260 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



5-6 EDWARD VII., A. 1S06 



To secure early Tvinter layers iu either cold or partly warmed houses the pullets 

 should be hatched early and come from strong and vigorous parent stock. 



To have prolific layers of large eggs in either unheated or partly warmed houses, 

 the pullets should come from hens which have proved to be good layers of large eggs. 



As a means to this end trap nests — the operations of which are described in pre- 

 ceding pages — are coming into more g^ineral use. 



A WINTER EGG-PRODUCING RATION AND METHOD OF FEEDING IT. 



The rations which were fed to the fowls enumerated in foregoing record, and 

 manner of using them were as follows. Both will be found effective in the winter 

 l>roduction of eggs, about which there are numerous and frequent inquiries : 



A. M. Ration. — Wheat or bucWheat alone or mixed with oats. This should be 

 scattered in the litter on the floor in order to incite the fowls to exercise in searching 

 for it. 



11 A.M. — Steamed lawn clippings, 3 times per week. Other days roots or 

 vegetables. 



Noon. — A fewi hands full of oats thrown into each pen, if necessary to keep the 

 fowls in exercise. Three times per week cut green bones in the proportion of one 

 pound to 15 hens, took the place of the oats. 



P. M. Ration. — Mash three times per week in such quantity as would be eaten up 

 clean. Observation has shown that when mash was fed at the morning ration there 

 was a tendency on the part of the fowls to eat so much of it as to make them disin- 

 clined for exercise. On the other hand, where fowls are kept in unheated houses in 

 parts of the country where the winters are cold a small quantity of mash in the morn- 

 ing would probably be warming, and an incentive to egg production. In our depart- 

 ment it has been the practice to vary the composition of the rations occasionally as well 

 as times of feeding thera. As a result, it has been shown that where there is such 

 variety there is little likelihood of egg eating or feather picking. 



Fresh water, grit and broken oyster shells were before the fowls at all times, as 

 they should always be. The mash was composed as follows : — 

 Shorts, two parts. 

 Ground oats, one part. 

 Gluten meal, one part. 



Occasionally small potatoes were boiled and used as a part, with evident benefit. 



