Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-01-21
Fattening Poultry.

Various modes are in vogue for
bringing fowls forward to the best kill
ing condition. Forcing, examining,
and stuffing, are a part of the pro
cess in different countries, and in diff
ferent portions of countries, but we
have always considered the legitimate
meth I'd the better plan. And as we
have notyet found occasion to change
the opinion we have thus entertained
for many years. In our experience,
the least expensive and the least
troublesome way to fatten fowls is,
from the beginning to feed them well
constantly, and care for their com
forts and needs from the shell. A
flock of chickens thus attended to
will at any time be in fine condition
for the gridiron or the spit. And
when the time comes about for killing
the older birds Tin fall and early win
ter) it requires but little extra food
and proper attention for few days
to render them as ''fat'' as is desired,
ordinarily. Without this sort of prior
appropriate preparation, no criterion
is offered as to how long it may take
to put them in presentable condition,
or how much feeding, in the more
costly way, may be necessary to effect
this. We therefore continc our re-
cent suggestion to what we deem the
legitimate mode for tattening poultry
to the best advantage, which have
been always well kept in the early
season. If the fowls have been kept
thrifty from chicken-hood, as we have
recommended in the Rouitry Woyld
during the past year, they should now
be in good flesh. Such rs are de-
signed for market should be separat-
ed from the rest. Place six or eight
together in a close without Il
roost-and sufficiently large to allow
them to move about without crowd
ing each other. The front of this
coop or box only needs to be OF
lathed open-work; since, during their
future existence the more quiet they
can be kept the more rapidly they
will improve; they need no exercise.
Now, give them plenty of fresh
water and all they will eat for two or
three weeks, and at the end of that
time they will be better fit for the
butcher than they ever will be after
this period. The manner of feeding,
and the kind of food best adapted to
fatten fowls in this confinement is
very simple affair, and we have found
it etficacious as well as feasible
Cooked food, and all they will de-
your, morning and night, with crack
ed corn and wheat at noon, will tatten
healthy poultry in less time than any
other feed we have ever experimental
with. The mash should be compos-
ed of good corn meal two parts, and
boiled potatoes one part. Into a pail
full of this meal and vegetable feed,
well mixed while hot, drop pound
of lard, tallow, or pork scraps, and
mix this fat substance thoroughly
through the mass. Feed this while
warm, and give to each coop only
what the fowls will eat up clean, ut
each meal. Be sure that whatever
animal food you feed is perfectly
sweet, otherwise it had better be
omitted entirely. A box of dry gravel
should be at hand, which the birds
will peck from const lntly, for they
need this to aid the process of digest
ing their food, precisely as at any
other time.
No green food is desirable All
you are aiming for is to put addition
al flesh upon these fowls, and to do
this in the shortest possible time. SO
long as they eat well they will i'll
crease in weight, up to certain
period, treated in this manner, and
two or three weeks will bring them
to their best If they become cloyed
and lose their appetite at an earlier
date, after thus being cooped up, kill
them off at once. They have reach
ed the most profitable day of their
existence, and will no longer improve
in the desired direction In this
simple way we have fattened many
previously well-kept fowls in three
weeks time satisfactorily, and we
have known many hundreds thus
fattened that have dressed handsome
ly in some days less time; the mode
thus briefly recommended being econ
onical as well as expeditions, clean
ly, and very convenient.
We have not mentioned two pre-
requisites toward fattening fowls sue
cesstully and speed Y, but we take it
for granted that it Will be understood
that your fowls when cooped up for
this purpose shall be free from Der
min, and during their confinement
that they must be kept 50. No great
er drawback to the growth and inn
provement OF domestic fowls exists
than the presence of this pest upon
their bodies, or in the pens to which
they are limited. We therefore sug-
gest that to tatten fowls protitably
they must b kept from this annoy