CHICKS FROM DYING IN THE SHELL 29 



they relish it and how happy they seem, it will pay you for all your trpuble. 

 Besides, you will have the satisfaction of getting a nice lot of eggs at the 

 time of year when prices are the highest. I am now selling eggs at twenty - 

 five cents per dozen; that would be $7.50 a case. Do you not think that 

 price will justify you in giving your chickens a little more attention? 



You must have warm houses for your chickens. I think every hen 

 house should be lathed and plastered, which keeps out the wind and snow, 

 and your hens will soon pay for the expense of plastering. I parch corn 

 for them two or three times a week. It takes but a moment to put it in 

 the oven and it will be parched by the time you have your work done, so 

 there is no time lost. I never feed frozen corn, but I take it into the house 

 until the frost is out of it, or, still better, warm it. Always salt the mash 

 a little. Chickens as well as animals require salt. 



If your hens lay in winter you can set your incubator so much earlier 

 in the spring. I have all my brooder houses plastered. One can rid their 

 houses of lice and mites much easier when the houses are plastered than 

 when they are only boarded up. 



Mrs. Johnson's Method of Forcing a Molt 



TO THE FANCIER: When a specialty is made of producing winter 

 eggs, or preparing fowls for exhibitions, it is of much import- 

 ance to have your fowls shed their feathers early so that the new 

 plumage may be grown before the fairs, and poultry shows, and cold 

 weather begins. In case molting is much delayed the production of the 

 new coat of feathers in cold weather is such a drain on the vitality of the 

 fowls that few if any eggs are produced until spring, while if the molt takes 

 place early in the season your fowls begin winter in good condition, and 

 with proper housing and feeding may be made to lay during the entire 

 winter. 



I have tried the Van Dresser method of promoting early molting, with 

 results that were not very satisfactory. I was anxious to get the full bene- 

 fit of a quick molt, so I fed my fowls very sparingly of oats, corn and speltz 

 for about two weeks. I did not give them any green cut bone, or milk, 

 which is the best egg producing food that can be fed to poultry. The con- 

 sequence was, during the first week of the starving process, the hens 

 stopped laying entirely, though they had been laying over 300 eggs a day. 

 After two weeks, I put them on full feed again. I suppose I gave 

 them too much on the start, for some became crop-bound, some had bowel 

 trouble, others indigestion, and the consequence was, I lost several of my 

 nicest hens. They molted all right, but it was three months before they 

 commenced to lay again. Some did not lay any until the next spring. 



