Feeding the Hen. 63 



roadside and sifted, also broken charcoal, in each coop all the time." 



FEEDING HINTS.— The mash is useful, as it gives a good chance to 

 feed fine meat or to give ginger or pepper and salt when needed. No single 

 grain has just the right feeding "balance," wheat and oats coming nearest 

 to it. We can make the mash mto any proportion we like. By using a 

 good proportion of corn meal we can get the hens to eat many cheap forms 

 of food which they would not care for alone. For example, wheat bran 

 and gluten, two useful feeds will be eaten when mixed in a mash but not 

 well when fed alone. The common mistake is to feed a thin slop in place 

 of a dry, crumbly mash. The hens rightly object to the former. We 

 have tried the experiment of feeding a well-balanced mash alone. The 

 hens did not respond as they did when the same mixture of grains and 

 meat was baked into a hard cake and crumbled for them. The hen does 

 not chew her food like other animals. It is ground up in her gizzard by 

 sharp stones or grit which she swallows. The hen does not seem to 

 thrive for any considerable time when all work of grinding her food is 

 taken away. Part of the ration should be in the form of dry grain. When 

 hens are laying fast the mash is useful because the food it contains is 

 quickly available. The hen can utilize it at once. She may not get it fast 

 enough if compelled to grind all her own grain. 



Experiments have been tried in letting the hens balance their own 

 ration by keeping a variety of food constantly before them. In our own 

 experiments this proved a failure. Some of the hens grew dumpy and 

 lifeless, while others remained active and fresh. They laid well for a 

 time, but the general observation is that after a time the self-balancing 

 system fails. With us the chief trouble was that the hens missed the 

 incentive of hunger. With food always before them they saw little need 

 of scratching or working and became lazy, as most men would under sim- 

 ilar circumstances. 



We conclude that most hens are more likely to eat too much of the 

 fat forming foods if given a chance to do so. They are not so likely to eat 

 too much of the muscle makers, hence the plan suggested of keeping beef 

 scrap before them and regulating the feeding of corn or other grain will 

 work better than the plan of keeping all before them. It is wise to remove 

 what the hens leave of the mash after ten or fifteen minutes of eating. 

 It is likely to sour in hot weather, and it is a good plan to make 

 the hens understand that eating is a matter of business. 



GRAIN FOOD. — Corn is preferred by most hens. Throw down a mix- 

 ture of all grains and they usually pick out the corn first. When properly 

 "balanced" with meat or other forms of muscle makers corn is the best 

 grain we have for poultry. If fed in the form of whole or cracked grain 

 entirely some of the hens will eat little besides corn, and will put on fat 

 when they ought to lay. That is one reason why a mash or a baked cake 



