Preparing Surplus Cockerels for Market
The growing cockerels, fed in the same way as the pullets up to six
or eight weeks of age, will be, in the majority of cases, in prime
condition to have the finishing touches applied to round them out into
the best possible weight at the age for market.
We, of course, do not go into the various liquid foods which are fed
with a pump, but simply the most inexpensive and rapid way of putting
the birds in a condition to return the most money in the shortest
possible time. Corn, in its different forms, is, perhaps, the most
fattening food which can be fed, and for the cockerels intended for
market, the grain ration consists of nothing but corn, and as much of
it as they will clean up.
If it is possible to give the time to it, the mash, fed three times a
day, will produce the finest quality flesh. A mash made from corn meal,
ground oats, gluten meal, middlings and bran, in equal parts, with
beef scrap, or green cut bone, equal to the total of the meals, and
moistened so that the birds can choke it down in large quantities, will
produce the result better, perhaps, than anything else.
Must Have Green Food
Green food, however, should be given the bird at the most convenient
hour in between the other feedings. If to save time in feeding was
an object, a very good schedule is to feed corn first thing in the
morning, green food at about ten o’clock, and, between two and three,
the exact quantity of mash as described. If mash alone is fed, it is
best to feed each time only what the birds will clean up in from thirty
to forty minutes, the troughs in which it is placed then being removed.
[Illustration: NO. 3 LAYING HOUSE FILLED WITH 1500 PULLETS TWO WEEKS
FROM THE RANGE]