Norwich bulletin., 1916-03-02
HENS APPETITEs VARY
 ACCORDING TO WEATHER
Records in Laying Contest Show They Consumed From 70 to 45 Pounds Of Grain in a Year.

How much can a hen eat, or how much ought she to eat, Is a much dis cussed topic among certain classes of poultry keepers. On account of the pending perhaps on the particular brand of weather, the kind of house she lives in and her own physical con- dition which means laying, loaflng, breeding, molttns. etc, no ironciad rule can be laid down. Health also has to do with the amount of food consumed and there are no doubt other factors that help to determine whether a hen should eat more or less on any particular day.
 The records in the laying contest seem to show quite conclusively that hen will consume from 40 to 46 pounds of grain in the course of year. This means an average daily consumption of about ounces or from 12 to 13 pounds per day to each one hundred hens. If 1t be assumed that the average grain mixture weighs l 1-2 pounds to quart, then quarts or a trife more would be about the average grain ration for hundred hens each day. This is almost exactly the amount recommended by the Maine Experiment Station that sug- gests 4 quarts of corn, quarts of wheat and quarts Of oats daily for each one hundred Iavinr bullets.
 In the laying contest the grain ra- ton COnSlSIS OI NUedl anu NAdShCA cor nonly, equal parts by weight. The oats are fed in the mash, This sug- gestion regarding the amount of grain presupposes that the hens will have before them at all times an ample supply of dry mash to which they can help themselves freely.
 If permitted free access to thick sour milk hens will consume just about twice as much by weight of this pro duct as they do of grain. Trials at the Indiana Experiment Station re- suited in the consumption of 93 pounds of milk per year for each lay ing Leghorn bullet.
 In the seventeenth week of the con- | test all the birds taken together laid 3O21 eggs or 250 better than for the preceding week. obed G. Knight | Bridgeton, R. l., and Mrs. Lena c. Bray, Mt. Vernon, Mo, White and | Silver Wyandottes respectively, tied for first place with 54 eggs each. Tom | Barron's White Wyandottes from Cat forth, England, were second with a pen of White Orpingtons were third with AS eggs.
 | The three best pens in each of the principal breeds are as follows: | Pen. Plymouth Rocks
 Jules F. Francais (Barred) w. | Hampton Beach. l.. I. ........ 5S3 Is Holliston Hill Poultry Farm
 CWhite) Holliston. Mass 42O I2 Branford Farms, (White) Gro- | ton, Conn- 41d
 Wyandottes.
 27 Tom Barron, CWhite) Cat
 forth, England ........ 661 20 Obed c. Knight, (White) | Bridgeton, R. I. ....--...-... 62; 21 P. W. BaclIus, CWhite) Chat | ham, Ontario ........ ........ 54s Rhode Island Reds
 50 Jacob B. Jansen, North Ha- | ven. Conn. ..-......... 54t 45 A. w. Rumery, anviIle. N. H. 54t 37 Hillview Poultry Farm, St | Albans, Vt. ........--...... 52t White Leehorns
 69 VIII Barron, Bartle. near Pres-
 ton, England ....-. ........ 55. 6S Tom Barron, Catforth, nr. | Preston, England ............ 4St 71 Abel Latham, Brierfeld, Eng
 Miscellaneous
 98 Oregon Agricultural College Il (Oregons1, Corvallis. Ore. .... 40N 9S J. Collinson, CBiack Leghorns)
 Banacre. Garstang, England se. e5 Claude Clinton, (Mottled An conas), Red Hook. N. Y. .... s6