Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1904-05-21
POULTRY
Green Food for Poultry.


To be kept in a healthy condition
poultry must have a constant supply
of green food. In the winter this is
not always done nor is it frequently
done, and when the spring comes
there is all the more reason why
green food should be supplied. On
the farms where the fowls are given
the run of the fields in the spring and
early summer, there is no particular
need to provide for a supply OF green
food, but on thousands of farms the
hens are kept shut up, especially DUR
ing the season of garden planting ana
the early periods of growth OF the
vegetables. AS farmers are coming
more and more to growing fruits and
vegetables and raising flowers this Is
necessary; for hens and gardens do
not work well together.
Too often the hens are shut into
yard and are given no systematic at
tention in this regard. The yard may
have had green grass in it at the time
the fowls were put in, but in Few
weeks not a green thing is to be
found there. This in itself shows the
great craving the fowls have for green
food. A little system in this matter
Will supply the fowls with the things
they desire in the way of green food.
In the first place the yard should be
divided into two parts by a cross
fence. There will have to be two
places through which the fowls can
enter the house, so that the two yards
may be readily used. Then keep the
fowls in one Of the yards while green
stuff is being grown in the other.
Rape is one of the best things to
put into such a yard and it has the
advantage over some other things
that the ground will not have to be
prepared for it-provided the grass
has been eaten down to the roots
by the fowls. The rape seed is quite
large in size and the sprouts readily
take hold of the ground. In a couple
of months good crop should be grow
| ing. 1t is best not to turn the fowls
| in before the rape has become twelve
or more inches high. Then they may
be turned in and will quickly convince
anyone that they have a fondness for
rape. They will strip or all the thin
| parts of the leaves leaving only the
| midveins. This may take them a
month to do. But in the meanwhile
the rape goes right on growing. and
when the hens are taken out of the
| yard, the plants grow again from the
m1dve1nS. This produces second
growth more quickly than the first
In the same yard should also be sown
lettuce, of which the fowls are very
fond If they can pick it themselves
Fowls never seem to care much about
green stuff If it is cut for them. Doubt
less this is because they find a blade
of grass or the like too difficult to eat
When it is growing on its own roots
they pick OF Just the amount they
can swallow at a time, while If 1t is
cut for them they cannot easily di
| vide it.
Oats are sometimes sown for poul
try, but the writer has not generally
found that the fowls cared for the oa
plant. However, at the North Caro-
lima experiment station we saw oats
growing in the poultry yards, and the
superintendent of the poultry declared
that the fowls ate them readily. O.
any single green feed we are more
pleased with rape than anything else
which is both easily grown and read
lily eaten by the fowls.