by Mike Strecker
(Taken from the Grit & Steel Nov. 1982)
There has been much discussion lately in the magazines on whether the use of conditioning aids are essential in the conditioning of a rooster. When I am asked this question, my answer is no-not if your fowl are receiving an adequate diet.
But what constitutes an adequate diet for a two year old cock that is spending a good portion of his day scratching in deep straw, and being exercised on the work bench? Lets take a look at the recommended nutrient levels for a rooster in the above mentioned situation.
First, his daily intake of protein should be at least 18 percent. To give a simple explanation; each hundred pound of feed must contain eighteen pounds of digestible protein. This brings to mind a situation that happened a few years back. I bought a bag of 20 percent Protein Pellets at a local feed store. The pellets looked and smelled old so I took a sample to a local college to be analyzed. The protein content of these pellets were analyzed at 9 percent, the fat soluble vitamins (A,D,& E) were almost nonexistent in this sample.
Now I do not give you this example to lead you to believe that all bags of pellets you buy are deficient. However, I am saying that conditions such as heat, cold, storage time, etc. will affect and reduce the protein and vitamin content of the feed.
Getting back to what a rooster needs in his daily ration to maintain top physical condition while in the keep. In addition to 18 percent protein, he needs vitamins and minerals. Will list a few of the more important ones with the recommended levels. Each pound of feed should contain:
5,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin A
500 IU of vitamin D
7.5 IU of vitamin E
one IU of vitamin K
6 milligrams of vitamin B-12, etc.
In addition, the feed must contain Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Calcium, Phosphorus, Iron, etc. The food substances of importance in the nutrition of all your chickens are:
1.) Proteins
2.) Carbohydrates
3.) Fats
4.) Vitamins
5.) Minerals
6.) Water
Are conditioning aid necessary? If your fowls diet is, sufficient in the above listed nutrients, then no, they definitely do not need ant supplements.
It is my opinion that the perfect diet is impossible to obtain. Let me give you just one example of why I say this. Hard to Eastern wheat is 13.5 percent crude protein, where soft of Western wheat is 10.8 percent. Oats from the Midwest states are 11.8 percent crude protein, where the oats grown in the pacific coast states are 9 percent. This is the type of variables one would have to be aware of to formulate the prefect diet.
It is not the intent of this article to confirm nor deny that conditioning aids are required and essential. It is to inform you of some basic nutritional requirements or poultry, the decision to use or not to use conditioning aids is entirely up to the individual. However, I will say that through the years I have tried and/or seen the results of most all the conditioning aids advertised in the magazines and they, in my opinion, are all exceptional.
While we are on the subject of condition, it is very important for everyone to understand that each rooster or hen is an individual and each is different in one way or another. So, if you use a conditioning aids, the instructions for use are really just guidelines, no set of instructions can work exactly the same on each bird. For example: some birds are very active, they are scratching and moving all day long. This type of bird naturally needs more feed because he is expending much more energy than a lazy bird that sits on his roost half the day.
As I said before, all the keeps and conditioning aids are very good. But they cannot replace common sense. For example: if your bird is "coming on" too soon, then you must cut back on what you have been giving him for a few days, if he is not "coming on" fast enough you must increase. If there was a fool proof, cut and dried method of conditioning all chickens then the score board would read all draws!
As a closing thought, I would like to say that more roosters have been beaten on the work bench than are ever whipped in the pit!
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