138 POULTRT-CRAFT. 



heated term ; extra good laying except in a few rare individual cases is 

 not to be expected. The hens need to be kept cool. The houses should be 

 opened wide enough to be comfortably cool at night. There should be cool, 

 shady loafing places in which they would pass the hottest hours of the day. 

 Their exercise should be early in the morning and late in the evening. It is 

 a good plan to feed grain mornings and evenings, and the mash at noon. 

 Once a day about the middle of the afternoon is the best time, they 

 should have all the green grass or vegetable tops they will eat. On exces- 

 sively hot days, green stuff may be fed to advantage, twice just after the 

 morning feed, and just before the evening feed. They should have all the 

 cold water they want, and may also be given all the milk they will drink. 

 Milk is good at all times, but is most appreciated in warm weather. It does 

 not wholly take the place of water. Fowls would not suffer much from 

 thirst if given milk and no water ; but they want water, and it should always 

 be accessible, whether they have milk or not. If one has plenty of milk, and 

 can give it constantly, the best way is to have two drinking pans in each 

 pen, one for water, one for milk and let the fowls drink as they please. 



When the weather is extremely warm, the mash for fowls in confinement 

 should contain but little corn meal, and no whole corn should be given. For 

 ordinary summer weather, the mash need not be much varied from that 

 used in winter, and the whole grain ration need differ only in the amount of 

 corn fed. If given the opportunity to eat vegetables freely, the hens will 

 balance the ration for comfort, not for eggs. Indeed, unless fed vegetables, 

 as suggested, when they are not very hungry, the hens will eat a much larger 

 proportion of bulky food than is consistent with good laying. * 



184. When Hens Stop Laying Too Early in Summer. There are 

 always some hens, sometimes a large proportion of a flock, that cannot 

 be kept laying through the summer when handled in the usual way ; these it 

 is not profitable to keep in idleness. (Too many poultry keepers do keep 

 them along until fall). They should be culled out of the general flock, 

 separated and fed differently ; the object being to put them in market con- 

 dition. They should be fed a heavy laying ration, with little exercise. On 

 this treatment many of them will begin laying again. Those which do not 

 should be marketed as soon as fit, and those which lay for only a few weeks 

 should also go to market, as they stop laying again. Those which show a 

 disposition to keep right on laying should be given exercise to keep them in 

 condition. An egg farmer should never sell a laying hen unless he has more 

 eggs than he needs, or has another to take her place ; as long as the hen 



* NOTE. Those whose hens are kept on a good grass range, would do well to watch 

 this point. If the hens will not stop to eat grain in the morning, but go foraging, they 

 may be let alone as long as they lay well. If they are not laying as well as they ought to 

 be, it is worth while to try the experiment of keeping them in the yard attached to the 

 poultry house until they have eaten a light feed of grain, which will often give them just 

 the solid food they need to bring the egg yield where it should be. 



