POULTRY FEEDS AND FEEDING 



they are fed for all of the feeds except the last feed given 

 in the evening. For the evening meal a full feed should 

 always be supplied so that the fowls will go to the roosts 

 with full crops and it is advisable to feed enough grain 

 at night so that there will be a little grain left in the litter 

 for the fowls to eat and scratch for when they get up in 

 the morning. It is especially desirable and essential that 

 fowls have a full crop when they go to roost in cold 

 weather on account of the length of the winter nights. 

 A fair general estimate is to feed about one quart of 

 scratch grains and an equal weight of mash, that is, about 

 i l /2 quarts of mash, daily to 13 hens of the general pur- 

 pose breeds such as the Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island 

 Reds or Wyandottes and to 16 hens of the smaller or 

 egg breeds. This would be about j l /2 pounds each of 

 scratch grains and of mash daily to 100 Leghorns and 

 about 9 l / 2 pounds of each to 100 general purpose fowls. 

 This is advised where a simple method of feeding is used 

 and the birds are not forced highly for egg production. 

 General purpose fowls fed in this manner and kept on a 

 good range will eat about 75 pounds of feed in a year 

 including both scratch grains and mash and Leghorns 

 will eat about 55 pounds in addition to the green food 

 consumed by both of these breeds. It is advisable to feed 

 about half mash and half scratch grains during the year, 

 the proportion of these varying somewhat at different 

 seasons. In the egg laying competitions where the hens 

 are forced more heavily for production and grain is fed 

 more frequently, a larger amount of grain is consumed. 



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