FEEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION 



83 



material available for eggs after all requirements of main- 

 tenance have been met. 



While the general condition of the hen has much to 

 do with the rate and the - regularity or irregulari'.y of 

 production, no function operates automatically or other- 

 wise, on the simple basis of taking the excess of nourish- 

 ment for its purposes unless the deposit of fat is re- 

 garded as so operating, and that is hardly reasonable, be- 

 cause the accumulation of fat beyond a limited amount is 

 detrimental to an organism. Yet considering the deposit 

 of fat as a function we see this: While the chicken i? 

 growing it does not readily take on fat. As it approaches 

 maturity, particularly if this happens to be at the be- 

 ginning of cold weather, it has a pronounced tendency to 

 fatten if feed and conditions are at all favorable. Though 

 the tendency to produce eggs at maturity may be stronger 

 in a pullet than the tendency to fatten, if anything dis- 

 turbs the development of the reproductive system at this 

 time the tendency to fatten is quite likely to assert itseif. 



Similarly, as the natural laying and breeding season 

 approaches, the tendency is for the hen to produce eggs 

 more rapidly than at. any other time, and this is not at- 

 tributable entirely to more of the feed elements becoming 

 available for eggs, for though the period of flush produc- 

 tion usually begins af f .er the shortest days of winter when 

 the difficulties of feeding in short days are over, it comes 

 before the weather is warm enough to reduce the require- 

 ments of the hen to an extent at all equal to the nutritive 

 elements which she at this time converts into eggs. Every 

 hen t!:at is capable of laying lays at the breeding season, 

 and hens that have laid earlier will lay more freely than 

 before. Apparently the reproductive organs of each hen 

 work to their capacity, taking all they can get and use of 

 the nutritive elements consumed, even at the expense of 

 requirements for maintenance. 



If this were not the case we should never have well- 

 fed hens becoming thin and poor while laying; but they 

 would be full and firm in flesh, though not fat, as long as 

 they were receiving an adequate maintenance ration. In 

 handling hens that have been laying for some time it will 

 usually be found that some are going off in condition. 

 This is most readily noticed by the majority of poultry 

 keepers when hens go broody after two or three months 

 of laying. Hens of breeds that have the incubating habit, 

 which lay as long as that before going broody, are gen- 

 erally in rather poor condition when they become broody. 

 Hens of persistently broody stocks, that go broody quite 

 regularly after three or four weeks of laying, are usually 

 in fair condition when they go broody. Many -stocks of 

 the breeds that commonly have the incubating habit pro- 

 duce few broody hens, and those only after long periods 

 of laying, and the hens are nearly always in rather poor 

 flesh when they go broody. 



Instead of waiting to find out as if by accident 

 when hens go broody or when they have stopped laying, 

 that they have become thin and poor, the poultry keeper 

 should, from the time his hens begin to lay, at frequent 

 intervals, handle enough of them on the roosts at night 

 to see what their condition is and whether he needs to 

 handle them all. He then can take measures to prevent 

 hens laying themselves into poor condition at the rate 

 that is going on with the feed the hens are getting- 

 Whether he can keep the hen laying well through the 

 spring and summer and up to the molting period depends 

 on the constitution and vitality of the hen. In the aver- 

 age stock where selection for vitality has not been prac- 

 ticed, probably fifty per cent of the hens could not under 

 any system of feeding or management be made profitable 



layers for more than six or eight months of their pullet 

 year. 



But in the average large flock of layers, and in many 

 smaller flocks, a considerable proportion of pullets begin 

 to lose flesh and condition within a few weeks of the 

 time they commenced laying. The general cause of this 

 is failure to increase the amount of feed as the hens come 

 to heavier laying. All poultry, laying hens as well as 

 stock destined only for the table, should be fed to keep 

 it always in good flesh. Then, in the case of the laying 

 hen, we know that the hen is doing the best of which she 



INTERIOR OF PEN IN THE LONG HOUSE IN THE REAR 

 OF BUILDING ON OPPOSITE PAGE 



is capable in egg production. And though a hen of only 

 moderate vitality may not be able to go the full distance 

 with the continuous layers in the flock, by feeding her 

 well and keeping her always in good flesh, the poultry 

 keeper insures that she will be a profitable layer consider- 

 ably longer than if allowed to run down in flesh, and that 

 when she quits laying she will be in fair condition to sell 

 for table poultry. 



The matter of breeding for egg production does .not 

 come under the subject of this book. Its aim is to tell 

 every poultry keeper how to feed the stock he has to 

 the best advantage. As was said in another connection, 

 the tendency is for a poultry keeper's stock to adapt it- 

 self to his methods of feeding and care, by the somewhat 

 automatic, and in some ways undesirable process of the 

 failure of the individuals the system does not suit to 

 thrive under it. While it is highly desirable that the 

 poultry keeper should have stock all well adapted to his 

 methods, that is never fully realized, and it is always 

 good policy while culling out the unsuitable as that qual- 

 ity in them is discovered, to consider how to handle them 

 to best advantage. On this principle the method of 

 dealing with a hen of doubtful value as a layer in the 

 latter part of the winter is different from that of dealing 

 with heavy layers. 



If some hens in a flock are laying well and remain 

 in good condition, while others on the same ration, with 

 the same opportunity to satisfy their wants, are in poor 

 condition, the logical thing to do is to separate according 

 to this characteristic; and to feed the hens that are in 

 good condition as before, but for the others to change 

 the feeding as seems desirable to improve their condi- 

 tion, with the expectation that it will either improve their 

 production or extend their period of profitable produc- 

 tion. If some hens seem too much inclined to put on fat 

 they should be managed accordingly. If a poultry keeper 



