Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-09-08

The hens ana ne mourning SeaSou.
Under the above caption Webb Donnell
writes the Country Gentleman letter that
all who have poultry yard and desire to
secure eggs when eggs are scarce will do
we'll to read carefully. He says:
take considerable pride in the fact that
my Light Brahmas and Plymouth Rocks
are prolific, all-the-year-feund layers, and
that when my neighbors' aocks are shedding
their feathers and refusing to lay an egg,
mine are shedding their feathers and still
laying finely.
1 am sure that part of this is due to the
fact that these fowls have been bred to Sc
cure prolific laying as well as fancy points,
but this is not all, although of the utmost
importance in securing extra fine layers,
for fowls can be bred to secure great lay
ing qualities just as cows can be bred 20 Sc
crete large quantities of milk and butter
fats. 1 pride myself somewhat upon the
idea that can feed poultry so as to get a
large yield of eggs from them-not simply
in the summer when every hen that ever
intends to lay an egg will surely be about
it, but in that period also when eggs are
usually as scarce in the nests as teeth IN
the hens mouth-the mouliing period. Per
haps some description of the feed and care
that makes this possible with my fowls may
be of service to others.
In the first place, it should be understood
that "poultry foods" cayenne pepper and
all other condiments, have no place 10 my
poultry quarters. My fowls do not need
Stimulation" and 1 think there are very
few fowls that do need any of these foods
that are 30 extensively advertised. A hen
that is well-bred hen-needs only the right
care and sufficient supply Of the right kind
of food to make her lay we'll. The great
fault of most feeders is that they either give
too much, causing the hen to get fat, or too
little, when it all goes to support life and
none is left for the manufacture of eggs; or
the food is not of the kind that will nourish
the hen and afford enough of the needed
material for making eggs.
Now, there is needed for the support of
life and making of eggs, lime, albuminoids
and fat, and these must be furnished in the
right proportions, for if too much fat, for
instance, is given, it will be stored up upon
the internal organs, and then good bye to
eggs. This explains why those who feed
large quantities of corn and corn meal to
fowls especially i'll warm or temperate
weather, have such "poor luck" securing
eggs.
Wheat, oats, lean meat, fish, clover and
milk are highly heterogeneous, and | have
found also that they contain 81 fficient fat
and even more than sufficient-for all the
fowls requirem ,nts. make up my ration,
then, from the foods named, and even then
the Plymouth Rocks will get as fat as seals
while laying politically. The Brahmas
will lay equally as we'll, but do not take on
fat so readily.
Now as to the moulting period. At other
times the hen must have enough to live
upon, and to make eggs, and in the winter
she must also have extra food, so that she
can burn up enough in her system to keep
her warm, provided her owner is not wise
enough to keep her warm in a more huns ne
and less expensive way. But in the moult-
ing season the hen must not only have food
enough and of the right sort to live up n
and make eggs out of, but she must have
enough extra, and this of the right sort,
too, to grow new crop of feathers. The
person, then, who feeds no more IN moult-
ing time than he fed before will not get
ahead of biddy by any means.
The hen then always appropriates suf
ficient food first to live upon, and, in the
moultiDg season, to grow a new coat of
feathers with, before she ever thinks of
making an egg; and the one who doesn't
furnish enough food of the right sort
to provide for all three processes, is
pretty sure to get no eggs. In the moult-
ing period the hen must have lots of meat.
Lean meat, preferably cooked, and plenty
of wheat, or bran and middlings. More
over all her food at this season should be
cooked so that it may be easily digested and
quickly assimilated, for there is constant
and large call for food to support life, grow
feathers and make eggs. Let US help the
hens as much as possible by making it easy
for them to supply this demand and they
will repay all care given by the eggs they
will lay, that is if they are hens that have
been bred to lay, as too many flocks have
not.
But must not omit to mention one or
two other points. The fowls must be kept
hard at work, for exercise is necessary for
prolific laying, and to secure proper exer
else, give just enough food in the morning
ard during the day SO that the hens may be
constantly hungry and so induced to scratch.
At night give them all they will eat of a
warm, we'll cooked, heterogeneous ration.
Then with clean quarters and plenty to
drink, one may look for the best results.