Better Farming Series 13 - Keeping Chickens (FAO - INADES, 1977, 48 p.): How poultry make use of food and water: (introduction...)

Better Farming Series 13 - Keeping Chickens (FAO - INADES, 1977, 48 p.)

How poultry make use of food and water

		*(introduction...)*
		Energy feeds
		Body- building feeds: proteins
		Mineral salts
		Vitamins
		Clean water
		Special needs of chicks, laying hens, and table poultry

(introduction...)

43. The digestive system of poultry begins with the beak and ends with the cloak and anus. A hen has no teeth to grind its feed; it swallows down its food at once.

44. The food swallowed passes into the oesophagus and then into three different organs:

· the crop where the food is moistened,
· the stomach where the food begins to be digested,
· the gizzard where the food is ground up.

45. You often see hens swallow little stones. These stones stay in the gizzard; when the feed arrives in the gizzard, it is ground up by the stones.

46. After this the feed is digested. The digested part goes into the blood and feeds the whole body. The remainder passes out through the cloaca; this is the excrement

Digestive system of a hen