The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1906-06-21
ALFALFA FOR POULTRY


alfalfa in any of the poultry journals
and yet | have demonstrated to ms
satisfaction during the past year thai
Ii excels clover both as green foot
for growing chicks and a winter rel
ish for adult fowls. We have a field
OF ten acres sown to alfalfa stretch
ing just below the colony coops and
pens, where | raise my chicks.
During last summer | noticed tina;
as soon as | gave the chicks free
range they would seek this field and
spend hours in the growing alfalfa
particularly when it blossomed ready
for cutting. BY close observation
found that they ate the tender tops
and purple buds ravenously and GER
talnly seemed to thrive on the food.
| tried sowing some seed in my
nursery pen and 1t was wonderful
10 see how the chicks enjoyed it.
wee, fluffy fellows just from the in
cubator. This set me to thinking.
When winter came on | housed one
hundred pure Buff Cochin pullets in
fairly roomy and comfortable house.
The large hay barn was stored to
the roof with alfalfa and millet hay.
From the former the leaves and
dried blossoms, still green in hue. fell
In masses OF fine fragrant litter, USE
Tess to the cattle and horses which
only ate the bulkier stems. All win
Ter long | used this alfalfa chaff for
litter in my houses, bedding the floor
deep every day. The hens scratched
IN 1t for their grain and ate every
available bit they could pick up BY
night the floor would be bare and a
fresh supply was thrown in ready for
the morning meal.
My hens have always done well as
winter layers, but this season they
have outdone themselves and made a
record which is the wonder and envy
OF all my neighbors. | give the cred
IT to alfalfa, especially as some close
nelghbors with warmer houses-one
OF them heated-Who bought patent
gg-making foods, protein and blood
meal in large quantities AMI who have
bone mills and feed green bone all
winter, with oyster shells, mica grit
and cut clover, got next to no eggs
at all. In fact the one who has the
heated chicken house, did not average
three eggs week and the other
barely got enough for family use. One
has a flock of five hundred Brown
Leghorns and the other two hundred
and fifty pure Barred Rocks. Both
neighbors have bought eggs for hatch
Ing, of me this spring and are going
to try Cochins for winter layers.
In past winters eggs from my old
hens have been few and far between.
1t was the pullets that laid the eggs.
but not only did the hens lay, but
want to sit, just as If it was summer
weather. broke as many as a dozen
at time last January. In the face
OF facts like these | naturally give
the credit to alfalfa. This was the
sole addition to their feed and the
only grain they had was corn and an
occasional feed of boiled oats for we
did not sow wheat last year. At the
present writing I have over six hun
dred thrifty growing chicks scratch
ing in alfalfa litter for their grain,
whereas in the neighborhood the hens
are now only just beginning to sit |
and nobody has any chicks as yet. r
have become an enthusiast on the |
subject of alfalfa and | say to all |
breeders of chickens, SOW it in the |
pens and also store it as a winter
egg producer.-A Subscriber.