FEEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION 



79 



and many poultry keepers still follow it. It is the method 

 that is best adapted to feeding when the stock consists 

 of more than one breed, the different breeds requiring 

 somewhat different rations, and when the stock contains 

 lots of birds that are being fed for different purposes, or 

 when the stock is divided into flocks of the same variety 

 requiring somewhat different treatment. It tends to pre- 

 vent hens from picking a favorite grain first, as they are 

 inclined to do when mixed grains are fed. While a hen 

 that perhaps is averse to eating oats, and especially fond 

 of corn, might eat rather sparingly of a feed of oats at 

 rcon, and eat greedily of the feed of cracked corn in the 

 evening, she cannot take the coin and leave the oats to 

 the extent that she would if they were always given at 

 the same time. 



When the grains are fed separately it is a simple 

 matter to give hens that need a larger proportion of oats 

 a heavy feed of oats, and when the corn is fed give them 

 a light feed of corn. Or, whatever grain is fed, those 

 hens which should have more than average proportions 

 of it can be given them at the time it is fed, and fed 

 lighter of some other meal either mash or hard grain, 

 or both, as circumstances require. While it is usual to 

 feed the mixed grains rather lightly at morning or noon, 

 and heavier at the evening feeds, in deep litter feeding 

 there ought always to be some grain in the litter, and it 

 does not make much difference what time of day it is 

 put there. 



Varying the amount of grain as just described, and 

 providing conditions especially suited to them are the 

 practical ways of getting good egg yields, from hens of 

 the breeds and types that do not lay well under ordinary 

 conditions and handling. Large fowls, and all fowls with 

 a tendency to fatten easily should have either good range 

 or deep litter that does not pack too quickly, and is light 

 and easily worked. The specification for deep litter :n 

 the laying houses is often "more honored in the breach 

 than in the observance", not because the poultry keeper 

 does not intend to keep the litter in the condition that it 

 should be. but because many things may interfere with 

 renewing it at the appropriate time, and not infrequently 



supplies of litter are hard to obtain. With small active 

 fowls it does not make so much difference. In fact, if 

 they go into winter quarters in good condition and start 

 laying seasonably they may lay as well for three or four 

 months fed in troughs or on bare floors" and taking com- 

 paratively little exercise, as when fed in litter, but 

 they will not keep in as good physical condition, and to- 

 ward spring will develop a much larger proportion of 

 cases of liver trouble than flocks that have had a reason- 

 able amount of exercise in getting their daily ration. 



With large hens and those having a strong tendency 

 to fatten, good egg production through a long period 

 calls for careful management to keep the hen always in 

 laying condition. There is a common impression that 

 pullets often fail to lay at maturity because they are 

 allowed to become too fat. This idea is responsible for 

 a great deal of short feeding of pullets at the very time 

 when they should be fed most liberally, for while a pul- 

 let may not be increasing in size and weight in the few 

 weeks between the first indications of laying and the be- 

 ginning of egg production when development is regu- 

 lar and normal, she is growing a coat of feathers and the 

 reproductive organs are developing, and for these things 

 she can usually use to advantage all the feeds she can 

 digest and assimilate. 



It is doubtful whether becoming too fat as she ap- 

 proached maturity was ever the first and true cause of a 

 pullet's failure to lay. When pullets are handled under 

 conditions that give the keeper opportunities to observe 

 them closely, and to give attention to feeding them to 

 put them in ideal condition for egg production, it will 

 often develop that the pullet either will not lay at all, 

 or will lay little and irregularly and probably lay ab- 

 normal eggs. This furnishes reasonable grounds for sup- 

 posing that the real reason she puts on fat is because 

 the reproductive system does not function properly and, 

 the digestive organs being good and the pullet eating 

 well, the feed that would go to eggs if the reproductive 

 organs were normal naturally goes to fa*. This may 

 also be the case when moving a pullet about to begin lay- 

 ing checks egg production. The ovary, sensitive to the 



ILLUSTRATION SHOWING QUANTITY OP PEED CONSUMED BY A HEN IN A YEAR 



This display was arranged by Prof. James Dryden for a part of the space allotted to poultry in an agricultural "Demonstra- 

 tion Train" traveling in the State of Oregon. 



