Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-01-03
Management of Hens in Winter.
Fanny Field in Prairie Farmer.

"But," eXclaims some one, "you
have not told us about the houses,
fixtures, yards, and the best Breeds
surely you are not going to skip
all that" Yes, am, every bit
Of it for the present. If / go on
and take everything up in regu-
lar order | shall be talking about
the winter care of hens next July,
and that wouldn't be appropriate at
all-at leastit wouldn't come up to
my ideas in regard to the "eternal
fitness of things, "-and l am bound
to make these "Poultry Papers"
"seasOnable," as well as practical, or
perish in the attempt. To begin
with, take it for granted that the
fowls are in q comfortable house, but
if you have neglected to attend to this
very important part of the work you
had better do so at once. This win
tering fowls in a house where the
cracks are so large and numerous
that the cold comes right through in
big slices, and the rOofso dilapidated
they can study astronomy on clear
nights without going out of doors, is
a piece of objectionable shiftlessness,
and the farmer who keeps fowls in
such places ought to be indicted for
cruelty to animals. What do l call a
comfortable poultry house? One in
which the inside temperature keeps
above the freezing point, even though
the mercury outside drops to a cipher.
Such houses go long way towards
inducing hens to lay in winter, when
eggs command the highest price.
Artificial heat? ?" No, l don't be-
lieve in artificial heat in poultry
houses except for raising early chicks.
Fowls that are kept in artificially
warmed houses are very sensitive to
cold, and suffer from the least expos
IRE to the cold outer air.
HOW TO FEED.
The next thing is the food. Every
morning about as soon as they can
see to eat the fowls should have a
warm breakfast of boiled vegetables
mixed up with wheat bran and corn
meal. But don't feed the same thing
every morning from now until warm
weather; experience has taught me
that hens lay most when fed upon
a variety Of food. Potatoes, turnips,
carrots, pumpkins, squashes, celery
tops, scraps from the table, anything
Of the kind when properly cooked
will be greedily devoured and turned
togood account. Our way of prepar-
ing this food is to boil the potatoes,
or whatever happens to be on the bill
Of fare at the time, until soft enough
to mash easily, and then thoroughly
mix with enough bran and corn meal
two parts of bran to one of meal
to make stiff mess; this is sea-
soned slightly with salt and fed
warm. Sometimes we scald wheat
bran and middlings with hot skim
milk, and feed for a change; and
again we boil up bones and refuse
meat, take out the bones and thicken
the soup with bran and meal. This
is supeiOr egg food. An hour or
two after breakfast we scatter among
the litter in the shade a few hand
fuls of oats, sunhower-seeds, wheat,
or buckwheat, sometimes one thing
and sometimes another. This is
given more to amuse the hens and
keep them scratching than for any.
thing else. At noon they get a light
feed of oats, wheat or buckWheat
and at night a full feed of cOrn-cOrr
most of the time, and always wher
the weather is extremely cold. Corn
digests, slowly and is therefore just
the - Ng to "stand by" during the
long cold winter nights.
RAW BONE AND OTHER STUFF.
Besides all this we give our fowls
raw bone, a pint to every dOzer
fowls, three times week; and OF
the other days the same allowance 0
meat, raw or cooked, unless we have
plenty of milk. When there is mill
enough to go around, no meat il
given and when we have sunflowe
seed enough to give a little ever!
day, less meat is given. Sunfower
seed is rich in oil, and will take tn,
place Of meat to a certain extent
Water or milk is kept by the fowl
throughout the day; cabbage head
are kept fastened where they cal
help themselves at any time, andHth
boxes for gravel and crushed Oyste
shells are never allowed to get empty
"a good deal ofwOrk." Yes, lots 0