The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-07-11
FEEDING CHICKENS
FOR EGG-LAYING

A hen can easily make yolks from
wheat or corn, but to provide the
white parts in large numbers she
must have constant access to meat
scrap, or some such protein food ele-
ment, which is the principal part of
the egg-laying mash.
We learn from chemists that 100
POUNDS of corn will produce 225 yolks
and 1o4 whites, and that wheat will
make Just a few more whites than
this. Now a hen cannot lay the yolks
without the whites, and even though
we give her corn enough to make 225
eggs she can lay but 134 until we
supply some food element that will
permit her to make the 225 whites as
well as yolks.
She finds this food element in
worms and bugs, but this supply a n
not last all the year.
When we provide u birds with a
laying mash they are enabled to eat
IN o~versupply Of withdrawing ma
terial so that it will balance and cor
rect the undersupply in the grain
feed. Most egg mash formulas, and
also the commercial mashes now sold
in great quantities to a multitude of
poultrymen will produce almost twice
as many whites as yolks. This per-
mits the hen to enter the ~egg-laying
race with both egg departments func-
; tioning properly.
Some unusual proofs have been
; brought out by the Missouri expert
> ment station to show how easily the
hens egg-making organs can be made
almost useless by the kind of food
+ she is given, although she may even
: eat enough food to gain weight at
the same time. Twenty hens in a GER
tain pen were given food having no
y~olk-making material, though con-
q tanning plenty Of white substance. and
in two months time laid just eight
eggs apiece-a very bad showing.
ing.
Twenty similar fowls in another per
were fed on food having no white
making material. These eggs laic
just ten eggs a bird in the same two
months.
Still another pen of the same mum.
Der and quality of birds fed on grain:
and a well-balanced egg-laying mash
shelled out the pleasing number of 81
eggs each in the same time.
A few years ago, when grain prices
were much higher than now, the In
diana experiment station ran somr
tests and found that it cost 33 cent
a dozen to produce eggs without tn
proteIn-cOntaining mash, and only 1
cents a dozen when the birds wer
given free access to the egg-layini
mash. The Missouri tests shove
that it cost almost twice as much t
produce eggs without the mash a
with it.
If meat scrap is what causes such
difference in egg production, why nc
feed it separately and give enoug
whole grain TO take the place of tn
ground mash?
Hens much prefer the mixture
several grains IN the mash and wi
eat more scrap meat than when fe
alone, and this means more egg
Furthermore, fowls can much NOR
readily absorb the nutriment from I'll
food when the grains are ground.
One of the many excellent egI
mash formulas which is sponsored b
the Vineland, N. j., egglaying cor
test, consists of one-fifth bran. on
fifth middlings one-fifth ground GA
and one-fifth meat scrap, weight.
1t is necessary to have both q
corn and the oats wen ground, otbe
wise the birds will pick out the IarI
particles and leave the. fine pau
which really contains the ~egg-fSxmiz
material uneaten.
During the fall and winter mont
the laying hens end maturing puIle
fehould eat just as much Of the ms
as they do Of whole grains, which "
be about twelve pounds a day Of ca
for 100 birds It is usually best TO !
them have free access to the d
mash every day.
There Is no danger Of over-eatiE
for sc tbs mash is quite dry Il Is i
possible to eat il fast, and tAes fnT
make frequent trips 20 the water pc
Heavy water drinking eewa@nw