THE LEGHORNS 



143 



sary to a heavy winter egg yield and a good quality of 

 beef scrap is by far the most economical and convenient 

 form in which to supply it. Other forms in common use 

 are ground or cut green bone and chopped or ground 

 fresh meat. Table scraps are excellent, but very limited 

 in supply. Fowls will turn away from beef scrap and go 

 fairly wild over cut green bone or chopped raw meat, but 

 as a rule these ai tides are costly, when the labor of pre- 

 paration is included. Tainted green bone or meat must 

 not be fed to poultry on any excuse. 



Often the addition of animal food, such as beef scrap, 

 to the feeding ration of layers or should-be layers, will in- 

 crease the egg yield 25 to SO per cent within two weeks 

 time. On the other hand, if the caretaker runs out of 

 beef scrap, or other animal food, there is certain to be a 

 decrease in the egg supply within a very few days. In 

 case the layers have been without animal food several 

 days, it is advisable to begin refeeding it gradually, other- 

 wise they are sure to over-eat, causing bowel trouble. 

 Make as few changes as possible in the feeding ration. 

 Any sudden or marked change will at once cut down the 

 egg yield. Feed as here directed, which insures variety, 

 and you will obtain best results. All persons are invited 

 to test this method most thoroughly, in competition with 

 any other successful plan. 



The thirty per cent of short-cut alfalfa that is added 

 to the laying mash that is fed n crumbly-wet form will 

 give the heavy layers all the winter green food they 

 actually require, but still they will greatly relish other 

 green food in the form of mangel wurzels, sugar beets, 

 turnips, carrots, apples, etc. Cull apples are first class. Be 

 sure to feed beets, turnips, etc., in a manner to induce 

 exercise. The active hen is the happy hen — the kind that 

 sings and lays the eggs. A good plan is to cut the beets, 

 turnips, etc., in halves or quarters and hang up by use 

 of a coarse string or wire, so that the fowls will have to 

 reach for the food and follow it as it swings back and 

 forth. Sprouted oats are unexcelled as a winter green 

 food for chicks and adult fowls. 



While the pullet-hen is about it she ought to produce 

 a standard size egg — an egg that will run twenty-four 

 to twenty-five ounces to the dozen in fall and winter, and 

 27 to 28 ounces to the dozen during the spring and 

 early summer. In order to produce large-sized eggs, as 

 well as lots of them, she must be big in frame for the 

 breed, deep-bodied, in the best of health and possess the 

 constitutional vigor to stand the strain of converting the 

 daily supply of food into a pile of eggs which, if kept 

 intact for the year of her greatest performance, would 

 weigh six to eight times more than she does — a truly 

 remarkable, but oft-repeated achievement of the Leghorn 

 breed of Standard-bred domestic fowls. 



Handling Breeding Stock 

 It is from the breeders that you want fertile eggs 

 that will produce large, strong, vigorous chicks. To get 

 chicks of this kind the parent stock must be large-framed, 

 strong constitutionally and in excellent health. In order 

 to secure parent stock of this quality we must give the 

 birds time to develop normally without any "forcing," 

 must house them in comfortable, sanitary quarters, must 

 keep them busy to a healthful extent and must supply 

 them with the food elements that are required to pro- 

 duce bone, sinew, flesh and feathers in the natural, health- 

 protecting way. 



When "on range" chicks and fowls, especially during 

 the spring, summer and fall, can do a good deal to help 

 themselves — to offset any neglect of the owner or care- 



taker in the way of supplying grit, green food, shell-form- 

 ing material, etc. These free-range chicks and adult fowls 

 also find for themselves a healthful variety of food ele- 

 ments in the form of waste grain, seeds, wind-fall fruit, 

 etc., and they spend hours each day, hunting for animal 

 food in the shape of worms, bugs and insects. But in all 

 cases where chicks and fowls are confined indoors, or in 

 limited quarters, it is necessary for the caretaker to sup- 

 ply the various food elements that the birds can not find 

 for themselves, including shell-forming material and 

 "chicken-teeth" in the shape of hard, sharp-edged grit. 



In the first place, be sure that the breeders are housed 

 in clean, dry, comfortable quarters, especially during the 

 cold, stormy months of each year, also that they have a 

 reasonable amount of outdoor freedom on pleasant days 

 and during the open season — spring, summer and fall. Do 

 not fail to have their house dry and the roosting space 

 free from drafts in the late fall, winter and early spring. 



Do your best to give the breeder liberal yard space 

 with grass, rye, oats or at least soft, fresh, clean earth 

 under-foot — also shade that they can go to when they 

 need it. Poultry manure is strong; bare, hard ground soon 

 contaminates; the hot sun over-heats the blood, and when 

 we confine valuable breeders in small, bare yards we not 

 only interfere with egg production, but seriously endanger 

 the health, vigor and lives of the "foundation" of our 

 entire poultry enterprise. The days of 2x4 poultry yards 

 for valuable breeders are numbered, because the public 

 is getting thoroughly tired of eggs sold for hatching that 

 will not hatch, and of buying weakly chicks. For shade, 

 plant corn in rows or sunflowers along the fences or in 

 clumps. Better still, set out plum, peach, cherry or apple 

 trees. Plum and peach trees will give you shade the third 

 year, cherry trees the fourth or fifth year, and apple trees 

 a year or two later, depending on soil, climate and variety. 



Raising Big-Framed, Healthy, Vigorous Breeders 



Chicks that are to be developed into breeders can not 

 be handled and fed to better advantage than by the deep- 

 litter, scratch-to-live method. Six weeks of age is too 

 early, as a rule, to tell which of these chicks you wish to 

 reserve as breeders, therefore at this age "wean" them to 

 a good developing food, consisting of 



30 lbs. Wheat 



20 lbs. Cracked Corn ' 



10 lbs. Kafifir Corn 



10 lbs. Hulled Oats 

 until they are fourteen weeks old, then turn the prospect- 

 ive breeders out on range, placing them in colony houses 

 or large-sized roosting coops, if convenient, and continue 

 to give developing food, keeping the growing mash and 

 high-prctein beef scrap before them in hoppers all the 

 time, also supplying green food, grit, charcoal and fresh, 

 clean water. While these chicks are on deep litter, allow 

 them to run outdoors on clean, healthy ground and be 

 sure that they have plenty of shade. 



Do not feed wet mash in any form to these prospective 

 breeders during the growing se.ason, unless some of them 

 should be late-hatched or under-sized, and you desire to 

 force their growth somewhat. As a rule, however, you 

 are not in a hurry with their growth, nor to have them 

 come into laying. We want big frames, according to the 

 breed; we want bodies large enough to contain normal- 

 sized, healthy, vigorous organs, but we have eight to nine 

 months during which to build up these breeders— eight or 

 nine months from May 1st of each year, for example, be- 

 fore we wish to have the well-matured pullets begin lay- 



