The American School of Poultry Husbandry Lessons Nos. 12 and 13: The Science of Feeding

Lessons Nos. 12 and 13: The Science of Feeding was published as part of The American School of Poultry Husbandry's General Course in Poultry Husbandry in 1918. It was written by T.E. Quisenberry.

Introduction

The book begins as follows:

"It may be laid down as a general rule that the most successful poultry raisers are those who are best acquainted with the science, and most adept in the art of feeding poultry. They understand the similarity in the composition of the various foodstuffs, and the birds to which the foods are to be given. They know the influence of the different foods upon the several organisms of the body, and they know how to apply this knowledge to the best advantage.

"The nature and requirements of the feeds which we must give our poultry varies so greatly with the different ages and purposes for which they are being fed, that we cannot hope to achieve the highest degree of success unless we have a thorough understanding of the subject of feeds and feeding. Again, there are so many feeds and combinations of feeds which will answer the same purpose, but the prices of which vary so greatly, that it is necessary to know how to select and compound rations that will accomplish the desired end at the least cost.

"These points are here mentioned briefly in order that the reader may grasp the importance of the subject, and especially appreciate the fact that in mastering it, he or she will be acquiring information which can be put into every day practice, and which will prove more and more valuable as time goes on. There can be no doubt but that those who have charge of the poultry on our farms and poultry plants might greatly increase their yearly profits by a better understanding o fhte principles of feeding, and a more carefully application of them."

The Science of Feeding

The book reads as follows:

"The food given a fowl and the resulting vitality is the same as fuel to a steam engine. There are a great many types of engines, besides the high and low pressure ones, as there are a great many types of hens and cock birds. The diameter of cylinder, length of stroke, and revolutions per minute give you the capacity of the engine, as the length and depth of the abdomen in the fowl gives its capacity. The fuel fed into the fire box generates the steam to run the engine, as the food fed into the hen's digestive system generates her vitality.

"Heat produces action, and as long as an animal lives its body has heat. We may say, then, that heat and action are the invariable accompaniments of animal life. Heat is the basis of action, for just as a steam engine is motionless and powerless without the heat of the furnace, so that animal body is motionaless without heat. Just as the engine will stop unless we keep up the fire in the furnace, so the animal will die unless the fire of life is kept up with fuel foods. I say fuel foods, because that certain foods are oxidized, or burned in the body, to keep up heat. When we put wood, or coal, into the stove and touch a match to it, we say it burns; when we put foods into the animal stomach and they are consumed, we say they digest, but the chemical process is essentially the same, oxidation, and the effect is the same - heat. One need of the animal body, then, is heat-producing foods. Heat is produced principally by two classes of foods known to chemists as carbohydrates and fats. These foods we will call, for convenience sake, 'fuel foods.'

"But heat is not the only need of the body. If the action of the steam engine wears out its steel parts, how much more must the action of the animal body wear out the much softer materials of which it is made. Every movement of the animal destroys many of the minute cells and delicate tissues of which the body is composed, and these must be replaced. To carry our figure of the steam engine still further, when the steam engine is worn by running, what do we do but have it repaired? The second need of the animal body that we discover, therefore, is repairs, or reconstructive materials.

"There is constantly going on in the living animal body a process commonly called waste and repair. The activities of life waste on tear down the body, and air, water and foods are the only sources from which material to rebuild may be obtained. Foods, therefore, must supply the greater amount of the body-building materials."

Macronutrients like protein, fats, and carbohydrates were still recent discoveries when this was written, and the farmer reading the book may not understand them very well. Notice the comparison of the hen to a machine. This booklet was written in a time period when breeding hens for utilitarian traits like egg or meat production was just starting to win out over breeding them for beauty. Comparisons of the productivity of chickens to that of machines were common.

Favorable Conditions Required to Produce Results

This section, on page 2, reads as follows:

"You must understand in the very beginning that no amount of feed will make some hens lay. They were not bred and born to lay. In a pen where both hens were fed alike, one laid 281 eggs and another laid 20 eggs.

"No amount of feed will make a good hen lay, if she is not properly housed and sheltered.

"The best of feed will not produce eggs and desirable results if the bird is eaten up with lice and mites, or internal parasites consume the food as fast as the fowl eats it.

"No ration, no matter how good, or how well balanced, will give good results if it is not intelligently well fed. Feed wholesome food; feed liberally; feed a variety; feed regularly; feed activity, eggs, energy and health into your fowls."

