Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1880 — Fresh Eggs During Winter. [ARTICLE]

Fresh Eggs During Winter.

The people of the United States will Surchase forty-five million eggs every ay during the cold weather, if they can obtain them fresh. It is therefore desirable to know how to obtain new and fresh eggs during the winter. Give hens warm and comfortable sunny quarters, plenty of suitable food, and the means of keeping themselves free from parasites and diseases, and they will furnish a bountiful supply of eggs. Hens one, two and three years old will lay annually from one hundred to one hundred and thirty-five eggs. Before and after this age not so many. Poultry raisers differ about the food best suited to hens. Com is better to fatten than to produce eggs. Finelyground oats, scalded, about the consistence of mush, are highly commended as a staple article of food. Frequent feedings of buckwheat and barley, unground, are valuable. Hens should also have free access to some succulent vegetable, such as cabbage, turnips, squashes, pumpkins, and the. like, scraps of food from the table, especially bread, potatoes and fresh meat. At least once a week hens should have a good feeding of liver, well-boiled, chopped, and sprinkled freely with cayenne pepper or common warm peppers chopped fine. Burnt bones and oyster shells, well-pounded, lime and sand mortar, should also be constantly within their reach. They should have constant access to large boxes of woodashes and air-slacked lime, and always a plentiful supply of pure water. Hens are very much like human beings as to their food —they are the most licalthy and perform the most labor on a good variety of nourishing, stimulating food: Feed them regularly, treat them kindly, protect them from cold and storms, give them plenty of air, sunlight and exercise when the weather is fine, collect the eggs every day, and they will be found among the most profitable animals about the farm-house or the barn.— Drover's Journal.