The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-09-08
The Governments Chicken Farm in Bal.

The Governments Chicken Farm in Bal
timore County.-The United States Depart
ment Of Agriculture is going to try an expert
ment of breaking the domestic hen of her desire
TO set and to attempt to make her lay eggs in
| greater number.
The department has secured the services OF
Robert II. Slocum, hen expert, and will
| shortly start its experiments at the quarantine
station of the Bureau of Animal Industry,
situated at st. Denis, Baltimore county, near
the Relay House, on the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad. The experiments will be under the
direct charge of the Animal Husbandry Office
of the Bureau of Animal Industry of the De-
partment of Agriculture, and the purpose will
be to train the hens to lay more frequently,
and especially to induce them to lay at least
once day in cold weather. 1t has been found
that the hen is more inclined to set and hatch
than to lay eggs.
Secretary Wilson, finding that, on account
OF lack of suitable location in Washington, he
has determined to establish hen farm at st.
Denis. White Plymouth Rock fowls will be
used for the experiments, not because Of any
special preference to this variety, but for rea-
sons of convenience.
The experiments will begin with test of
feeding the pullets to settle the question: first,
whether the method of feeding or management
VIII increase the average egg yield of flock of
mems. The department has been experiment.
ing in small way at the Maine Experimental
Station in breeding hens for egg production
and at the Rhode Island Experimental Station
IN breeding turkeys.
The first work at the hen farm at st. Denis
will be the study of the moist and dry mash
systems of feeding and of the use of the self
FEEDING hoppers. A house divided into three
parts, or pens, each pen accommodating 25
nens with suitable yards, will be constructed.
This house, together with incubators, brooders,
ETC., sufficient to raise enough pulets to replace
those used in experiments will comprise the
Immediate continent
The different lots of fowls are to be housed
exactly alike, and all conditions made equal
except the methods of feeding. The fowls in
pen No. will receive morning and night
mixture of whole or cracked grains, scattered
ln the litter, and at noon moistened mash.
Those in pen No. 2 will receive morning and
night the same grain mixture fed in the litter
Exactly as with pen No. /, and the same mash
aynoon, except that this mash will be fed dry.
The only difference between these two pens
viii be that pen No. receives the mash moist
enec. while pen No. receives exactly the same
masL dry.
/ The fowls in pen No. 8 will be fed on exactly
the same feed as those in the other pens, but
will be fed from two self feeding hoppers, one
containing the grain and the other the mash.
This mash will, OF course, be dry. The hopper
containing the grain will be opened about 4 p.
M. in the winter and P. NJ. in the summer,
and will be left open until the next noon. 1t
will then be closed and a second hopper con-
tanning the mash will be opened, and left so
until the first hopper is again opened late in
the afternoon. In this way the hens will have
feed before them at all times, and can eat as
much or as little as they please.
A comparison can then be made with pen
No. 2, the only difference in the two pens being
that pen No. 2 receives its feed at stated inter-
walls and in amounts indicated by the appetites
OF the fowls, while the fowls of pen No. can
help themselves at all times. This comparison
will show the difference between the hopper
feeding system and the feeding at stated times,
and its effect upon the increase of the egg yield
of q flock of hens noted. In other words, the
department wants to find out whether the
method of feeding the hens all they want and
at all times by the hopper method is better
than the system employed by human beings
of eating two or three meals day at stated
times.
Strict record will be kept of the output of the
fowls each day and on this record the decision
will be made.
Pulets will be raised from the various pens
and the test repeated twice to confirm results
and note the effects of the different systems on
vitality.