Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-08-02


are heard from those who start
hennery as a business alone. Sick
ness will come in and destroy hun
dreds, and in spite of all your care
they don't pay, and you give up IN
despair. | believe that hens connect
ed with the dairy or large household
will be more profitable than keeping
hens as a business alone. On a large
scale you will have to separate your
large focks into smaller ones, and as
the chief foundation of success is
variety in food it is almost impos-
sible to make up for the advantages
YOU have on a dairy farm.
Skim and butter milk, and even
whey, are great helps towards this,
and they may be made into many
different dish for your fowls. Mix
their morning meal with hot milk,
and YOU can give them nothing bet
ter. Give it as a drink, and you will
be astonished to see what a hen Is
able to consume. Milk curdled with
cheese-rennet is also eaten with great
avidity; and cheese crusts, fresh or
old are certainly a relish. With
skim milk, plenty of vegetables for
winter, and green grass for summer,
you will see how your feed bills
reduced and the number OF eggs
doubled.
AS guide, | put down a feed list
arranged for 20 hens. !. Grain feed:
2 ID. oats, 7 ID. wheat, ID. corn.
The oats should be gwen first,
next the wheat, and last the corn, as
the hens will leave the oats if the
others are fed first.
AS a change, feed barley, buck
wheat and rice. ?. Soft feed: l ID.
bran. shorts and middlings, mixed
OF alternately, I quart boiled potatoes
l quart turnips, beets or carrots.
ANY refuse from the table, old
bread, and rich dish water may be
used as substitute and change.
Mash and serve luke-warm in the
morning
The dry grain feed should be
given just before roosting time.
But this is not enough. Be up
early in the morning; don't forget
your fowls in the evening, and don't
believe that they need no water.
keep them busy III winter by putting
some litter on the floor so that they
may scratch for their food. Break
up all bones before the fatty matter
is out of them (some have a mill for
that purpose); crack broken crockery
glass and shells in pieces the size of
peas; do not lose an opportunity to
give old broken-down mortar. II
your hens have chance, you will see
how they will help themselves on a
plastered wall. In winter give them
a small, extra treat at noon, such as
chopped clover hay and sorghum,
which will take long to pick up.
Have an airy summer-house and
winter-house where their combs will
not freeze, and where there is plenty
of room for gravel and box of dirt
or ashes. The perches must be two
inches wide, easy to reach, and on
one level. The sun must have access
to the room.
1t is a good idea to dig the hen
house in the side of a hill, and cover
the whole front with double win
dows, which may be raised in fine
weather. Another is to arrange the
windows of hot-bed outside, or as
an addition to the hcn-house, so that
the hens may have a sunny, covered
place in which to scratch and battle
in the dust. Do all you can to pro-
cure sun in their winter-abode. Pull
down their perches now and then,
and replace with new ones.
Rather than hatch vermin in the
corners. sprinkle with Kerosene.
whitewash, and pass a burning, sui
phured rag along the creviccs if
needed. Clean out often enough to
keep the air pure. See that the