Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1918-03-25
POULTRY NOTES


Wartime conditions have brought
about many changes in poultry work.
It has become necessary to adopt
different methods, or to stop keep
ing poultry altogether. In the first, =,
place, the fact has been learned that
complex rations are not necessary in
order to get eggs. In recent test,
two pens Of 70 pullets each were
used. A ration containing flour,
ground oats, bran, corn meal, alfal-
ia, beef scraps, gluten and oil meal
yielded no more eggs than simpli-
fled ration made up Of so pounds OF
ground oats, so pounds Of bran and
Is pounds of beef scraps. While the
complex ration gave no better results
it increased the cost of eggs per
cent, besides entailing much addi-
tional labor.
Both the labor problem and the
feed problem are vital at the present
time. When the cost Of both can be
reduced by feeding simple rations,
there would seem to be no good reas-
on for clinging to old-time theories.
Experience has shown that the sim
pie mash described, used in connec-
ton with wheat and corn, or oats
and corn as a scratch feed, will give
very satisfactory results.
When small flocks are kept, the
plan of using a trap nest in the par
tition between two pens is perfectly
feasible The hen enters the nest
from one pen and leaves it by an
other. The hens which pass through
the nest are obviously those which
lay, although occasionally, as all
farmers know, a hen will go on a
nest and not lay. In general way
though, this test will help to sort out
the poor layers.
Another way in which poultry
keeping is being revised is in early
Matching. OF late years there has
been a tendency to postpone hatch
ing until late in the season, partly
because late Matching is easier, and
also because many farmers believe
that chickens can be grown faster
after warm weather comes. This is
a mistake. Experience and expert
ments have shown that early-hatch-
ing insures more rapid gains besides
having a favorable influence on the
size OF the individuals. Late hatched
chickens seldom grow as large as
those hatched early. Moreover, early
Matched chicks will lay quicker than
those Matched late. Rooster growers
commonly have pullets of American
breeds laying by the first of July,
OF course this not not to their liking,
for a pulIet can not be sold as a
roaster after it has laid five or six
eggs. But the tendency of early
Matching to bring about early laying
is illustrated.
It is declared by experts that
chicks Matched the first of March
will weigh more at four months than
those Matched a month later. The
greatest growth is always made dur
ing the first six weeks, and the early
Matched chickens have the advan-
tage of favorable growing weather,
because high temperature is inimical
to-. the development of all chickens.
Another incidental advantage is
found in the fact that early hatched
chickens are not troubled with lice,
even when raised with hens, to such
an extent as those hatched after the
weather becomes warm.
Some experiments made in Canada
showed that pullets hatched before
the first of May produced eggs at a
feed cost of 1873 cents. The cost of
the eggs from year old hens was
1872 cents, while for every dozen
eggs laid by hens of the aged class,
the cost of feed was 1913. There
seems to be no need for amplifying
the argument in favor Of early hatch
ing and the use of pullets.
Feeding of the chickens as well as
the mature hens is also being re-
vised, The fact has been learned
that much of the mortality among
chickens under six weeks is due to