274 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



all excellent. Some oil meal in the mash, with bran, 

 should be fed daily. Many poultrymen who feed 

 cracklings at this period hold that these and oil meal 

 are two indispensable food products for success with 

 hens during the molting season. 



While good layers usually lay more or less dur- 

 ing the early stages of the molt, they usually stop 

 when the new feathers are forming rapidly. At- 

 tempts have been made to hasten molting, and suc- 

 cess has been obtained, but the advantages have not 

 been particularly manifest. If the hens are starved 

 for a period and then heavily fed, the shedding of 

 the old feathers and starting of the new will be ap- 

 parent; but little effect seems to follow in way of 

 increased egg production. The best way seems to 

 be in heavy feeding; in providing an abundance of 

 food of the nature that builds flesh, feathers and 

 eggs. 



Feeding for Eggs in Winter. The reason that the 

 hens do not lay in winter, is not because they are 

 underfed, but because they are too fat. Hens are 

 like other animals. Feed them abundantly, put 

 them under conditions where exercise is not taken 

 and they will become fat and lazy. Moreover, the 

 ovules of the hen become inactive and egg produc- 

 tion is an impossibility. It is this way : During the 

 summer and the fall months the hens range in all 

 directions over the farm in search of food, appetizing 

 grasses, tender insects and juicy berries of field and 

 fence corners. This exercise on the fields puts them 

 in excellent health and vigor. Then the farm crops 

 are harvested and gathered. On most farms corn is 



