104 



she receives the proper balanced ration or not. Her business is to re- 

 produce her species, and she knows she must put into the inside of 

 the egg a sufficient amount of food so that when the chick develops 

 and hatches there will be none left. Even though we do not feed 

 properly, what eggs are laid are probably of the same composition, 

 as far as the hen can determine that for herself. You will find that 

 hens which have not had grit will usually lay soft-shelled eggs. We 

 must have a properly balanced ration. There are certain things which 

 we should bear in mind in compounding or 

 making up a ration. 



Factors which will govern in selection of 

 rations : We find that a ration must con- 

 tain fat. Fat we must represent by corn. 

 We find that to produce white of an egg 

 the ration must contain protein or muscle- 

 building material. Protein we may repre- 

 sent by bran and meat, and it seems that 

 chickens must have some of this protein in a 

 meat form. To produce shells chicks must 

 have minerals, supply of lime of calcium 

 carbonate, which can be represented as 

 oyster shell and, to some extent, bran. In 

 addition to this we will supply the hen teeth 

 in grit, in order that they may have the 

 grinding material in the gizzard to grind up 



5 T Jl - i XT A i Barred Plymouth Rock. 



food after it reaches there. As a general 



corrective and add variety to the ration, we should always add green 

 food and charcoal, so no matter what ration you use it is always safe 

 to have grit, oyster shell and charcoal before them all the time, and 

 pure clean water. There are several good rations which have been 

 given for the feeding of poultry. It is not so much what you feed 

 as how you feed it. There it more depends upon the feeder than upon 

 the feed. With every pail of feed two pails of common sense should 

 be used. This is the hardest thing to find in a ration. We must use 

 good judgment in feeding and we must know our birds. We must 

 have chicken sense. A chicken man is born, not made. 



A good ration, which is based upon the ration developed at 

 Maine, may be composed as follows : 



One part corn meal, one part middlings, one part gluten meal, 

 one part beef scrap, one part wheat bran, one-half part linseed meal. 

 Mix in form of dry mash, feed in hopper, let hens have free access to 

 this at noonday. In the morning they are fed in a deep litter of straw 

 eight inches to twelve inches deep, and this depth of litter is meas- 

 ured with a ruler. 



In the morning feed cracked corn, wheat, oats or any grains 

 which you may have in the bins and make them scratch for it in the 

 straw. All you want to see when they are eating is their tails. The 

 more hidden a chicken is the more that chicken is digging and the 

 more exercise it is getting. That is the active hen and she is the 

 laying hen. She may be fat, but she must have exercise. At noon 

 time she may be fed at the same rate of four quarts per one hundred 

 hens again. Wheat makes a good feed, as well as barley. Chickens 



