Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1917 — FOR THE POULTRY GROWER [ARTICLE]

FOR THE POULTRY GROWER

Heavy Feeding in Winter. Many reasons have been given for the scarcity of fresh eggs during the late fall and winter months. The regular poultryman gets a goodly number of eggs during all seasons of the year, and the writer is firm in the belief thut few eggs are produced on the farms of the country during the cold months because the hens are underfed, says a contributor to a farm journal. The poultry raider is prone to forget that his hens require more feed and better attention during the cold months than they do during warm weather. Even the hens that are penned the year around, require, much more fodd in winter, because a large part of the food eaten must go to maintain bodily heat. For winter feeding, the only safe rule to follow is to feed the hens all they will eat. Many skimp their “liens on feed during the cold months, believing that if they feed heavily, the hens will become too fat to lay. A hen gets too fat to lay not because jfee is fed too much, but because she Is fed too heavily on fat-producing foods. Like cattle and hogs, hens require a certain amount of bulky foods, and unless these foods are fed, it will not be possible to get many eggs during the cold months. One-half the food supplied the hens should be ground, in the form of either a wet or dry mash. The mash should be bulky—that is, it should occupy a relatively large bulk in proportion to its food constituents. One-half the mash should be composed of bulky foods, as bran and cut clover or cut alfalfa. The other half of the mash should be of such concentrated foods as middlings, corn bread and beef scraps. The bran and cut clover will in bulk, be fully three times greater than the other ingredients in the mash. The feeding of green food, or the green food that fowls obtain on range

will make the ration still more bulky, and hens can safely be fed all they will eat, when fed equal parts of a bulky mash and grains. In cold weather feeding, animal food must be included in the ration if a good egg yield is expected. This may not be in the form of beef scrap or green cut bone. If a plentiful supply of skim or buttermilk is at hand, the beef scrap or bone may be dispensed with. The mash should be wet with the milk. In addition to this, milk should be placed in vessels, so the hens can help themselves at will. One need not fear that the hens will overeat of the milk. Milk will not take the place of water, and where milk Is kept before the hens in vessels ajl the time, water should also be supplied.' Winter is lazy time in the"poultry yard. The hen, whose living comes too easily, will likely hump herself up in the house and sleep the best part of the day away. This tendency should be combated. The hens should be made to exercise by feeding a large part of their grain ration in deep litter. Exercise and plenty of food are the best tonics for winter egg production.