Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1908-11-06


horns should lay the first of October if
hatched first of April.
The next polut refers to health
ana visor. The pullet must come to
maturity with good health and vigor.
she must have had proper care during
the brooding and growing period.
A stnnted chick, chick Matched
from an egg laid by hen out of con.
dition, chick that has had to battle
win insects, pests, or chick that has
not had proper food aud exercise, will
not be profitable layer in any season.
now to mairtain the health and vigor
OF the flock is the biggest problem in
poultry keeping. To get eggs in
winter the hens must have constitu.
uonal vigor. The third point is,
that to get eggs the hens must have
1he proper kind and quantity of
1000. The hen requires more kinds
OF food than COW or hog. The
cow needs no animal food the hen
does. The hen gives more considera.
tion to cleanliness of the product than
tile COW; she seals it up in a.shell of
lime to keep it clean and she there
fore must have liberal supply of
mineral matter. All foods furnish a
certain amount of mineral matter.
but not enough to supply all the shell
material when hens are layiug
heavily. What foods should they be
feds They should have grain; but
grain alone won t do. What will
happen If the hen eats nothing bat
wheStf Remembering that she puts
nothing into au egg that she does not
eat, that an egg contains about one
NTH ounce of fat and that IL she ate
nothing but wheat she would get
enough fat for three or four eggs a
day and about enough protein for
half an egg 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
such foods as will furnish the neces.
sary food elements In proper proper.
tions; 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 ksie and to grass.
hoppers, angleworms, and grit, she
will balance her own ration. She will
eat little wheat, little clover and
a few grasshoppers or sneleworms and
eat enough Of each to furnish the egg
making elements in right proportion.
An occasional feed OF corn or oats 10
place Of wheat would improve the
ration.
This much for the food-how shall
it.be fed? Again you must take &C.
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. II she
has free range on the farm she will
keep herself busy and her muscle and
digestion in good order, bat when you
shut her up in yards you are imposing
artificial conditions and you must
provide exercise for her. have kept
hens for year on a bare board floor
in 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 constitution aud
their usefulness, while other hens fed
in the same way but with ground
floor and deep litter to scratch in and
yards TO run In laid over l2 dozen
eggs each, and at the end of the year
were still in the business. The hen
needs exercise. The demand for ami.
NAL food may be supplied in different
ways. Skim milk. milk curds and
will take the. place of meat
If enough Of it can be fed. Skim
milk is largely water and q heavy
lay ing hen can scarcely drink enough
Of it to get the necessary amount of
animal food. There is nothing better
than fresh cat lean meat and bones,
the danger from uncooked meat
scraps, however, being that they are
liable to contain disease germs, and
unless 1t is known TO be free from
disease it is better to cook 1t. The
commercial afticle Of beef scraps put
up by the large packing houses are
largely used; some OF the stuff sold
for poultry food 10 only fit for ferti-
lizer, however. During seasons Of
the year when insects and worms
are plentiful and the fowls have the
liberty of the farm, little animal
food may be fed.
Another point about ieeding grain