216 LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM 



egg shells. Lime can best be supplied as crushed oyster shells 

 or clam shells. These can usually be purchased at reasonable 

 prices from local grocery men or dealers in poultry supplies. 



Feeding Laying Hens. — The general rule for feeding hens for 

 egg production is to give them three meals a day. A mixture 

 of whole grain is scattered in deep litter on the floor in the 

 morning and evening. At noon a wet mash is given or if the 

 dry method of feeding is practised the task of feeding the noon 

 meal is dispensed with as the mash is fed dry from hoppers 

 kept filled and open at all times. Green food is given at noon 

 and grit, oyster shell and water are kept constantly before them. 



Feeding Chicks. — Little chicks should not be fed until they 

 are at least forty-eight hours old. Nature provides them with 

 a portion of the parent egg within their systems to sustain life 

 for several days. They should be fed sparingly at first and 

 often. Some poultry men recommend feeding every two hours 

 during the day for the first week, alternating with a wet mash 

 and a cracked grain mixture. After that the number of meals 

 per day is lessened gradually until at the age of three weeks 

 three feeds a day are given, cracked grain morning and night 

 and mash at noon. This latter practice is continued until the 

 chicks are ready for winter quarters in the fall when a gradual 

 change is made to a ration suital^le to mature fowls. 



FATTENING POULTRY. 



It is a wasteful practice to sell poultry without fattening 

 them. Buyers always pay a premium for well-fleshed fowls. 

 As a rule ten days or two weeks of liberal feeding is all that is 

 necessary to put most fowls in first-class condition. Chickens 

 are either fattened in crates made for the purpose or in small 

 pens. Each method has its successful advocate. If fed in 

 crates they are given a mash composed of ground grains mois- 

 tened with milk. When fed in pens they are usually fed whole 

 or cracked grains and some form of animal food. Care must 

 be taken in either case to feed sparingly the first day or two, 

 after^which they should be fed all they will eat up clean three 

 times a day until fattened. Turkeys, ducks and geese are 

 almost always fattened in pens and j^ards and require about 

 the same length of time to fatten as chickens. 



