IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN FATTENING POULTRY
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Kerr at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd February 1877. A communi-
cation from abroad by Victor Claver de Berensberg, of Gand, in the Kingdom
of Belgium.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER KERR, of St. James' Place, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN FATTENING POULTRY."
A communication from abroad by Victor Claver de Berensberg, of Gand, in the
Kingdom of Belgium.
This Invention relates to new or improved apparatus to be employed for the
purpose of fattening poultry, such apparatus having for its object more particularly
facilitating the administering of the food to the birds.
According to this Invention it is proposed to feed poultry, such for example as
fowls, chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese, with barley flour bolted and ground
tolerably fine and mixed with milk and water, or with barley flour and Indian
corn, or maize flour mixed with milk and water. For example, if these two sub-
stances are obtainable a liquid mash may be made with them in the following
manner, and in about the undermentioned proportions. About two pounds of barley
flour, two pounds of flour obtained from maize, five pints of water, five pints of
milk; bolted buckwheat flour may be substituted for, barley flour, and skim milk,
curds and whey may be advantageously substituted for new milk, and the water
may be entirely omitted. The food is prepared cold; the thermometer should mark
more than 10 degrees (centigrade); if it stands below 10 degrees it will be necessary
to warm the water and milk employed.
In order to obtain good fowls, only young chickens (male or female) of from three
to six months old should be selected.
The ordinary duration of the fattening period is from 18 to 20 days. If, how-
ever, very superior fowls are required, the duration of the period may be prolonged
without inconvenience, if they digest properly for eight or ten days, that is to say,
the birds may be kept on the regime for from 28 to 30 days.
The food is administered at regular intervals in the case of chickens, say three
times daily, commencing with about 4/10ths of a gill per meal the 1st day, and in-
creasing each succeeding day in the proportion of about 1/7th of a gill per meal so
long as the birds can digest the quantity of food administered from day to day.
"

page_text: It is always necessary to ascertain by feeling the crop before feeding the bird
whether the preceding repast has been properly digested, and if this is not the case
no food is given until the ensuing meal time. The chickens are kept in coops a
hereinafter more fully explained.
For fattening turkeys a similar treatment is adopted; as however the large
turkey cocks cannot be kept in coops, they are set at liberty in a dry place, main
tained at a moderate temperature. One person may hold them by the legs o
wings to present them to the feeder who administers the food to them, say three
times daily, commencing with about 3/4ths of a gill per meal the 1st day, and
increasing each succeeding day in the proportion of about 1/4th or 1/3rd of a gill
per meal.
Chickens and turkeys may be fattened without milk if required, flour and water
being alone employed, but the addition of milk is preferable. In all cases for
chickens as well as for turkeys it is necessary that the food-should be prepared as
herein before described, that is to say, in a liquid forin.
In the case of ducks the quantity of food administered commences at about
6/10th of a gill per meal the 1st day, increasing each succeeding day in the pro-
portion of about 1/7th of a gill per meal.
The food should be administered,-say-4 or 5 times daily, and an interval of from
2 hours to 3 hours between each meal will be found amply sufficient for digestion.
The fattening period extends over 14 or 15 days.
Geese may be fattened in a similar manner, the proportions of food being only
alightly modified.
The apparatus employed in carrying out this process of feeding poultry is com-
posed of a forcing apparatus for feeding, and a stand having coops or boxes with
compartments, by preference placed one over the other for the reception of
the birds.
The feeding apparatus consists of a stand or support which may be of a tri-
angular shape, mounted upon castors or rollers, and carrying a cylinder which
contains the prepared food. In this cylinder there is fitted a movable piston or
plunger provided with a valve opening downwards, and carrying a rod projecting
beyond the lower end of the cylinder, to which is booked a counterweight or a
counterpoise box containing sand, gravel or other convenient material. The upper
part of the piston or plunger is fastened to a chain intended to elevate it by being
wound up by means of a crank or handle round a horizontal barrel situate'above the
cylinder, which barrel, by means of a train of toothed wheels, imparts motion to a
horizontal spindle, carrying a hand or pointer, the function of which is to indicate
upon a dial, provided for the purpose the proportions of the rations to be dis-
tributed. The whole of this mechanism is supported upon an upper stand carried
by the main stand or support; an india-rubber band is provided, which is attached
at one extremity to a pipe fitted to the lower part of the cylinder containing the
food, and is furnished at its other extremity with a metal nozzle having a spring
lever actuating a valve for closing the communication with the cylinder.
The birds are enclosed in moveable coops or boxes mounted on a frame and
divided into compartments with false bottoms or drawers being provided for the
reception of the excrement of the birds.
The coops or boxes may be arranged on a circular stand which is free to revolve
round a central vertical axis, such stand carrying one or more rows of boxes
placed one above the other. Each bird may thus be brought in turn opposite the
feeding apparatus by turning the stand round on its centre. The operator and the
feeding apparatus may also be carried upon a lift or platform capable of being
raised or lowered as required in order to facilitate the administering of the food to
the birds in the upper rows when large numbers are to be fed.
Before introducing the fowls into the boxes small leather rings provided with
chains are placed upon their legs for the purpose of securing them, small rods in the t
sides of the boxes being passed through a link of the said chain.
In preparing the feeding apparatus for operating the cylinder is first filled with

page_text: water and the piston or plunger elevated by means of the crank or handle which is
then taken off the piston or plunger is then drawn down by the weight of the
counterpoise, and the valve in the piston being closed by the pressure, the liquid
will be forced out through the india-rubber pipe as soon as pressure is applied
by the finger upon the spring lever so as to open the valve in the nozzle.
The apparatus may be worked several times with water alone in order to
familiarize the operator with the regular motion of the hand or pointer which is
obtained by a uniform pressure upon the valve of the nozzle.
The preparation of the food having been effected in the manner herein-before
described, the same is then poured into the cylinder, after which the piston being
elevated by means of the crank or handle, the valve of the nozzle is opened once or
twice while holding it over the receiver in order to avoid spilling the food on the
ground; the indicating hand or pointer is then placed at zero by the act of pulling
a copper ring connected to the clockwork placed below the dial by hooking the
nozzle on to it or otherwise.
The food is distributed to fowls, for example, in the following manner:-The
feeder having placed the feeding apparatus in a convenient position on his right
hand feels the crop of the chicken to ascertain if it has digested properly, then
taking its head in the left hand he draws it over an upper bar in front of the box;
the neck of the chicken being stretched the whole length of the nozzle is passed
down its throat, care being taken to hold the india-rubber tube well stretched in
order to prevent it from forming folds which would interrupt the passage of the
food, at the same tine pressing on the lever of the valve in the nozzle gently and
regularly lest the food should be projected too forcibly into the stomach of tho
bird. At the same time the operator observes the hand or pointer of the indicator,
and as soon as it reaches the figure marking the proportion of food which it is
desired to administer the pressure is suddenly removed from the spring lever and
the nozzle withdrawn from the throat of the bird. The indicating hand or pointer
is then returned to zero and the feeding of the next bird is proceeded with in a
similar manner, and so on in succession.