THE SEASONS AS AFFECTING POULTRY 



has the same effect as cold quarters. The water 

 with which the mash is mixed up should be suffi- 

 ciently hot to thoroughly warm the food. Care 

 should be taken, however, to not have it too hot, 

 or injury to the birds' crops will result, and 

 that would be worse than cold food. Lukewarm 

 is about right. All grain should be thoroughly 

 warmed before feeding. This is especially true of 

 corn, which gets as cold as ice during cold weather. 

 Put your hand in a panful of shelled corn, and 

 then imagine the effect that this painfully-cold stuff 

 would have on the bodily warmth of the bird that 

 consumed it. All the drinking water should be 

 warmed. To be sure, with ordinary drinking ves- 

 sels it is impossible to keep the water warm for 

 more than an hour or two, but by using stoneware 

 fountains (which retain the heat longer than any 

 other kind) and supplying fresh warm water two 

 or three times a day one can get along quite well. 



One should not imagine, however, that because 

 he warms their food and water he can house his 

 fowls in any old place and still have good results. 

 Neither can one dose up his fowls with cayenne 

 pepper, hot mashes, etc., and have this super- 

 abundance of inward heat make up for a lack of 

 outward comfort. 



Variety in feeding is more than desirable at any 

 time, and in the winter time it is positively necessary 

 if maximum results are to be secured, for at this 



225 



