Evening star., 1914-12-20
Poultry Yard Notes.

Eggs are eggs these days. in Wash
ington as we'll as in other large cities
throughout the country. Strictly fresh
hennery eggs-the "yesterlaid" kind
brought 55 to go cents a dozen in
Washington during the week: and
| more cold weather such as arrived In
| the east last Monday night will prob
ably cause these prices to be main
tained or even advanced. Such being
the case. it behooves every poultryman,
be his flock large or small, to make
life as pleasant as possible for the
hens, SO that they may perform their
full duty.
When the weather is swapping cold.
as it was early this week, try heating
the hens night feed Of grain. II the
| oven is large enough. put the grain in
a baking pan and place in the oven in
the middle of the afternoon. See that
it doesn't scorch, but that it becomes
thoroughly warmed or heated before
feeding time. Feed the hot grain in
feed troughs. so that the heat may not
their drops filled with crisp, warm
grain; they will be more comfortable
all night, even in the coolest weather,
by reason of this little extra atten-
tion, and the result will surely show in
maintained egg production.
An occasional feed Of boiled grain,
fed steaming hot, will also be relished
wheat, rye or a mixture of these with
cracked corn-to simmer on the back
of the stove or range all day. Add
little salt, but no pepper or cayenne;
feed at night in a feed trough, and
watch the hens go after it.
Now is the time to buy breeding
cockerels, If you intend to buy, to order
your day-old chicks if you do not in
tend to hatch your own; to arrange for
Matching eggs if you mean to operate
an incubator or TO set a number of
hens and to put the entire plant in
readiness for the vital business of
Matching and raising plenty of chicks
in the spring.
That there is great deal of differ
ence between Matching lots of chicks
and raising lots Of chicks will be ad-
mltted by every poultryman. Under
ordinary conditions. If sixty chicks out
of hatch of 1875 are brought to ma
turity the poultryman thinks himself
lucky. But there are many poultry
raisers. men and women, who go year
after year with a net loss that will not
average 10 per cent, unless something
wholly unforeseen and not to be guard
ed against increases the mortality. 1t
is all matter of proper methods of
brooding and feeding the young chicks.
Chicks that are kept in properly con-
Structed brOoders, neither too warm or
to cold and with good ventilation, and
that are fed properly-neither over or
underfed-and given plenty of clean,
pure water, clean sharp grit, etc, will
not sicken and die, but win grow and
develop rapidly. After all, what does 1t
avail any poultry raiser to hatch 500
chicks and lose half of them, or more,
before they are two weeks old?
An exhibitor at one of the big shows
recently failed to capture place with
his entry of well developed, business
disappearing fowls. The hens were
built for business; they lacked many
of the points looked for by most judges,
and SO they were given no ribbon. But
the owner of the pen saw the bright
side even of this apparent failure He
had big sign painted. which he placed
on the exhibition coop. The sign read:
They Didn't Win-Were Not Expected
| to. But Gracious. How They Lay" The
I sign attracted more attention than did
| the blue and red ribbons on neighbor-
| ing coops; the owner Of the fowls was
kept busy answering questions and
showing proofs. and his orders for
| Matching eggs and breeding stock were
more than double in number and total
amount than those of the man who
| owned the first prize pen in the same
| class.
! Hoppers of dry mash kept before the
| hens all the time will do more to in
| crease and maintain egg production
than any other one item of feeding.
| At present prices of feed, etc, the
one-hundred-egg hen Is not worth her
| board and lodging. and she certainly
| is not worth saving for breeding stock.
The trap nest will weed this class of
| performers out of the flock, and moth
| ing else will.
| Roup. while more prevalent during
the winter than in summer, is really
| year around plague of the poultry
yard. The disease may be cured, but
| it Is never advisable to use hens or
male birds that have had the disease
and have been cured, as breeding stock.
Such fowls. after they have completely
| recovered. should be fattened as quick
! ly as possible and sent to market. Be
| certain, however. that recovery is COM
plete before the fowls are marketed.