352 POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 



The feeding of winter layers is one of the points which 

 is commonly overlooked. You may be ever so good to the 

 best laying strains of pullets, but if the ration is not carefully 

 selected you will have no eggs. The ration of the laying hen 

 in winter should be as nearly as possible like that obtained 

 when running free in the summer. Grain, vegetables and meat 

 in about equal parts should give excellent results. The grain 

 should be a mixture of barley, oats, crushed peas, and buck- 

 wheat, if these can be secured. In winter, especially when 

 the weather is cold, corn may be added. Too much corn 

 causes the hens to get fat and lazy, when they take to the 

 perch and spend most of their time there. This grain mixture 

 may be fed to advantage early in the morning, or late at 

 night. It should be scattered around in the litter so that the 

 hens will scratch about for the first two hours of the morn- 

 ing for it, thereby gaining sufficient exercise to keep them 

 in a good healthy condition. At 9 o'clock they should be 

 given a mash made by mixing about equal parts of bran, 

 shorts, ground corn, ground clover, or alfalfa leaves which 

 have been steamed. In winter this mash is made by mixing 

 with water and is fed warm. In summer sour milk may be 

 used. About a quart of this is fed to fifteen hens. 



At noon they should receive some vegetable food such as 

 cabbage, mangels, turnips, carrots or sprouts. At 3 o'clock 

 another mash should be given, and at night the whole grain 

 should be scattered in the litter just before they take to the 

 roost. 



A pound of ground raw bone should be fed twice a week to 

 fifteen fowls. Meat should be given them regularly at noon. 

 Boiled liver, beef heads and such like will supply this part of 

 the ration in winter. Animal meal and blood meal mixed with 

 grain about 1 to 1C is a good form in which to supply this 

 part of the ration in summer, as the other forms become 

 putrid in hot weather. 



Grit, gravel, oyster shells and lime should be supplied in 

 abundance. Give them plenty of pure water to drink in win- 

 ter. Keep them in good healthy condition by giving them 

 exercise and fresh air. It is a good thing to throw the doors 

 open a good part of the day so long as the fowls are kept 

 moving about in search of food. Do not allow the hens' 

 combs to freeze as this will stop their laying. 



