17 



Average cost per dozen eggs for eleven months 11.5c. 



Average cost of feeding each bird per month for eleven months 10.6c. 



Average number of eggs per bird for eleven months 127.7, 



Average amount of food consumed per bird (males included) in eleven 

 months: grain, 68.9 lbs. or 6.2 lbs. per month; milk, 69.5 lbs. or 6.3 lbs. per month. 



The following are the averages for the three years: 



Average cost per dozen eggs for eleven months 12.1c. 



Average cost of feeding each bird per month (males included) eleven months 

 10.6c. 



Average number of eggs per bird for eleven months 122.6. 



Average amount of food consumed per bird (males included) eleven months: 

 grain. 67.6 lbs. or 6.1 lbs. per month; milk, 78.1 lbs. or 7.1 lbs. per month. 



FEEDS AND FEEDING. 



A fowl requires grain food, vegetable food, meat food, and grit. These foods 

 should be clean and wholesome, and furthermore a portion of them should be 

 given in some form so as to induce the birds to take exercise, so that the fowls will 

 be healthy. Fowls should be well supplied with water or milk to drink. Many 

 make the serious mistake of not giving sufficient drink or not giving it regularly. 

 The supply should be clean and constant. Dirty water, dirty or slimy drinking 

 dishes, etc., will do more towards making a flock unhealthy and diseased than any- 

 thing else. Most attendants are inclined to forget to clean the drinking vessels, 

 and to keep them well filled at all times. 



Graixs. 



Wheat with the Ontario people is the most popular feed and is one of the best. 

 It is relished by all classes of poultry. The price of wheat as compared with that 

 of other grains during the past few years, makes it necessary to mix other grains 

 with it. I doubt very much if it is advisable at any time to feed only one kind 

 of grain constantly, as a variety is better; some birds like one grain while others 

 relish another. 



Wlieat bran is fed dry in hoppers, also in mashes. It has considerable feeding 

 value. It helps materially in adding bulk to the ration, and prevents impaction 

 in the stomach. In other words, it aids the digestive fluids in acting upon the 

 food. 



Middlings or shorts is of value in ma.shes, to all classes, and 'is one of the 

 good foods to check looseness of the bowels, where an excess of vegetables is given. 



Low-grade flour is often a cheap and economical food in mashes for stock 

 birds or for fattening chickens. It also has a tendency to check looseness of the 

 bowels. 



Corn is not used so much in Ontario as in the New England States. There it 

 appears to be used quite freely in both summer and winter feeding of fowls. It is 

 used whole, ground, and cracked, the meal being used principally in the mash 

 foods. Cracked corn is used largely for young chicks, and fowls when scattered in 

 the litter. The whole corn is rather large and conspicuous; and when in the 

 litter does not usually give sufficient exercise. I am of the opinion that corn can 

 be used in portions of Ontario, where it is grown extensively, much more freely 

 Bulletin 217. 



