TC llic Business llc:i. 



giving any but the most ordinary care to their hens, the foregoing may 

 seem like all too much "fuss and feathers" to obtain eggs even in Winter; 

 but the hen trust has its price and it is doubtful if eggs can be had in 

 quantity for much less. After all if the work is done methodically it is 

 not such an endless round as may at first appear. Thus, in beginning the 

 morning chores, I first give the hens their bit of oats, a "scratch" we call it, 

 after doing the other work the mash is given. The noon feed comes in 

 with the rest of the stock feeding. The evening chores are begun by giving 

 the hens their grain; then after gathering the eggs the cabbage is dis- 

 tributed. This leaves no extra running after the chickens, but to give 

 them their "scratch" at 10 and two o'clock. This requires but a few 

 minutes when I am about the barn, and when in the field pruning or absent 

 from home my wife says it gives her exercise as well as the hens. Some 

 one will be sure to ask what is to be done if the hens lack appetite. I must 

 say I have had little trouble in this line. It is natural for hens to eat 

 heartily if conditions are right. If they are fed lightly and often during 

 the day, with a full feed at night, a proper ration of proper bulk; if pro- 

 tected from drafts and floors are kept clean ; if, when making a change of 

 food, care is taken to feed sparingly at first there should be little trouble. 

 I have never had anything so serious but what was easily corrected bj 

 feeding scantily for a day or two. Perhaps the old saying: "Eternal vigi- 

 lance is the price of success" does not apply better anywhere than to man- 

 aging hens in Winter, but I think where the vigilance is exercised the 

 success is sure. 



HOMEMADE GRAIN SCREEN.— Examine a sample of cracked 

 corn and you will be surprised to see how much fine meal it contains. 



When this feed is thrown on 

 the ground most of the meal 

 is wasted, as the chicks cannot 

 pick it up easily. Mr. J. E. 

 Stevenson saves this waste by 

 using the device shown here- 

 with. A hopper is arranged at 

 the fop of the stairs. Screens 

 one foot wide and three feet 

 long are made out of three 

 sizes of wire netting. These 

 screens run under the stairs 

 and the hopper feeds into the 

 coarser one. These screens 

 sift the corn into three sizes and save a good share of the meal. 