Breeding, Environment and Feeding

This section, on page 2, reads as follows:

"Hens that are not properly housed and handled, and which are not comfortable and happy, of course, cannot be expected to produce their maximum number of eggs. Breeding, however, determines the possibilities of any hen. What causes five White Plymouth Rocks from one breeder, kept in one house, to lay 500 eggs in one year, when another pen of five White Plymouth Rocks from another breeder kept and fed and cared for int he same house to produce 1000 eggs in twelve months? It is not the feed, the house, the water, the climate, or any other one thing which can be thought of, except the breeding, the blood lines and the power or ability of one to produce more than the other. For generations one may have been bred for eggs and the other evidently had not been so carefully selected and mated."

This shows the emphasis on breeding for productivity again. It also reflects that humans had not yet discovered enough about chicken nutrition to be able to keep hens healthy in captivity as they would later. Not knowing that eventually science would allow for keeping millions of hens in battery cages and they would produce eggs so long as their feed provided all of their nutrients, the author assumes that comfort and happiness are requirements for egg-laying.

Selection Equally as Important as Feeding

This section, on pages 2 and 3, read as follows:

"Right feeding alone is not the key to increased egg production. More depends on careful selection of the hens. Too many farm flocks are non-producers and drones. Perhaps this is true of the entire flock or maybe only a part, but the drones are always responsible for the limited profits.

"By selection, I do not mean that the farmer should buy prize chickens at exorbitant prices, though I do believe in good blood. But selection is just as necessary in a flock of poultry as in a dairy herd.

"Now, when you ask if the farmer can afford to keep chickens while grain is so high, if you refer to the usual flock of culls, I will say, "No." Grain is too valuable to be thrown promiscuously to non-producing hens.

"It may be that you will think when I mention selection that I refer to a lot of scientific and complicated experiments. I simply mean that you should go into your flock, pick out the culls and get rid of them. A hen of low vitality is a menace to the flock because she is susceptible to disease. She is an expense to her owner because she is a consumer and not a producer. It is a funny thing, but many a farmer who would be quick to get rid of a poor cow will keep two or three dozen hens that never made a cent for him and never will, no matter how he cares for them."

How to Make a Selection

This section, on page 3, read as follows:

"The rules that govern selection are as simple as A. B. C to any observing person. For instance, a hen that is slow to feather is lacking in vitality. Anyone ought to know that. You can't stuff her and make her lay eggs. She is by Nature a weakling. Hens do not lay eggs because they want to; they lay eggs because they are strong and vigorous and egg laying is a natural result which they cannot avoid. That tendency must be bred into them.

"Why, if the average farmer would give half the attention to his poultry that he does to his live stock he'd find the poultry the best investment in many cases. Success comes from being willing to discard. When you have culled out the poor hens and got them clear off the farm, then it is time to begin thinking about feeding for egg production and also, let me emphasize, watering for egg production, for water is an essential feed.

"At this time one of the greatest problems facing American Poultrymen is the ratio of profit between the cost of feed and the selling price of poultry and eggs. No poultryman can object to the high price of feed if the selling price of poultry and eggs is proportionately high. Thousands of the more or less experienced poultrymen, who were loaded with poor stock, drones and slackers, or who, because of inexperience, haphazard methods, or poor management have been forced out of business. Many others in the same class are certain to go, but the future promises much for the man who has the goods and who knows how."

Get Rid of the Drones

This section, on page 3, read as follows:

"Before carrying your birds through another season, take one more look at them, and keep the following rules in mind when making your selection:

• 1. - Market those which have been slow to feather or seem to lack vitality.
• 2. - Keep the pullets which mature quickly and start laying first. Those which start laying when less than 200 days old will be the best layers if they have the right care.
• 3. - Keep the late moulters.
• 4. - Keep the birds with rather large, plump combs and wattles.
• 5. - Hens with pale vents, pale beaks and pale legs have been good layers.
• 6. - The skin of the best layers should be rather loose and flabby on the abdomen between the vent and breast bone.
• 7. - The pelvic bones must be thin, straight, flexible and wide apart.
• 8. - Market the hens which are baggy behind and which have a heavy, fat, thick abdomen which hangs down below the point of the breast bone.
• 9. - Keep the hustlers and heavy eaters that go to bed late and with full crops.
• 10. - Birds that have long toe nails that show no signs of being workers are usually unprofitable.
• 11. - If a bird meets the above requirements, it should have a broad back, long body, be stoutly built and in good flesh.
• 12. - If a bird is not moulting and still has a small dried-up comb covered with a sort of whitish substance, or if a bird has thick or crooked pelvic bones, which will be found on each side of the vent and above the point of the breast bone, these are always money losers."

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Historic Poultry Publications
• History of Chickens in the U.S.
• Historic USDA Publications