170 



MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



pound weight of hen an ounce of 

 food. As Leghorns weigh about five 

 pounds each, they would require 

 about five ounces of food each per 

 day. Animal food of some kind is 

 necessary for hens if you want them 

 to lay. If you can give them milk 

 in large quantities, that will give 

 them all the animal food necessary. 

 Green ground bone is, of course, the 

 best food, but it is very difficult to 

 keep it fresh and sweet in the sum- 

 mer time, therefore dried bone and 

 dried blood, or beef scrap or milk 

 must take the place. A hen requires 

 about half an ounce of green ground 

 bone every day or of the dry stuff 

 (bone and blood) half an ounce every 

 other day. If the fowls have plenty 

 of green food and are not laying well, 

 give them more animal food. Per- 

 haps your Leghorns are two years 

 old, in which case you had better get 

 younger fowls, as their days of great- 

 est usefulness are over. 



bonaceous food than hens, and I am 

 afraid if you increase the corn, be- 

 fore you want to fatten them for the 

 market, you will have liver trouble in 

 the flock. Be very careful how you 

 increase the corn or corn meal. 



Feeding for Market What shall we 

 feed young cockerels to prepare them 

 for market? 



Our turkey hens are still laying. 

 Will they lay next year in time for 

 hatching season, say January or Feb- 

 ruary? Of course, I do not expect 

 you could tell exactly what a turkey 

 hen would do, but would like your 

 idea of it. If I thought they would 

 not lay before March, I would rather 

 sell them. What would you advise? 

 -S. L. J. 



Answer For fattening your cock- 

 erels, coop them in a small place, so 

 they will not exercise. Feed them 

 three times a day a mash composed 

 of one part each of corn meal (feed 

 meal), bran and rolled pats, with a 

 little charcoal, and mix it with milk, 

 if possible. Take away the food in 

 fifteen minutes, leaving only water 

 and grit before them; give them all 

 they will eat of this, and in from two 

 to three weeks they will be delicious, 

 fat and juicy. The last week add five 

 per cent linseed or cotton seed meal. 



Your turkeys that are laying now 

 will moult late and probably not com- 

 mence to lay again before March or 

 April, although as you say, one can- 

 not be very certain what a turkey hen 

 will do. 



I do not think it would be advisable 

 to shorten their ration of meat. Tur- 

 keys require more meat and less car- 



How Much Grain I have been 

 feeding three times a day grain morn- 

 ing and night and a mash at noon. I 

 feed a good handful of Kaffir corn, 

 wheat or Indian corn in the scratch 

 pens. I have a mixed flock; I cannot 

 well use the dry mash. How much 

 of the grain should I give if I only 

 fed once a day? I have fifty or sixty 

 hens kept only for eggs and no good 

 way of weighing grain, so please state 

 quantity per hen and not weight. C. 

 A. B. 



Answer It is a good rule to feed a 

 pint of grain for every dozen hens, the 

 grain to be buried in the scratching 

 pens, so they will have to dig it out. 

 Give all the green food, clover, lawn 

 clippings, alfalfa, lettuce, cabbage, 

 vegetables, that they will eat, and one 

 tablespoonful of green cut bone for 

 each hen, three times a week. You 

 do not mention how you make your 

 mash. Remember that a hen needs 

 animal food, green food and cereals; 

 that is the balanced ration that will 

 give plenty of eggs at all times. 



What to Feed and How Will you 



kindly tell me what to feed my fowls? 

 I am a stranger in California and 

 cannot make my flock pay for its feed. 

 Four months ago I bought 25 hens 

 and two cockerels (Buff Orpingtons), 

 ten four-months' pullets and twelve 

 Minorcas. The pullets have never 

 layed, the hens only a few eggs. They 

 have new houses and are in an or- 

 ange grove 100 feet by 65 feet in two 

 pens. I take the Minorcas out of the 

 trees each night. I feed an egg food 

 sold at the supply house here. Grains, 

 alfalfa meal, etc., is in the egg food. 

 The hens have dust baths and I paint 

 the roosts with a lice killer. I get 

 no eggs; one cockerel rattles in his 

 throat. The leading poultryman here 

 has been up and can find no fault. 

 Will you please tell me what and how 

 much and at what time of day they 

 should be fed? They are high-priced 

 fowls and I want to make them lay 

 eggs. The grove is kept cultivated 

 during the summer and everything is 

 new. It seems to be only a question 



