CHAPTER VII 



Feeding For Egg Production 



Feeding and Management of Hens of All Types and Breeds to Secure Heavy Egg Production Laying Rations Used 

 and Recommended By Federal and State Demonstration and Experiment Farms, and By Commer- 

 cial Egg Farmers Amounts of Feed Consumed By Laying Hens Modifying Rations 



to Suit Weather Conditions 



O 



NE of the easiest things in poultry keeping is to 

 get good egg production. It can be done quite 

 easily under conditions in which it is difficult 

 to grow good chickens and in which good results from 

 breeding stock are rarely obtained. Why is it, then, 

 that so many people strive unsuccessfully to get even 

 ordinary egg yields and so few report extraordinary 

 yields? It is simply because so many people are look- 

 ing for some way of getting good egg yields by some 

 other process than that which regularly gives them. 

 The way to get good egg production, while in itself easy, 

 is not equally attractive to all who engage in poultry 

 keeping. It is close attention to the wants of the hens, 

 regular feeding of rations furnishing a good variety of 

 feeds, care of the birds and the premises they occupy to 

 keep them comfortable under changing weather condi- 

 tions, and to keep the place they live in reasonably clean. 

 The routine of attention to these details may sometimes 

 be simplified by the use of appliances and a system of 

 management that reduce the number of times that atten- 

 tion is given to the birds daily, but in general when good 

 egg yields are obtained, some interested and responsible 

 person is looking after their wants not less than twice, 

 and oftener three times, a day. 



It is best to recognize this fact at the beginning of a 

 discussion of feeding for egg production. The cases 

 where good results are obtained with less attention are 

 exceptions in which an unusually favorable combination 

 of other things affecting egg production has made it pos- 

 sible for a poultry keeper to get good to extra-good pro- 

 duction with a minimum of attention. The consideration 

 of these exceptional cases will be taken up after discus- 

 sion of feeding for egg production under the usual con- 

 ditions which give ordinary good results. In discussing 

 this general line of feeding for egg production we will 

 begin with the pullets in the fall, and consider the man- 

 agement of a flock from the time they are first put into 

 the laying houses, through the winter, spring and sum- 

 mer, and the first annual molt, bringing them up to the 

 beginning of their second laying year. Before going into 

 the details of handling and feeding under ordinary con- 

 ditions, it will be worth while to consider the conditions 

 under which pullets lay according to expectation prompt- 

 ly upon reaching the age of maturity. 



The Ideal Way to Manage Pullets for Egg Production 



The surest way to have pullets begin to lay about 

 the time they make their growth, and continue to lay 

 regularly, is to grow them in the house that they are to 

 occupy as layers. This is not commonly practiced be- 

 cause, after maturity, layers do not need as good range 

 as they had while growing, and because, as a rule, the 

 houses for the laying stock are occupied by the preced- 

 ing generation of layers throughout the greater part of 

 the period when the pullets are grown. The reason pul- 

 lets handled in this way are normal in regard to the time 

 of beginning laying, while apparently as well grown 

 pullets that have been shifted several times during the 



growing period, with the last shift (to permanent laying 

 houses) coming just about the time they are expected to 

 begin to lay, will be weeks and possibly months in get- 

 ting into regular laying, is that unless such shifts are 

 made with the jgreatest care to keep the birds quiet, com- 

 fortable, and contented, every move checks development 

 and retards egg production. 



This effect of change is found in nearly every func- 

 tion of poultry that has to be considered in connection 

 with growth and reproduction. Mention was made in 

 the last chapter of the effects of change of diet on some 

 birds, and of the importance of using systems of feeding 

 that reduced the susceptibility of birds to such changes. 

 When breeding poultry are moved to new locations, even 

 in the vicinity of their old home, they often do not breed 

 right for some time, but give an extraordinary propor- 

 tion of infertile eggs and weak germs. Everyone who 

 has moved hens that were laying when moved knows that 

 it usually stops egg production for some time. When 

 these things are considered, it is easy to see how moving 

 pullets about retards laying. The fact that it does is rec- 

 ognized in the practice often adopted of moving pullets 

 that are coming to laying a little too early to suit their 

 owner, and perhaps moving them several times, to hold 

 them back as long as possible. But for every such case 

 there are scores of instances of retarded laying plainly 

 attributable to frequent shifts or to other incidents un- 

 favorable to development during the growing period, and 

 poultry keepers almost invariably either overlook the in- 

 fluence of these things upon development or greatly un- 

 derestimate their effects. 



When to Move Pullets to Winter Quarters 



While a change at any time seems to have some re- 

 tarding effect upon the development of chickens unless 

 made with such care that they are not in the least dis- 

 turbed by it pullets seem to be most suspectible to the 

 influence of change and the excitement that often ac- 

 company their establishment in new quarters, in the three 

 or four weeks before they begin to lay. If moved after 

 they have been laying for a little while, with some care 

 to make the change as little disturbing as possible, they 

 will often hardly stop laying at all; but it is quite the 

 common thing for pullets moved just as they were about 

 to begin to lay to produce no eggs for several weeks or 

 months. So whenever it can be done, the pullets should 

 be put in their permanent laying quarters a full month 

 before they are expected to begin laying. The arrange- 

 ments for moving them should be made with a view to 

 disturbing them as little as possible, and they should 

 be handled gently, even if that does take considerably 

 more time than the average rough-and-ready poultry 

 keeper gives to such jobs. 



Rations for Pullets for Egg Production 



The feeding of pullets for egg production generally 

 continues, with some modification, the ration- they had 

 been receiving while in the growing coops. To keep the 



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