FIliST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 97 



Put those that lay on the general ration, still feeding well, but with more caution. 



Sell those that fatten instead of beginning to lay. Sometimes poultry keepers try to make 

 such hens lay by thinning them down again, the assumption being that they do not lay because 

 they are too fat Usually it is the other way : They fatten because the reproductive organs are 

 for some reason or other dormant. 



The hens that do not fatten or lay 'should be marketed if, on close inspection, no reason is 

 discovered for supposing them not fit for food. If one feels iu any doubt about that, and has 

 such scruples as he ought to have about selling diseased poultry, he can dress and draw the 

 fowls, and market only those in which he finds the organs normal. Sometimes there is digest- 

 ive weakness without disease. It might be overcome, and the fowl put in good condition iu 

 time, but it is not profitable to keep and feed such fowls, for quite generally they consume as 

 much food as the others, but the food passes through the system, and is voided without much 

 having been assimilated. 



To Fatten Fowls in Summer. 



The fowls in Lot 3 are to be sold as soon as marketable. Some of them may need no fatten- 

 ing and may, if convenient, be disposed of at once. 



To fatten the others, shut them up in a comfortable pen, feed once a day a mash composed 

 of equal parts corn meal and bran, with about 10% of the combined bulk of the meal and bran 

 red dog, or white middlings, or low grade flour, with as much good beef scrap or meat meal 

 added as they will eat freely. Keep cracked corn before them all the time. Give a little green 

 food daily, just enough for a relish. See that they are well supplied with water. Keep them 

 quiet. If any hens are disposed to be quarrelsome, remove them and fatten by themselves in 

 small coops. 



Sell the hens as soon as in good plump condition. Don't try to get them excessively fat. Our 

 market does not want that kind of poultry. There may, as in Lot 2, be a few hens that will 

 not fatten ; dispose of them the same way. 



This method of fattening is one that anyone can use anywhere in almost any season. I 

 say " almost any season," because in an extremely hot season it is sometimes found hard or 

 impossible to fatten fowls this way during the warmest period. I am not prepared to say 

 whether crate fattening would accomplish the desired results with those hens at such times, 

 but am inclined to think it would not. 



As a rule it does not pay to give much time at this season to the hens that are not to be kept 

 over. If they cannot be put in good marketable condition quickly sell them just as they are. 



flolting. 



Of late years a good deal of interest has been manifested in the matter of regulating the molt- 

 ing of fowls. 



It has been claimed that a period of fasting or short feeding followed by a period of very 

 heavy feeding of rich foods would cause the fowls to quit laying, drop the old feathers quickly, 

 grow the new coat quickly, and promptly resume laying. This theory was, I believe, first 

 exploited by an institute lecturer, who was also responsible for several other somewhat sensa- 

 tional stories. I could not learn from him that the hens he claimed to have m:ide molt did 

 resume lading promptly. In fact he appeared not able to produce any proof of real results, 

 though he maintained that be had succeeded in controlling the molt. Various experiments 

 made along this line have had varying results, not all fowls being affected alike by the treat- 

 ment. It seems to be established that in some cases a molt is enforced, but not that there is 

 any practical advantage in doing this. Investigations, however, have not been general enough 

 to warrant any positive general conclusions, and as far as I know none have followed the hens 

 through the year following the enforced molt. As the case stands I could not advise anyone to 

 attempt to control the molt in this way except with fowls he was willing to experiment upon. 

 The Time of the Normal Molt Varies. Hens begin to drop some feathers in June, may 

 drop many in July, and from that time on till winter in any large stook fowls may be found in 

 different stages of molting. If there are any general rules that could be laid down in regard to 

 molting 1 have never discovered them. The greater number of hens will be "in ful] molt," 



