Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 192, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1918 — POULTRY CATECHISM AND CRITICISM [ARTICLE]

POULTRY CATECHISM AND CRITICISM

Do you keep chickens? If not why not? If so, are they approved breeds? What kind of fowl are kept in your neighborhood? Are they just “chickens,” or are they real, working hens, earning their grub? Can you name five or six of the best breeds of hens and describe the outstanding qualities of each? Do turkeys, ducks or geese possess any advantages over hens? Under what circumstances might this be so? How long does it take to hatch a hen’s egg, a duck egg, a goose egg, a turkey egg? Do you sell more eggs than you eat? How many eggs did you sell last year? Did you calculate the average price? Do you know what your hens cost to feed? wTiich sells for the most—a Plymouth Rock, a Leghorn, a Brahma? A goose, turkey or duck —per pound? Whose fault is it if the hens are not laying? Are you calculating on having laying hens next winter? Do you know that hens can be made to lay under scientific conditions and that “chance” doesn’t make poultrykeeping profitable? Has the hen as much right to complain of her housing, feeding or medical care as you have about not getting more eggs? Reverse this question. Does the hen 'feel cheap? Seventy-four per cent oS an egg is writer. Do you expect eggs from thirsty hens? Nix. Fifteen per cent of an egg is protein. Protein -is the food that makes muscle and lean meat. Hens get protein from worms, bugs, grasshoppers and meat scrapsr Can your hens get enough of these summer and winter? You can’t have sausage if you have no meat to grind up, eh? Rabbits, squirrels, buttermilk and butchers’ offal make good egg-produc-ing diet An egg is ten per cent fat. Fat is made from starch. Grain, especially corn, Is rich in starch. An egg is one per cent mineral matter, mostly lime. This forms shell. See that the hens get enough. Can’t sell soft shell eggs, can you? Some people might as well expect the cat to lay eggs as the hen when one compares the care they both get