THE LEGHORNS 



141 



The difference between deep-litter fed and hand-fed 

 chicks is very noticeable. The deep-litter "scratch-to-live" 

 chicks have longer bodies, sturdier legs, are better feath- 

 ered, are healthier and possess greater vitality. They are 

 mostly frame and muscle, while the hand-fed chicks, to 

 which is thrown several times daily all the food they will 

 eat in a few minutes, are soft in flesh, feather out too fast 

 for the growth of the body, are inclined to be inactive, 

 seem droopy after meals, catch cold more easily and de- 

 velop bowel trouble more often than is the case with 

 deep-litter fed chicks. 



For a period of six years we have tested the two 

 methods side by side on Cyphers Company Poultry Farm, 

 all other conditions being equal, and in every experiment 

 the advantage has been clearly in favor of the deep-litter 

 feeding, as judged by the greater number and better quali- 

 ty of chicks raised, without considering the highly im- 

 portant saving in labor and food. The labor item is re- 

 duced fully one-half and, surprising as it may seem, there 

 is 20 to 30 per cent saving in feed. 



Feeding by this work-or-go-hungry plan, we can take 

 six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen or twenty-weeks-old chicks 

 and by special fattening — a simple process requiring four- 

 teen to twenty-one days' time — can secure tweniy to twen- 

 ty-five per cent more weight in the form of squab broilers, 

 broilers or roasters, than can be obtained by the use of 

 hand-fed chicks of equal ages, while as for layers and 

 breeders, in which size, vitality and perfect health are es- 

 sential to best results, the hand-fed chicks are not in the 

 same class with the big-frame, closely-feathered, vigorous 

 specimens produced by the busy-chick, healthy-chick, deep- 

 litter method. The principal gain, as regards heavier 

 weights, comes from the larger frames that can take on 

 and carry more meat, but additional to this are the better 

 health and extra vigor of the deep-litter-fed chicks which 

 enable them to digest and assimilate more food during the 

 special fattening period. 



Right Care and Correct Feeding to Get Largest Possible 

 Egg Yield 



Layers, as the word is used here, means pullet-hens 

 that are selected, fed and handled with the sole object of 

 getting the largest possible egg yield per layer between 

 the date on which each pullet lays her first egg in mid-fall 

 and the time when these "forced" egg producers start to 

 molt as yearling hens the following summer. 



In breeding and handling these heavy-laying pullet- 

 hens it is not a question of fertile eggs, or of parent values 

 to be transmitted to chicks, because the eggs laid by these 

 birds are to be sold for table use and they will "keep" 

 longer and give better satisfaction if they are sterile or 

 "germless." To run male birds with layers of table eggs 

 is a waste of food, room and labor — furthermore, the pul- 

 lets and hens will lay more eggs in a given length of 

 time, other conditions being the same, if there are no 

 males with them. The period of greatest egg production 

 in the life of a hen, if she is handled right with this object 

 in view, is between the ages of five to six months, when 

 she starts laying and the time, ten to twelve months later, 

 when she enters her first molt. Successful egg-farmers 

 aim to bring the pullets "into laying" in October and 

 November, when the prices for new-laid eggs range high- 

 est on account of the natural scarcity, and they strive to 

 keep them laying at the rate of forty to fifty eggs per day 

 from each one hundred layers up to February 1st, and at 

 the rate of sixty to seventy-five eggs per one hundred 

 hens thereafter until molting time. First to last, they plan 

 and feed with the object of forcing from these layers as 



many eggs as possible by the time they are sixteen, seven- 

 teen or eighteen months old, depending on the breed 

 and early start at laying, at which age, when they are 

 about to rrjolt and stop laying, the owners sell them as 

 market poultry, either live or dressed. In this case eggs 

 are the one thing sought, everything else being sacrificed 

 to that end, but generally the egg-farmer is able to sell 

 the laid-out-hen for as much as it cost him to bring her 

 to the laying period the summer and fall before. 



To insure having these heavy layers at work during 

 the time when their eggs will bring the highest prices, 

 hatch the chicks, as a rule, during March, April or May. 

 June hatched chicks (also late May chicks) can be brought 

 to laying in November, before the severe cold weather ar- 

 rives, but these late-hatched chicks usually will require 

 special feeding in the form of wet-mash and an extra 

 supply of green food. 



Chicks from which the heavy layers are to be obtained 

 should be kept on deep litter and made to work for all 

 they get to eat in the form of cracked or whole grain; 

 Here again we must have large frames, perfect health and 

 great constitutional vigor, if our "egg machines" are to 

 do the work expected of them. In heavy layers we re- 

 quire long, deep bodies, breed and size considered, so 

 that there will be ample room fpr the vital organs and 

 for record egg production. When fourteen weeks old the 

 chicks are to be placed on range, or given as large an 

 out-door runway as can be provided conveniently. It is 

 time now to separate the sexes, as a general rule, unless 

 you have done so at a younger age, as will be the case 

 if you are handling Leghorns and have learned the ad- 

 vantages of disposing of the surplus cockerels as squab 

 broilers, or as pound to pound and a half broilers. The 

 young pullets will do much better if yarded by themselves 

 in flocks of thirty to one hundred, depending on the size 

 of the yard and of their roosting quarters. 



While on range, prior to about September 1st, feed 

 the pullets all alike, but when they are eighteen to twenty 

 weeks old, cull out of each flock any small, backward 

 specimens, place these under-sized pullets by themselves 

 and proceed to "force" them by feeding one or two meals 

 each day of wet mash, made by mixing with the growing 

 or fattening mashes as recommended for chicks on the 

 first day with water, also feeding some form of green 

 food that is rich in protein. For this purpose there is 

 nothing else so good as short-cut alfalfa. One meal daily 

 of the wet mash fed at the noon hour will answer the 

 purpose as a rule, but if the pullets are extra backward 

 give two meals in mash form each day. The object is to 

 get these birds to eat more of the stronger food — a food 

 that is fed in a ground or pulverized state, of which oats 

 and meat meal form a prominent part; also a food that 

 is eaten by the chicks in such shape that they get the full 

 balanced ration, which is not the case when whole grain 

 or cracked grain is fed and they can pick out what they 

 like best and leave the rest in the litter or hopper. 



Late-hatched chicks — June and late May chicks — will 

 need to be "forced" in the same manner if they are to 

 be brought to laying before the cold weather interferes. 

 To these late hatched pullets feed one or two meals daily 

 of the wet mash, as above directed, and be extra careful 

 to see to it that they have an abundance of nourishing 

 green food — all they will eat of it. Bear in mind that in 

 mid-summer natural vegetation is well advanced, has 

 passed the tender, appetizing stage — which is one of the 

 main reasons why late-hatched chicks become stunted in 

 growth and prove inferior to chicks that are hatched at a 



