Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1891 — THE POULTRY-YARD. [ARTICLE]

THE POULTRY-YARD.

Watering the Hem In Winter. Unless the hens can have plenty of it, they cannot produce eggs. In the winter season, when the drinking vessels become frozen up with ice and are liable to crack from cold, the matter of providing water becomes a difficulty. We all know that a cold draught of water in winter chills the body, as it must be warmed by the body after it is drank; consequently, ice-water causes a loss of bodily heat. As the heat is produced from the food, all losses of heat are losses of food. Now, it is just as easy to water the hens at regular hours as it is to water the large stock, says Farm and Fireside, and the best mode of so doing is to use wooden troughs long enough to allow all the hens to drink at the sa ne time. Early in the morning, at noon and before night All the troughs with warm water, allow the hens to drink until they are satisfied, and then throw out the water that remains. In this manner the troughs will be kept clean, the hens will learn to drink at regular periods, and the warm water will invigorate them. In fact, nothing is so invigorating, or will assist in warding off the cold when the hens come off tbe roost In

the morning, with the thermometer below zero, than a drink of warm water. Much In the Bre-U—More In the Feed. There is much in the breed, but more in the feed, of any kind of animals. If chickens are kept for eggs, they should be given a variety of food, and most of it should be nitrogenous. Refuse beans, peas, oats., etc., cooked and mixed with scalded bran are good. Green food should be given when possible. Cracked bones should be kept In the yard all the time. Avoid all fat-forming foods, such as corn, as they are not egg-producers. Fresh water, exercise and nitrogenous food, together with warm quarters in the winter, will make any breed of chickens lay, although heavy, sluggish breeds will not produce eggs in equal number with the more nervous, active ones. . Flavored Ggc>. Eggs are flavored to a certain extent by the food on which the fowls feed. This is shown by feeding them onions, which sometimes taint eggs so that they are unpalatable. To have eggs of a fine flavor the hens must have clean food. Those fed on putrid meats and decayed animal substances will lay eggs not fit to eat.