Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-03-10
Winter Profit From Hens.

w. H. Jenkins of Delaware county
New York, writes: Can hens be made
to pay good profit when confined ir
houses in winter? AS hens are usually
kept, they do not generally commence
laying on paying basis until warm
weather comes in the spring, whe,
nature furnishes the conditions which
are necessary for egg production. Egg
laying is part of reproduction, and
instinct prompts the birds to fulfill
this function during the most favor.
able seasons.
To obtain eggs in winter we must
make the conditions as nearly like
those in spring as possible. First
notice that the main conditions are
warmth, plenty of room for exercise,
and we'll balanced food.
Houses should be built low, double
boarded, with building paper between
the boards, and under the roof, if
made of shingles, and 1 prefer tight
floor made of matched boards. There
should be large windows to let in the
sunlight, with doors to close over
them on cold nights. try to make
the house so warm that can stay in
it on the coldest days without becom-
ing uncomfortable.
The following plan of feeding has
been quite satisfactory. 1 mix bran
middlings and corn meal in about
equal parts, putting in tablespoon
full of ground bone to every two
quarts, and season the mash with a
little salt and pepper and wet up the
mixture with hot milk, when have it.
In the morning, feed the mash to
the hens, and give them only what
they will eat up at once, but not
enough to quite satisfy them. L then
scatter few handfuls of grain, using
wheat, oats and buckwheat for a
variety, on the floor and cover it with
leaves, chaff or other loose litter This
is done several times day to induce
the hens to scratch for the grain and
thus get plenty of exercise. In the
coldest weather feed them boiled
corn at night. L give them warm
water to drink and keep cut clover,
meat and bone, grit and shells in
boxes SO made that they cannot get
into them and scratch them out. l
hang up cabbages and chop up the
celery trimming to keep them supplied
with green food. L try to give them
the kind of food that hens naturally
seek when on large range in sum.
mer. Then furnish them warm
house and make them work for part
of their living.
No cockerel should be kept among
the laying hens; except when eggs are
wanted for Matching. The eggs will
keep better, and the hens will lay
more of them. / have kept several
hundred hens and had only one cock
erel, which was used in the yard OF
thoroughbreds where the eggs wert
saved for incubation.
A mistake which many people make
is in not giving their fowls sufficient
room. Last spring a man wanted me
to buy his hens. 1 went to see them,
and he was keeping seventy hens in a
room twelve feet square. He had fed
and cared for them all winter With
hardly an egg to pay him for his work.
The hennery built has ten rooms,
each twelve feet square, and it does
not pay me to keep over fifteen hens
in room. keep Buff and White
Leghorns and Minorcas. These lay q
large white egg for which I can get a
fancy price.
In my business of truck farming L
find that the hen manure saves me
considerable money in fertilizers.
When it is mixed with plaster ON the
roosts, then dried and pulverized, il is
especially valuable in growing early
vegetables. American Agricultural.