VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 47 



sage of a hen. The nest openings are away from the light and when 

 a hen goes to the nest and looks in she blocks the opening and shuts 

 out the light and does not see the eggs plainly. The temptation to med- 

 dle and break them is thus removed. 



FEEDING THE HENS. 



For twenty-one years we have been at work with the same family of 

 Barred Plymouth Rocks and have learned one way to feed and handle 

 them to secure eggs, and to avoid the losses which are so common 

 to mature hens of that breed, from over fatness. Other methods of 

 feeding may be as good or even better. While it is true that only the 

 full fed hen can lay to the limit of her capacity, it is equally true that 

 full feeding of the Plymouth Rocks, unless correctly done, results 

 disastrously. 



Years ago the "morning mash," which was regarded as necessary to 

 "warm up the cold hen," so she could lay that day, was given up and it 

 was fed at night. The birds are fed throughout the year daily as fol- 

 lows: Each pen of twenty-two receives one pint of wheat in the deep 

 litter early in the morning. At 9:30 A. M. one-half pint of oats is fed to 

 them in the same way. At 1 P. M. one-half pint of cracked corn 

 is given in the litter as before. At 3 P. M. in winter and 4 P. M. in 

 summer they are given all the mash theywill eat up clean in half an 

 hour. The mash is made of the following mixture of meals: 200 lbs. 

 wheat bran; 100 lbs. corn meal; 100 lbs. wheat middlings; 100 lbs. linseed 

 meal; 100 lbs. gluten meal; 100 lbs. beef scrap. The mash contains one- 

 fourth of its bulk of clover leaves and heads, obtained from the feeding 

 floor in the cattle barn. The clover is covered with hot water and al- 

 lowed to stand for three or four hours. The mash is made quite dry, 

 and rubbed down with the shovel in mixing, so that the pieces of clover 

 are separated and covered with the meal. Cracked bone, oyster shell, 

 clean grit and water are before them all of the time. Two large man- 

 golds are fed to the birds in each pen daily in winter. They are stuck 

 onto large nails which are partly driven into the wall, a foot and a 

 half above the floor. Very few soft shelled eggs are laid and, so far as 

 known, not an egg has been eaten by the hens during the last five years. 



We are testing another method of feeding with several pens of hens 

 this year. It consists of the morning, 9.30 A. M., and 1 P. M. feeding 

 of dry food in the litter as usual, but instead of the mash at 3 P. M. 

 all the dry cracked corn they will eat is given in troughs. Beef scrap is 

 kept before the birds at all times, in elevated troughs where they 

 cannot waste it. They are supplied with grit, oyster shell, bone and 

 mangolds. Dry clover leaves and chaff are given them on the floor 

 each day. One pen of 30 hens was fed through last year in this way with 

 good results, and 150 hens are being fed on the dry food, through this 

 year, in comparison with a like number of their mates that are having 

 mash at the 3 P. M. feeding, as usual with us. 



