Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-02-05
EGGS IN WINTER.
Profitable Feeding and Management o.
Poultry in Cold Weather..

A comfortable poultry house al be
cheaply and expeditiously made in the
corner of a barn, shed or any outbuild-
ing. It should be cheerfully lighted and
face the south or west if convenient.
Tarred felt paper makes a good lining
and is obnoxious to vermin. The house
should be divided into pens, large enough
to hold twenty fowls and no more.
Fowls do better in small colonies. The
laying stock must not be crowded, or
they will not be layers long. The tenn
perature in the coolest weather should
be high enough to keep the water from
f~reezing-at any rate, warm enough to
prevent the combs Of the layers from
freezing. A wooden floor is better than
any other kind. In the cold weather the
best earthen floors will get damp and
keep so, and damp is disease and death
to poultry.
The best roost is a 2 by 4-inch scant-
ling, put broadside over two 12-inch
boards, forming a platform to catch the
droppings, which as is worth
rel. Heavy fowls should not have to
jump more than eighteen inches. Each
pen should contain a dust bath, so that
the fowls a roll in the dry dust and
keep down lice. A small box to hold
broken oyster shells, old mortar, gravel,
crockery broken into small pieces, etc.
Some of these substances are absolutely
necessary to furnish grit to grind up the
food. They are the hens teeth. A GER
tain amount goes to furnish lime for the
egg shell, but much of the lime for this
purpose can be given in the shape Of
proper food.
The hens should be kept in constant
activity. A lazy hen is never a laying
one. Cut straw, hay, chaff or dry leaves
should be scattered literally on the floor
Of each compartment, and in this all
grain fed should be thrown, so that the
hens will be kept scratching for it. A
cabbage suspended from the roof or cell
ing high enough to make the hens jump
at it is a capital way of keeping them
busy. Occasionally substitute a piece
of cows liver, lights or any tough sort
of meat for the cabbage. In very cold
weather the chill should be taken off the
water for drink.
Laying fowls require plenty of fresh
water, hence the Importance of having
the house warm enough to prevent water
freezing. Take away all the male birds
from the laying hens. The cock bird is
a nuisance in the pen of layers. He not
only incorporates the most of the food,
but teaches the hens to break eggs, and
so learn to eat them. Besides, the
stimulating diet is too fattening for him,
and will ruin him as a breeder.
In the cold weather of winter a warm
meal in the morning is necessary to
start and keep up a steady supply of
eggs. A good plan is to throw all the
waste of the kitchen, in the shape of
meat scraps, pieces Of bread, uneaten
vegetables, etc., into a pot; heat up in
the morning till nearly boiling, and
then mix bran, provender, shorts, or
whatever is most abundant or cheap on
the farm, into the hot mess, busting in a
small quantity of red pepper before mix
ing. Let the mixture stand for a few
minutes until the meal is nearly cooked:
then feed in a clean trough, with laths
over it to keep the hens from jumping
in and fouling or wasting the feed in
their eager anxiety. Feed only enough
of this soft stuff to barely satisfy, never
enough to gorge.
When Il hen has had so much food
that she will go into a corner and NOPE
she has had TOO much, and if the over
feeding is continued will soon cease to
lay. The laying hens are the active ones.
If food is given at noon it should be
oats, and scattered among the litter on
the floor. This meal should be light.
The last food in the afternoon should be
generous. Each hen should be sent to
roost with a full crop to carry her over
all the night. Green food in the shape
of vegetables, usually grown on every
farm, will be relished by the layers.
Cabbages, turnips, carrots are generally
the most convenient. Small potatoes
boiled and mixed with provender OF bran
is a good change for the morning meal.
Some of the above named vegetable s
should always be in the pens of the lay
ers. There is no danger OF their eating
too much. Red clover hay steamed,
chopped and mixed with bran and given
while hot is one of the healthiest foods
for the morning meal. Meat in some
shape must be given at least twice a
week, to furnish blood making material.
Hens fed on meat lay we'll. If given no
meat the hens will eat their eggs and
pick feathers from one another. In cold
weather warm the grain feed.
What would be generous and stimu-
lating diet for Leghorns, Minorcas and
others of the Spanish family would be
too fattening for Plymouth Rocks or
Brahmas. AS before stated, give enough
to keep the hens active. When meat is
given it is not necessary to give so much
grain. For instance, if meat is fed at
moor it will be only necessary to scatter
a few handfuls of oats in each pen to
keep the inmates at work. When a hen
becomes too fat she will lay soft shelled
eggs. Where plenty of meat is to be had
as n of the cheapest articles of food a
greater quantity of oats may be given.
Wheat is the best all round food. The
waste Of the farm in conjunction with
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