22 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Table 8. — Rations for Heavy Laying Hens. — Digestible Nutrients 

 needed per Day for Each 100 Pounds Live Weight. 



This is one of the most interesting and valuable tables that 

 has ever been worked out on the subject of poultry feeding. 

 It is well known among experienced and well-informed poul- 

 trymen that a balanced ration for hens should have a nutri- 

 tive ratio of about 1 to 41/0. Just how that was worked out 

 may be interesting to many. Dr. H. J. Wheeler, of the 

 Geneva Experiment Station, performed an experiment to 

 determine this along with some other facts, and secured these 

 data. 



l^ote that he worked with birds varying in size. Two pens 

 contained hens weighing from 5 to 8 pounds, and two, hens 

 weighing from 3 to 5 pounds. This table shows the amount 

 of food each lot consumed per day for each 100 pounds of 

 live weight. The experiment ran for a number of months, 

 and what we have here is the average. The ratio between the 

 amount of food consumed per day by the hens weighing from 

 5 to 8 pounds, as compared with those weighing from 3 to 

 5 pounds, is about the same for each of the food principles. 

 One interesting fact brought out is that the small hens con- 

 sumed nearly twice as much per 100 pounds of live weight as 

 the larger hens. This is due undoubtedly to the larger num- 

 ber of eggs laid by the small hens, weight for weight, as 

 there were perhaps 24 or 25 hens in the one pen and 15 

 or 16 in the other. 



Another interesting fact is the ratio between the amount of 

 ash and protein in the food consumed, which is about 1 to 3. 

 This is doubly interesting because there is one particular 

 mash on the market to-day that contains nearly twice as 

 much ash as protein. It seems to me that poultrymen should 

 think twice before they buy a mash that is loaded up so 

 heavily with mineral matter. 



