220 



rEnnie s agriculture;. 



Winter Eggs. 



Disposing of 

 Poultry. 



How to Feed. 



Care of Hens 

 When Laying. 



moveable. The latter can be made to tilt into a 

 box or wheel-barrow in the passage. Every pre- 

 caution should be taken to make the poultry house 

 frost-proof in very cold weather. Artificial heating 

 is only required in one room for early chicks. 



Pullets will commence to lay when eight months 

 old, say at the beginning of November, and continue 

 laying all winter, or during the time when fresh eggs 

 are a much higher price than in summer. In a flock 

 of fifty or sixty hens the difference amounts to con- 

 siderable. The object should be to raise early 

 chicks for laying in winter instead of summer. 



Arrange to keep the pullets for two winters, and 

 with proper care and feeding they, will be in good 

 condition for table use in the months of May and 

 June, after their second winter's laying. At this 

 season of the year even old hens bring high prices. 

 The male chicks should be fattened and sold when 

 four or five months old. 



At first feed bread crumbs or rolled oats, then 

 ground com, peas, barley and oats, mixed with skim 

 milk; also give ground bone and flesh, with green 

 vegetables or roots. When fattening, confine to a 

 small pen; furnish all the grit and pure water they 

 wish. Give all the feed they will eat, and keep them 

 free from vermin by using some insecticide or kero- 

 sene. 



To get the best results from hens in producing 

 eggs, induce them to take plenty of exercise by 

 scattering their food, composed of corn, peas, barley, . 

 oats and wheat, among chaflf , so that they will have 

 to scratch for it. In winter they should receive a 

 liberal ration of cut clover, ground bone and fiesh; 

 also middlings, mixed with skim milk, and all the 

 vegetables they wish, such as cabbage, sugar-beets, 

 etc. Grit and pure water should be in abundant 

 supply at all times. 



