Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1908-12-10
WHY EGGS ARE HIGH.
Some Ways This Expensive Necessity
May Be Turned to Profit.
by James Dryden Poultryman Oregon Agricul-
tural College. Corvallis.

the hens don't lay. The main reason
why they don't lay is because this is no
the natural laying season. In a stat,
of nature fowls lay and breed in tn,
spring season, and they haven't go
quite away from that habit. Old hab
its die hard with hens as with men
This explains why with little care tn,
hen will lay in the spring and will
much care in the fall and winter sh,
won't lay, or very seldom will. Blu
through centuries of training anc
breeding the hen is gradually gettinG
away from her old habit of laying :
few eggs in the spring and Matching
them, and it is possible now with the
proper skill in handling, to make hel
lay in winter whether she will or no
But the first thing we have to learn is
that to get eggs in winter means fight
against nature, against the old hen ma.
ture Winter is not the natural laying
season.
When a pullet has reached maturity
no matter at what season of the year
if she be maintained in good health and
vigor and gets the proper kind and
quantity of food, she will lay eggs if
oIlS ildS tiiN Ray ll4S NaltiNltS' l-Sl Us
analyze that sentence a little.
The first point raised is a question of
maturity The pullet must be mature
before she lays. If pullet lays in Oc-
tober she must be hatched early enough
in the spring so that she will reach ma
turity in October A Plymouth Rock
hatched the first of April should lay
the middle of October or first of No
vcmber. If they are to lay a month
earlier they should be hatched a month
earlier The Leghorns should lay the
first of October if hatched the first OF
April.
The next point refers to health and
vigor. The pullet must come to ma
turity with good health and vigor She
must have had proper care during the
brooding and growing period A stunt
ed chick, a chick hatChed from an egg
laid by hen out of condition. chick
that has had to battle with insect pests,
or a chick that has not had proper food
and exercise. will not be a profitable
layer in any season. How to maintain
the health and vigor of the flock is the
biggest problem in poultry keeping To
get eggs in winter the hens must have
constitutional vigor.
The third point is that to get eggs
the hens must have the proper kind and
quantity of food The hen requires
more kinds of food than a COW or a
hog. The COW needs no animal food ;
the hen does. The hen gives more con-
sideratlon to cleanliness of the product
than the COW She seals it up in a
she'll of lime to keep it clean, and she
therefore must have a liberal supply of
mineral matter. All foods furnish a
certain amount of mineral matter, but
not enough to supply all the shell ma
terial when hens are laying heavily.
What foods should they be fed?
They should have grain, but grain alone
won't do. What will happen if the
hen eats nothing but wheat? Remem
bering that she puts nothing into an
egg that she does not eat, that an egg
contains about one-ffth ounce of fat and
that if she ate nothing but wheat she
would get enough far for three or four
eggs a day and about enough protein
for half an egg a day, the thing that
will happen will be that she will re-
fuse to make eggs The hen does not
adulterate her product, otherwise she
could fill up the egg with surplus fat,
like some people make butter, out of
spurious oil or beef fat. She will make
an honest article or none at all. The
point is that the hen should have slch
foods as will furnish the necessary food
elements in proper proportions; in
other words, she should have a balanced
ration There are different ways of
balancing the ration. For instance, if
the hen has access to wheat, TO clover
or kale and to grasshOppers, angle
worms and grit, she will balance her
own ration. She will eat a little wheat,
a little clover and a few grasshoppcrs
or angleworms and eat enough of each
to furnish the egg making elements in
right proportion. An occasional feed of
corn or oats in place of wheat would
improve the ration.
This much for the food How shall
it be fed2 Again you must take ac-
count of the nature of the hen. She is
a busy creature naturally; that is part
of her life, and you must keep her busy
or let her be busy. If she has free
range on the farm she will keep herself
busy and her muscle and digestion in
pOOu OlNtl, Dul WllCll YOU Sllul llCI up
in yards you ar. imposing artificial
conditions and you must provide cxer
else for her. | have kept hens for a
year on bare board floor in a small
pen and fed them well. They laid about
three dozen eggs each during the year,
and at the end of the year with this sort
of luxury and ease they had lost their
and their usefulness; while
other hens fed in the same way, but
with a ground floor and deep litter to
scratch in and yards to run in, laid
over twelve dozen eggs each and at
the end of the year were still in the
business. The hen needs exercise. The
demand for animal food may be sup
Piled in different ways. Skim milk,
milk curds and buttermilk will take the
place of meat if enough of it can be
fed. Skim milk is largely water and
a heavy-laying hen can scarcely drink
enough of it to get the necessary amount
Of animal food There is nothing bet
ter than fresh-cut lean meat and bones,
the danger from uncOOked meat scraps,
however, being that they are liable to
contain disease germs, and unless it is
known to be free from disease it is
better to cook it. The commercial ar
ticle of beef scraps put up by the large
packing houses are largely used; some
Of the stuff sold for poultry food is
,nlv fit for fertilizer. however. During