The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1896-01-04
Avoid Loo nIuol corr.

NY hens are doing very well this fall,
having laid right along through the
month of October. Generally I expect
nv hens to stop laying at moulting
time, and such was my experience in
the years when fed great deal of
corn and corn meal. l remember that
one year got my last egg Oct. 2. This
year 1 have been getting daily about
one-fifth as many eggs as have hens.
That of course is not a spring record,
nor can spring record be expected in
October. During the summer my fowls
were shut up and we're fed on oats and
wheat. Later ia the fall the change
was made to corn and oats, in about
equal quantities by weight l believe
my fowls are doing well now merely
because they have not had enough corn
to make them fat.
l have a neighbOr who started in last
spring with about forty hens. He is
seventy years old and has been keeping
fowls about his whole life, so far as
know, But he keeps them as his father
did before him. evidently stunning
what the books say as to food for hens.
Last week he came over to ask how my
hens were doing, and seemed aston
ished when I told him. To confirm my
words I showed him a dish full of nice
large eggs He said his entire flock of
hens was only laying one egg in five
days. He was discouraged and going to
kill them all off. They had been doing
nothing all through the summer. DuIN
Ior L, 1. i
about 20 of his old hens and found no
sign of egg development in them. The
embryonic eggs were sovery small that
he had no regret for having killed the
birds. His wife complained that the
fowls were too fat for good eating. AL
together he was disguised. Asked what
he had been feeding, he replied corn
and some wheat The solution was
plain. He had fed his flock on food
that made them fat. 1 had paid little
attention to my flock except to see that
the birds did not get fat The result
of not getting fat was continued egg
production. Fat had stopped his hens
from laying.
Of the ability of fat to arrest the de-
velopment of eggs 1 had an example
last spring. One of my hens got her feet
hurt in the winter, so when we turned
out the hens last spring she did not like
to move about. She ate we'll and was in
perfect health. Yet on account of nom
activity she grew very fat. We let her
alone for months, to see if she would
show any sign of laying, but she did
not. At last, four months after the
others had begun to lay, we killed her.
When dressed she weighed ten pounds,
but was so very fat that we could not
think of eating her till we had pulled
off much of the fat. 1t came off in
great leaves, like leaf lard, except it
was yellow. The leaves were found in
all parts Of her even under the skin on
the shoulders. When we had pulled off
what we deemed necessary. her eatable
carcass had been reduced to a weight
Of five pounds. She had a great many
embryonic eggs, but they had doubtless
been of the same size for four months,
and would have been no larger had we
allowed her to live for four months
more Somehow or other when the fat
tening qualities are unusually stimu-
lated the development of the eggs seems
to cease. The neighbor of whom Just
spoke has four separate pens and
houses. If those fat hens were mine, |
would separate the old from the young.
and put the fat ones on a short ration.
probably of bran and oats. l would not
dare to feed oats altogether, fearing to
make some of them crop bound by their
filling their crops with oats and then
water. But bran would have the effect
OF bulky food that would not too
greatly expand. My neighbor says that
when he feeds oats his hens do not eat
them readily after a few days, and in
fact will not eat them at all unless
they are starved to it. Very well, that
is just what would want some food
that they would eat so little of that
their fat would begin to be burned I'D
in keeping up the natural heat of their
bodies.
The fall would seem to be a good time
to begin work of this kind, for the
cool weather would force a rapid burn
ing up of the fat. John Vinton.
Keeping Qualities of Grapes.-Much
loss occurs every year from lack of
Knowledge of the limitations of grapes