144 



THE LEGHORNS 



ing in the breeding pens the following January and Feb- 

 ruary. Separate the sexes at fourteen weeks of age, if 

 this has not been done previously in picking out surplus 

 cockerels to be sold as squab broilers, broilers or friers; 

 cull out all cockerels and pullets that you think of using 

 or selling as table poultry or of reserving as forced layers, 

 and aim to give the prospective breeders, males and fe- 

 males, the safest and otherwise best quarters that you 

 have for the season's crop of young stock, because these 

 birds are, or should be, your most valuable youngsters. 



Put the breeder-pullets into winter quarters during 

 October, on the average, or before winter weather arrives, 

 but do not place the male brids with them until shortly 

 before you want to begin using eggs for hatching pur- 

 poses. These winter quarters should have outdoor run- 

 ways for use on pleasant or quiet days. On stormy days, 

 especially during severe cold weather, the best place for 

 the breeders is indoors, provided the houses are dry and 

 well ventilated. 



From this time on, until you wish to start the heavy 

 yield of eggs to be used for hatching purposes, feed as 

 follows: 



Give three meals daily of scratching food morning, 

 noon and night, at the rate of one ounce per hen each 

 meal, burying this dry-grain balanced ration food in eight 

 to ten inches of loose litter. Keep before the fowls in 

 hoppers all the time the growing mash, high-protein beef 

 scrap, adult-size grit and charcoal, also a constant supply 

 of fresh, clean water and once daily — morning, noon or 

 mid-afternoon— give them all they will eat of a green food 

 mash made up of nine parts steamed short-cut alfalfa and 

 one to two parts of the growing mash, using enough of 

 the latter to hold this crumbly-wet food together so the 

 birds will pick at it. Sprouted oats are an excellent green 

 food for these prospective breeders, but their use repre- 

 sents more labor and expense. Handle the breeding males 

 in practically the same manner. 



To stop or prevent early laying by the breeders, sim- 

 ply move them from one house or pen to another, repeat- 

 ing this if necessary. 



Feeding for Fertile Eggs 

 Mate your breeding pens not less than two weeks 

 before you wish to begin setting the eggs or selling them 

 for hatching purposes. Three or four weeks is still better 

 unless the eggs are extra valuable. 



Now that the time has come when you want fertile 

 eggs and lots of them, feed scratching food in deep litter 

 twice a day, morning and evening, allowing an ounce and 

 a half (weighs 27 to 28 ounces to the quart) of this grain 

 food per hen at each meal and give the breeders a noon 

 meal of crumbly-wet mash, consisting of 



20 lbs. Red Dog Flour 



20 lbs. Bran 



30 lbs. Corn Meal 



5 per cent Beef Scrap 

 to which is added thirty per cent of steamed short-cut 

 alfalfa or clover, five per cent of high protein beef scrap 

 and one per cent grit, this food to be mixed with water- 

 tepid water in winter and cold water during warm weather- 

 Each time add a bit of salt and two or three times each 

 week add one per cent of charcoal to this crumbly-wet 

 mixture. Percentages are by measure. Feed this mash 

 in shallow troughs and give the breeders all they will eat 

 up clean in a period of fifteen to twenty minutes at each 

 meal. In feeding mashes of any kind, care should be ex- 

 ercised not to over feed. 



Fertile Egg Mash 



Additional to the foregoing, keep a fertile egg mash, 

 consisting of 



20 lbs. Red Dog Flour 20 lbs. Wheat Bran 



30 lbs. Corn Meal 30 lbs. Ground Oats 



in dry form before these fowls all the time in waste-proof 

 hoppers, also beef scrap, grit, charcoal and crushed oyster 

 shell. By this means hens that are on the nests at the 

 time the noon meal is fed or that do not obtain their fill 

 of crumbly-wet mash during the fifteen or twenty min- 

 utes it is before them, can go to the hoppers at any time 

 and get what they want of the fertile egg mash, beef scrap, 

 etc., and.it is important that they should have this chance 

 if all members of the flock are to lay large-sized eggs 

 and plenty of them. 



Be sure to supply green food daily in some palatable 

 form. A green food mash composed of nine parts steamed 

 short-cut alfalfa and one or two parts of egg mash, fed 

 once daily, preferably at the noon hour, is urgently rec- 

 ommended. Sprouted oats are excellent; turnips, carrots, 

 beets, etc., will answer the purpose. 



Poultry keepers who wish to do so can omit the wet 

 mash, simply feeding the scratching food in deep litter, 

 egg mash (dry) and beef scrap in hoppers and using the 

 green food mash (nine parts steamed short-cut alfalfa and 

 one to two parts egg mash), or giving them green food 

 in some other form and this plan will produce rich, strong- 

 ly-fertile eggs, but not as many of them per layer during 

 the important period from January or February to the 

 end of the hatching season. To increase the egg yield, 

 supply one meal daily of a crumbly-wet mash, composed 

 of ten parts egg mash and three parts of steamed short- 

 cut alfalfa, mixed thoroughly and left before the breeders 

 fifteen to twenty minutes. 



Another practically sure way to increase the egg 

 yield where pullets or hens are a bit backward, is to "add 

 variety" by giving them once each day a moderate amount 

 of cut green bone or finely-chopped fresh meat. This will 

 "rest them" from the beef scrap to which they have been 

 accustomed from the early days of chickhood, and they 

 will respond quickly. However, in case of large flocks 

 this plan is not practical on account of the extra labor and 

 expense. 



Given strong, healthy parent stock, the chicks that are 

 raised as advised in this article and that are fed and 

 managed (in their capacity as breeders) as here directed, 

 will produce large-sized eggs, rich in nourishment — eggs 

 that if fertilized by a vigorous male will give you the kind 

 of chicks that "have the kick in them," the kind that under 

 proper care will grow steadily, in fact, rapidly from shell 

 to market age or to maturity. You want large-sized eggs, 

 rich in nourishment, because these factors are necessary 

 to large-sized, healthy chicks. Nature is compelled to 

 build the chick with the materials you supply. A small 

 egg means a small-sized chick and a "lean" egg — an egg 

 deficient in nourishment — means a weakened chick or one 

 more that will die in the shell. We wish that every reader 

 of these lines could fully realize that it is of the utmost 

 importance that the breeders shall be right and that the 

 hatching eggs shall be right, provided success is to be 

 achieved and profits are to be made in any branch of the 

 poultry business as a stock-growing industry. Without 

 such breeders, and such eggs, the hope of permanent suc- 

 cess and of satisfactory profits will prove to be a will-o'- 

 the-wisp, first to last. 



Healthy, vigorous breeding stock that is properly 

 handled means "hatchable" eggs, and it is a true saying 

 that "chicks well hatched are half raised." 



