Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-10-21
Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph.
Egg-Laying and Feather-GrOWing.

gg-Laylng ana Fealher-GrOWlDy.
[ have never realized so forcibly as
this season the severe drain on the
vitality of a fowl during the noting
season. This drain is heightened when,
as is the case with my own Brahnas
and Plymouth Rocks, they continue to
lay literally while shedding their feath-
ers In the winter, spring and early
summer I find it difficult to keep my
hens from becoming too fat, although
fed largely on heterogeneous food, with
no corn whatever, but now the Brah-
mas, a breed readily inclined to take
on flesh, have apparently hardly an
ounce of fat on their bodies, though
fed a liberal iatiCn Of fattening food
in addition to their usual bill of fare
and such appetites!. They have to eat
to sustain life, to grow a new crop OF
feathers starting all over their bodies.
and to form the eggs they are very
generously producing
The strongest need for food comes,
[ think, for the new growth of feati-
ers If one were able to count the
feathers that in Il comparatively brief
space of time at this season of the
year are PRODUCED by hen, he would
be able better to appreciate the effort
which nature has to make in fitting
new garments to the bodies Of our
foWls-and just here comes in Il very
practical point in the breeding Of poul
try, and especially Brahmas. A fowl
with an enormous coat of feathers
cannot now be expected to do more
than live and grow the feathers. 1t
is for this reason that Il Cochin goes
completely out Of the business of egg
production during some months of the
year, for her tremendous covering is
a work of time as well as of strength.
Heavily fowls for this rca-
son are not the most practical. We get
in the shoW rooms more Of the English
type of bird than is strictly called for
hy our standard-heavily and some
what loosely feathered, a handsome
bird from an artistic point of view,
but far less prolific in eggs than the
Brahma of closer feather, such as must
be produced to conform well to the
American standard. This calls for &
male from the shoulder to the tell.
but the heavily-plumaged Brahma is
very apt to have Il convex outline to
the back, with often veritable Cochin
''cushion.' The efforts of fanciers then
to get these heavily plumaged birds is
a distinct injury to the breed, and
should be diScountenanced by every
true friend of the Brahma, which is,
l firmly believe, the most beautiful
and among the NEST profitable, if pro-
perly bred, of all the breeds. Let the
Brahmas be kept UP to weight, but
let the Cochin f1utfiDess of feather be
left to the Cochin breed.
AS there is so great a drain upon
the fowl ut the melting season the ut
most good care is needed to keep the
birds healthy and vigorous, and to
keep them laying also, not so abund-
antly as at some other seasons of the
year, of course, but still with sufficient
regularity to permit them to "pay their
way" A little extra care and good
feed is needed to accomplish this.
Feed oftener than at other times, but
let the food be of kind to supply the
new wants of the hen as we'll as the
Old Meat ought to be fed generously
at this time, and milk il one has it,
for these two articles furnish splendid
nateri3l for the growth of feather, as
does also fish if one is situated so as
to obtain it economically.
We have much to learn yet as to the
best method of feeding poultry in order
to get the best results, and while by
far too many Cyerfeed during the
greater portion of the year, | am con-
Vlnced that a great deal is lost that
reed not be lost at the moulting period
by failure to supply in sufficient abund-
ance the kind of food that is needed
at this special time. On too many
farms three months, and sometimes
more, are lost in egg-production simply
because the fowls have to appropriate
every bit of the heterogeneous food they
get to the support of life and the send
ing out of a new crop Of feathers, and
there is frequently not sufficient of
the right kind of nourishment to send
the feathers out rapidly, and the fowl
goes about half stripped of its plumage
when the new feathers ought to be
continually making good the loss of
the old. The practical poultryman has
DO use for eNcessiy ely feathered fowls,
but until he can induce his birds not
to shed their coats at all in the fall,
he ought to adopt wise measures to
help them over this most trying period
of the year, and at the same time help
them TO be something other than a
dead weight of expense upon his
hands.-Country Gentleman.
\ Warming Against Wet Fay.