Evening star., 1916-08-27
Pointers for Pou|trymen.

How often are the water pans or
other vessels in the henhouses cleaned?
They should be thoroughly cleaned
every day during hot weather, and not
less frequently than twice a week at
other seasons. A foul, dirty water ves-
sci Is one of the surest media for
spreading disease throughout the flock.
The best vessel for use in the houses
is an ordinary fiat basin; one of the
cheap tin wash basins is good enough.
though a fiat galvanized iron pan is
better Either of these may be washed
easily and kept absolutely clean all the
time. If watering tanks are used it
! pays to take care of them, as such
equipment costs money. Place the fiat
open pans on boxes about eight or ten
inches high and eighteen inches
square. This keeps them off the floor
and keeps them from being filled with
dirt and litter. Place the box and pan
in a corner of the house away from the
roosts. and place over II a sloping shell
ter of boards. the upper end Of the
shelter fastened to the wall and the
lower side six or eight inches above
the edge of the water pan. This pre-
vents the fowls getting into the pan
or roosting on its edge. During the
hot weather scrub the water pan each
morning before filling 1t. and refill
with fresh. cool water during the early
afternoon.
The most valuable poultry feed on
the average farm is milk, either skim
med sweet milk or sour or butter
milk to the hogs Milk fed to hogs
makes flesh that sells for around I
or 8 cents a pound. When fed to
poultry, especially during the winter,
milk makes eggs that sell for at least
IS cents a dozen, and flesh that brings
from 5 cents to 80 cents a pound. in
the case of milkfed broilers as much
as 80 to 40 cents a pound. because in
discriminating markets milk-fed poul-
try always brings premium over the
ordinary grade. Given all the milk
they will consume, hens viii lay well
in season out of season. 1t is not
possible to overfeed milk, as can be
easily done with other feeds. so it is
safe to keep sweet milk or sour milk
before the fowls all the time.
Vessels in which milk is fed must
be washed and scalded every day. Or
dinary earthenware crooks are the best
vessels in which to feed milk to grown
fowls. as they are easily c1eansed,
while il wooden troughs are used they
soon become soaked with milk whicn
grows sour and foul to such an extent
that thorough cleansing Is impossible
If only limited quantity Of milk is
available for feeding grown fowls it
Is best used to moisten mash feeds, as
when used in this way the milk will be
evenly divided among the fowls.
Feed the laying hens for favor and
color of eggs Glover. bran, wheat,
alfalfa, oats. fresh cut grass all are
useful for producing rich, highly col
| ored, firm textured and delicately fla
vored eggs.
To be successful in the poultry busi-
! ness 1t is necessary that the poultry
man understand the principles of
breeding to a degree sufficient to
able him to mate his pens SO that the
eggs for Matching shall be Of the high
est possible degree of fertility. Not
all fertile eggs hatch. of course, and
not all chicks that are Matched grow
70 maturity, or even out of chickhood.
Every tyro knows this. But strongly
fertile eggs will hatch larger per-
centage of chicks than will eggs that
are not strong in fertility, and the
chicks hatched from such eggs will
have vastly better chance to live
and develop than the chicks that may
hatch from weak Gags. In order to
obtain eggs for Matching that are as
strongly fertile as possible the prac-
tical poultryman will begin early to
select the breeders he intends to use
next spring. Every small, poorly de-
yeloped or weak-looking pullet will
be culled out, fattened and disposed Of