultry, but as being cheaper than our own produce.

With regard to the fattening process, which is carried on in a special building, well shaded from the light, I have always recommended the use of barred

PREFACE.

coops (one for each bird), although in Sussex generally several birds are put together. These may be placed in horizontal tiers one above the other, the bottom of the cage, over the tray, consisting of flat bars rounded at the edges, 2 inches in width at the top, and tapering away beneath, so that the droppings may fall freely into the receptacle below the bars. Here the birds are confined for twenty-one days, the process being begun when they are three months old in summer, and four in winter. For the first week the food should consist of ground oats mixed with milk, in a moderately liquid state ; mutton fat chopped fine and boiled with the milk is an excellent ingredient with the ground oats or buckwheat. During the last fortnight the fowls are crammed, either by machine or hand, with a mixture of barley-meal, oatmeal, and skim milk, together with beef and mutton fat, which is proportionately increased from day to day. The hard trimmings of loins of mutton are first boiled, and the liquid part poured on to the meal, with the scalding water, some coarse sand or gravel being added in order to facilitate digestion. Chickens fed in this manner twice a day, for a period of three weeks or a little longer, are then ready for the market.

To ensure a really presentable appearance, from the salesman's point of view, they should be fasted, i.e., kept without food or water eighteen hours before killing, plucked while still warm, and this without " barking " the skin, and then be tied loosely at the hocks, pressed in the shaping board for four or five hours, packed in baskets or hampers, with some straw or paper between each layer. They may finally be

P BE FACE.

delivered to the carriers, whose charge in the Heathfield district, and around Uckfield, for collecting and delivering to market, including the freightage by rail, is only Is. per dozen.

If I have been thus explicit on these various points of detail, it is with the object of impressing upon the less experienced poultry breeder the importance of overcoming some constantly recurring obstacles to sound success. I consider Mr. Brown's work valuable as a guide to every-day practice, and invaluable as a book of reference. It certainly ought to be in the hands of all who desire to improve a neglected industry, and should be included in every parish library, so as to be within easy reach of those who are certain to benefit by its teaching.

45, Finsbuey Square, E.C.

July, 1895.