270 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



" During the first two or three days after the chicks are liatched they require 

 warmth and the opportunity to gain strength rather than to receive food. They 

 should be supplied with water, however, and it will do no harm if they have a 

 little fine chick grit at which to peck. . . , 



" During the past few years we have found that by raising chickens in a 

 piped brooder house and then transferring them to colony houses the labor of 

 attending to individual brooders is not only avoided, but the chicks have been 

 healthier and more of them have been raised to maturity. Outdoor brooders 

 have not been successful. They are difficult to attend to in stormy weather, and 

 in a few years become old and out of repair, and if indoor brooders are to be 

 used on any considerable scale it seems wiser to construct a piped brooder house 

 kept warm by a heater burning coal or gas rather than to bother with a number 

 of individual lamps, each of which is almost of as much trouble to attend as the 

 large heater." 



The value of skim milk for laying hens, J. H. Stewart and H. Atwood 

 (West Virginia Sta. Bui. 102^ pp. 265-211). — Two tests are reported of the value 

 of skim milk v. water for wetting a feed mash. 



In the first test, which covered 122 days. 22 hens fed skim milk laid 1,244 

 eggs as compared with 99G eggs laid by the 22 hens fed mash wet with water. 



In the first period of the second test 60 hens fed the skim-milk ration laid 

 862 eggs in 37 days as compared with 6.32 eggs laid by a similar lot fed no skim 

 milk. In the second period, which covered 56 days, the rations were reversed. 

 The chickens fed skim milk laid 1,220 eggs as compared with 978 in the case of 

 the lot fed no skim milk. In every case the pens contained 1 cock to 10 hens. 



" In both experiments more eggs were produced when skim milk was substi- 

 tuted for water for moistening the mash. 



" Under the conditions prevailing in these experiments and with eggs selling 

 for 20 or 25 cts. per dozen the skim milk used for moistening the mash had a 

 feeding value of from 14 to 2 cts. per quart. 



" In these trials 802 qts. of skim milk were fed. resulting in an increase in the 

 egg production of 702 eggs." 



A comparison of White Leghorn and mongrel hens for winter egg production 

 showed that under similar conditions 50 mongrels in a year produced 4,807 eggs 

 as compared with 5.824 eggs laid by the blooded stock. Both lots were handled 

 alike, receiving the ordinary care and attention which would be given on an 

 average farm. In addition to the skim milk used to moisten the mash the Leg- 

 horns consumed 61 lbs. of food costing 85.3 cts. as compared with 66.8 lbs. of 

 the same materials costing 92.1 cts. which was consumed l)y the mongrels. The 

 calculated profit from the eggs was $1.39 for the Leghorns and 86 cts. for the 

 mongrels. " The mongrels gained in weight 1 lb. per head more than the Leg- 

 horns. If this increase in weight is taken into consideration, then the Leg- 

 horns gave a profit of 40 cts. per hen more than the mongrels." 



The highest prices for fresh eggs are usually obtained from November to 

 March. "During these 4 months the mongrels laid only 364 eggs and the Leg- 

 horns 1.029. or practically three times as many." 



In the authors' opinion the experimental data recorded in this test furnish 

 some evidence regarding the error incident to exjieriments of this character. 



" These results indicate that in poultry experiments of this class in which 25 

 or more fowls are used in each lot the results of a (5 months' trial will be practi- 

 cally as accurate and reliable as though the test were continued for an entire 

 year. Also that the error, almost inseparably connected with experiments of this 

 nature, should not exceed 3 per cent after the test has been conducted for 4 or 

 5 months." 



