82 



HOW TO FEED POULTRY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH PROFIT 



ular times. His experience and his method fit the topic 

 under discussion, but should not be applied to all phases 

 of poultry keeping. 



The Water Supply in Winter 



To keep hens properly supplied with drinking water 

 in hard freezing weather, is one of the poultry keeper's 

 most troublesome problems. If birds with long wattles 

 get them wet while drinking when the temperature is well 

 below the freezing point, they are in that condition much 

 more suspectible to frostbite than when dry. In most 

 of the popular breeds the hens' wattles are not long 

 enough to make much trouble on this score, but those of 

 the males are. So where hens are kept for egg produc- 

 tion only, there need be no trouble, for it is not neces- 



not, 



7; 



FEED ROOM, OFFICE, AND DORMITORY BUILDING AT THE GOVERNMENT 

 POULTRY FARM, BET/TSVILLE, MARYLAND 



In the rear is a long laying house used for experimental pens. 

 U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry. 



sary to keep males with them. Where the stock is to be 

 used also for breeding, it is desirable to have the males 

 with the females, living a normal life and keeping in 



dition when he is needed for breeding. The males can 

 stand- a short supply of water at this time better than the 

 laying hens can, and though it is not recommended to 

 make a practice of keeping the males short of water at 

 any time in emergencies it may be the least of several 

 evils to coop them where they cannot get to tli water 

 pail. 



In many cases snow is preferred to water by hens 

 that have access to it. Many poultry keepers do not 

 water the hens at all when they can get snow, and there 

 are many cases where the hens apparently lay as well 

 with only snow to quench their thirst as when supplied 

 with water. There are, also, many instances in which 

 snow either does not appear fully to substitute for water, 

 or is supposed to have some injurious effect on the hens. 

 Eating snow is often alleged to stop 

 laying. Whether it does so or not 

 the writer is not prepared to s 

 He has never personally known 

 instance where, with other conditions 

 as they should be, vigorous, hearty 

 fowls were in any way unfavorably 

 affected by eating all the snow they 

 wanted. It is probably natural for 

 all land birds in regions where the 

 streams and ponds are frozen ov 

 for long periods to eat snow 

 quench their thirst. When snow 



r ^A available it is often easier to keep 



|djbg|S the fowls supplied with it than with 

 water, and in freezing weather it is 

 much safer for birds with easily 

 frosted wattles. The dry snow will 

 not adhere to them, and when the 

 snow is wet the temperature is above 

 freezing. 



Modifying Rations As the Weather 

 Moderates 



Nearly all stock of poultry, that are 

 Photo from 



fed heavy rations in winter tend t 



deveiop some cases of liver trouble 



toward spring. This tendency will be much reduced if 

 the poultry keeper is careful to lighten the ration when- 

 ever the weather is unseasonably warm. No radical 



: 



good condition, though the eggs may not be used for changes need be made, but a little less corn than is used 



hatching for some time. The tendency among poultry 

 keepers who have males likely to get wattles frosted is 

 to withhold water from the flock until the atmosphere 

 warms up a little, and to empty out the drinking vessels 

 early in the evening the idea being that the birds can 

 get all the water they really need in the few hours they 

 have access to it, and that it is no great hardship to them 

 to be without it for sixteen to eighteen hours occasion- 

 ally. No doubt it is possible to find instances where hens 

 have laid well when watered that way, and were able to 

 get no snow or ice, but such cases are exceptional. 



Hens normally require a great deal of water when 

 fed much dry grain. They usually want a drink before 

 they eat in the morning, and are likely to take a drink 



for normal winter weather, more oats either dry, soaked 

 or sprouted, and more generous feeding of green feed 

 will go far to check troubles of this kind. It is particu- 

 larly necessary to look out for the hens that, while hearty 

 feeders, are rather indifferent layers and more inclined 

 to put their feed into fat than into eggs. A hen that is 

 in good condition and laying well seems to benefit by 

 the warm spells in winter. Any excess of feed over 

 maintenance requirements increases her rate of egg pro- 

 duction as long as her digestion and other functions are 

 strong and sound. 



A poultry keeper who trap-nests hens can watch 

 their condition very closely. If one does not use trap 

 nests, he should make a practice of handling his hens on 



the last thing before going to roost if they can get it. the roost at night to see what condition they are in. If 

 They want water with their feed, and to limit them in this is not done a novice often fails to increase rations 

 any way on water will result in a smaller consumption of all the hens will stand as they come into heavier laying 

 feed. To insure that hens will eat as much as possible in in the latter part of the winter, and the result is that 

 the short days, they should have water at will, and if the the hens producing eggs rapidly first use up what sur- 

 males need special attention to prevent frosting of the plus fat they may have, and then turn some nutriment 

 wattles, it is much better to give it than to have the hens that should go to the maintenance of the body to the pro- 

 stinted for drink, or to have the trouble of treating the duction of eggs. It is a mistake to suppose that the 

 male's frosted wattles, and perhaps have him out of con- amount of eggs produced is determined by the supply of 



