312 Bulletin 249. 



grain fed hens. The hand-fed grain hens lost seventeen days on account 

 of six broody hens, while the hopper-fed grain hens lost six days because 

 of broodiness of two hens. Two-thirds of the entire loss from this cause 

 was due to the hand-fed grain hens. 



Daily egg production. 



Each hen seemed to have some peculiarity in the matter of daily 

 production. Some hens laid every other day. Others laid two or three 

 days and then missed a day. In two or three cases a hen would occa- 

 sionally lay two eggs in one day, but producing none on the following 

 day. Fig. 128 shows a chart of daily production of the best two and 

 poorest two layers in each pen. The little black squares show a single 

 day's production. A longer solid line represents several days in success- 

 ion, the open spaces indicating the intervals when the hen did not lay. 



Mortality. 



The mortality in the wet mash and grain fed pen and hopper-fed 

 grain pen was extremely high, while that of the other pens was about 

 normal. (Table 23.) In the hand-fed grain pen, two hens died early in 

 the experiment, while in the hopper-fed grain pen, the deaths came at 

 a later period. The only mortality in the dry mash and grain fed pen 

 was near the close of the year, and was evidently the result of accident. 



The immediate cause of the great mortality in the wet mash and 

 grain fed pen and hopper-fed grain pen was eversion of the oviduct. 

 Why these pens should have suffered more than the other pens in this 

 respect is not known. Two hens, which were removed from the wet 

 mash and grain fed pen because of this difficulty, recovered after being 

 fed for a time on lighter food, though still having a wet mash. 



At the same rate of mortality in flocks of 100 hens, 95 would remain 

 of the dry mash and grain fed hens, and only 70 of the wet mash and 

 grain fed hens, 90 of the hand-fed grain hens and 70 of the hopper-fed 

 grain hens. 



Profit per hen. (Table 25.) 



The dry mash and grain fed flock made the best profit, $1.45 per 

 hen, and the wet mash and grain fed flock came next with $1.34 per 

 hen. This gives an excess of profit of eleven cents per hen in favor of 

 the dry mash and grain method of feeding. For 100 hens this would 

 be $11. This excess of profit is largely due to the greater loss by mor- 

 tality in the wet mash and grain fed pens. 



This profit does not, however, include the value of the hens still 

 remaining. In the dry mash and grain fed pen there were 19 hens weigh- 



