93 



too fat and do not lay, and some die because they are overfat, I 

 frankly believe your flock is better off because of their death, and if 

 they become overly fat and do not lay, I would kill them for table use. 

 The ones which are left are the producers, they are able to produce 

 the goods, and instead of manufacturing all they eat and storing it 

 into fat, they take what they need for their own bodily use and the 

 surplus they manufacture into eggs. These are the birds which it will 

 pay you to keep and breed from. If you have a pen of Plymouth 

 Rocks or any other breed which uses all the feed you give them to 

 store up fat, and still don't lay, you had better dispose of them and 

 g:et a fresh start of some strain which you know does lay. 



FEEDING FOR EGGS. 



(Prof. James Dryden, in Oregon Agricultural College, Bulletin No. 4.) 



Feeding is one of the four most important subjects in poultry 

 keeping. Most poultry keepers do not realize the importance of good 

 feeding, others place the whole responsibility upon the food and feed- 

 ing. Before telling what food w r ill do let us first tell what it won't 

 do ; let us understand some of its limitations. 



First. No amount of good food or anything else will make some 

 hens lay; they are not born to lay. During the past year the writer 

 observed a flock of fowls, all fed alike. One of the hens laid two hun- 

 dred and eighteen eggs; another did not lay any. 



Second. No amount of good feeding or anything else will make 

 a good hiving hen lay if she has not good housing or shelter. 



If you have good fowls and good housing, what w r ill good feeding 

 do towards filling the egg basket? 



1. Food Affects the Quality of Eggs. The hen is very particular 

 about what she puts into the egg, so particular that probably no food 

 could be fed that would render the eggs totally unfit for consumption. 

 At the same time it has been demonstrated by experiments that the 

 food affects the quality of the eggs, and that to produce eggs of the 

 highest quality attention must be paid to the quality of the food. 



Flavor of Eggs. Heavy feeding of onions, for example, will give 

 a distinct flavor to the eggs and make them almost unpalatable. Hens 

 eating large quantities of beef scrap will lay eggs of strong flavor. 

 These facts the writer personally demonstrated by experiment. No 

 doubt other foods will also give a flavor to the eggs, desirable or un- 

 desirable. It is said that a diet of fish will give a fishy taste to the 

 eggs. 



It is not necessary, however, to discard these foods on this ac- 

 count, for when fed in normal quantities neither onions nor beef scraps 

 will give a perceptible flavor to the eggs. Only when the hens have 

 been starved on rrein food or animal food, and then given all they 

 will eat of either for a few days, will any flavor from onions or animal 

 food be noticed in the eggs. Hut this shows Hint the hen puts into the 

 egg what slic finds in the food, even the flavor of the foods. It is 

 therefore important that li'ood wholesome food he fed at all times. 



Feeding Color into the Egg. It is possible for the skillful feeder 

 to flavor the eggs; it sometimes happens from unskillful feeding, as 



