FEEDING OF FOWLS 



sider the dry matter of the hen and compare it with the 

 dry matter of the eggs she lays in a year, there will be 

 figured 5 l / 2 times as much dry matter in the eggs as in 

 her whole body. The weight of the dry matter in a 

 cow's body will be to the weight of the dry matter in 

 the milk as 1 is to 2.9. In other words, based on the 

 dry matter, the hen does twice as well as the cow." 

 This indicates more activity and a greater amount of 

 assimilating power by the hen than by the cow. 



The hen that lays 150 eggs per year will, if these eggs 

 weigh 2 oz. each, have laid 300 oz. of eggs. Of this, 

 approximately 10% is protein; that is, 30 oz. of protein 

 is extracted from her feed. The hen will need more 

 than three times as much protein as her egg yield con- 

 tains to sustain her body during the year, which would 

 be in all 120 oz. of protein, or 7*/2 lb. If the entire grain 

 ration of the hen were composed of wheat, and if she 

 should eat 100 lb., which is the average ration for a year, 

 there would be only a little more than 9 lb. of digestible 

 protein in her year's supply. If the hen should extract 

 7 lb. of protein from the 9 Jb. of protein contents in the 

 wheat, she would be doing remarkably well. To accom- 

 plish this she would need to gain 70% efficiency from the 

 food consumed. 



Professor Patterson, of Missouri, has advanced the 

 theory that the best egg yield will be secured from hens 

 that are fed a ration that contains about equal propor- 

 tions of yolk-forming material and white-forming mate- 

 rial. He believes that if the hens are fed in this way 

 they will produce more eggs than if fed otherwise. 

 These suggestions might be called experimental. The 

 only way of knowing to a certainty whether or not this 

 is true will be through practical experience or from 

 giving the suggestion a fair trial and noting the results. 

 The grain ration suggested is a mixture of 150 lb. of 

 cracked corn and 150 lb. of wheat. For a dry mash, 20 lb. 

 each of wheat bran, wheat middlings, corn meal, ground 

 oats, and gluten meal, with 30 lb. of beef scrap, 5 lb. of 

 alfalfa meal, and 5 lb. of linseed meal, is recommended. 



