Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1919-02-13
GETTING EGGS
ALL The time
Results Of This Years Exper-
fence In Tennessee Poultry
Yards Worth Noting
EARLY MATCHED CHICKS PAY
For the Keeper Of Few Hens These
Remarks Are Peculiarly Timely;
and on the Farm They Are Being
Applied All the Time.

(By r. N. Crane, Division Of Exten-
sion, University of Tennessee.)
Hens seldom lay eggs before very
late winter or early spring. The fowls
that lay during the fall months and
the early winter months are the early
Matched pullets. BY early Matched il
meant pullets Matched in February,
March, and the first two weeks Of
April.
After one has matured pullets, bear
in mind that in order to get eggs water
is most essential. More than three
fourths of the composition OF the
fowls body and also of the egg 10
composed of water See that protein
is supplied in the feed. The protein
of the feed is changer by the fowls to
albumen or white OF the eggs. See that
the feeds have q liberal supply Of
fats and carbohydrates, as these con-
stitute very largely the yolk Of the
eggs.
Table and garden waste contains a
considerable amount of both of these
the protein feed in a more concen-
trated form and in greater quantities.
This can best be fed in the form of
meat scraps or fresh ground bone
which can be obtained in the market
house at 3 cents a pound One ounce
of these green cut bones to each fowl
three or four times week is quite
sufficient; and greater quantity is
lisble to disarrange the system Of the
fowls and to cause trouble.
In supplying meat scraps, fowls
will not eat so much, and the same
care in the feeding is not necessary.
Meat scraps should be fed in connec-
ton with dry mash.
Five pounds OF meat scraps to 10
pounds of corn. meal and 10 pounds OF
wheat bran is about right. This
should be thorely mixed together for
the dry mash. Keep the dry mash in
trough 80 constructed that the fowls
can not waste 1t, or in dry mash hop
per. left open to the fowls ut all times.
The -garden and kitchen waste can
best be utilized by being mixed, and
thoroIy cooked before feeding. This
should be mixed with a sufficient guam.
tity OF dry mash to form a crurnbly
but not sloppy mixture, and given 70
the fowls about noon.
All the grain the. fowls will eat up
clean should be fed about five O'Clock
in the afternoon in a litter of straw,
leaves, or planer shavinIs, which
should cover the poultry house floor.
A handful Of grain to each ten hens
should be thrown in the little after
the fowls have gone to roOst to give
them exercise on leaving the perches
early in the morning.
The scratch grains fed in the litter
may consist Of any good commercial
scratch feed for sale on the market
or may consist Of one-part cracked
corn, one-part good heavy white oats,
and ore-part wheat screenings.
Ten hens properly taken care of will
supply ample eggs for table purposes
for the average family of four.
Grit, oyster shell, and graduated
should be kept in separate
dishes, SO that the fowls can always
have free access to them. The grit
serves as teeth in masticating the
feed; the oyster shell furnishes the
calcium carbonate to enclose the edible
egg; the charcoal is to keep the fowls
in condition. Lettuce leaves, celery
tops, cabbage, turnips, and other sue
cuunt vegetables also tend to keep
the fowls in good health and to stimu-
late egg production.