1074 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



meat will not be necessary, for the milk will take the place of 

 the insect food that the fowls get for themselves when at liberty. 

 But to make hens lay in winter is a different thing, and often 

 taxes the skill of the poultry raiser to the utmost. To begin 

 with, the pullets that are expected to lay in cold weather must 

 be of the right age to commence laying in October, when, with 

 proper care, they will lay right along till February, and by that 

 time, or before, the old hens that have been wintered over will 

 be ready to begin. For winter layers the Brahmas, Cochins, 

 and Langshans should be out of the shell in February and March ; 

 Plymouth Rocks should be hatched in March and April, while 

 the smaller breeds should be hatched later, say from the mid- 

 dle of April to the middle of May. The smaller breeds mature 

 earlier than the large breeds, and if hatched very early in the 

 season will commence laying about the first of August, lay out 

 their first litter, and be ready to rest just as the price of eggs 

 begins to go up ; then cold weather comes on, and it will be a 

 hard matter to induce them to commence laying again much be- 

 fore February. 



The absolute necessity of having a comfortable house for lay- 

 ing hens in localities where the mercury is liable to go a long 

 distance below zero has been spoken of under the proper head- 

 ing, and need not be enlarged upon here. 



Given the house and the hens, the next things are the food 

 and drink. Every morning, as soon as the fowls come from the 

 roost they should have a warm breakfast made of boiled vegeta- 

 bles mixed with corn-meal, oat-meal, bran, or shorts sometimes 

 one thing sometimes another, taking care not to feed too large a 

 proportion of corn-meal. Give as much variety as possible, and 

 season all soft food with salt and pepper as you would for your 

 own eating, and do n't make this soft food sloppy ; it should be 

 just moist enough to hold together. At noon give the fowls a 

 few handfuls of buckwheat or sunflower seed scattered among 

 the litter in the shed or other place where they exercise. This 

 noon meal is given more to make the fowls exercise by scratch- 

 ing it out of the litter than for any thing else. At night give 

 a liberal feed, as much as they will eat up clean, of grain of 



