644 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



Cowpeas make an excellent stimulat- 

 ing feed for chickens and experiments 

 have shown that they give nearly as 

 good results when fed whole as when 

 ground. 



Kafir corn has given better results in 

 station experiments when fed whole than 

 when ground. For growth or fat it has 

 proved superior at the Oklahoma sta- 

 tion to either maize or corn meal. 



Whole oats are not greatly relished 

 by hens. Only heavy oats should be 

 used. Ground oats give good results in 

 mashes and nothing is better for young 

 chicks than rolled oat meals. When 

 ground without the hulls oats are an 

 excellent ration either for laying or fat- 

 tening. 



Barley is better than oats for hens, 

 because it has a smaller percentage of 

 hulls. It gives very good results either 

 whole or ground. Many place barley 

 next to wheat for eggs. 



Whole wheat, or wheat screenings 

 make an ideal ration for hens. Bread 

 wheat is usually too expensive compared 

 with other grains to constitute the 

 larger part of the ration. Both wheat 

 shorts and bran are widely and profit- 

 ably used in mashes for hens, tending to 

 maintain the hens in a healthy condi- 

 tion. 



Mash for laying hens — It is generally 

 conceded by poultrymen that some kind 

 of a soft food should form a part of the 

 daily ration of laying hens. It has been 

 argued that the digestive organs of 

 hens contain the least amount of food in 

 the morning and that therefore this is 

 the best time to feed the soft feed as it 

 will be digested and assimilated quicker 

 than whole grain. On this point rela- 

 tively little difference in egg produc- 

 tion was observed by the Massachusetts 

 Hatch station either in summer or win- 

 ter, whether chickens were fed mash in 

 the morning or in the evening. The 

 hens fed mash in the evening voided 

 more droppings during the night, show- 

 ing that the digestive action on mash 

 was very rapid. So far as the experi- 

 ment went it was considered most favor- 

 able to feed the mash in the morning. 



The West Virginia station also re- 

 ports about the same results as regards 

 egg production whether mash was fed in 

 the morning or in the evening. 



Feeding mash at evening — Gowell at 

 the Maine station, however, states that 

 after a number of years' observation, he 



gave up the morning mash and fed it 

 late in the afternoon and with far better 

 results. "The full meal in the morning 

 had produced laziness, fatness and soft 

 shelled eggs in our Plymouth Rocks, but 

 these bad conditions and results were 

 not encountered when the birds were re- 

 quired to eat slowly and exercise by dig- 

 ging the hard grains out of the straw 

 bedding." 



The daily method of feeding hens at 

 that station is stated by Gowell as fol- 

 lows: "Each pen of 22 received 1 pint 

 of wheat in the deep litter early in the 

 morning. At 9:30 a. m. ^2 pint of oats 

 was fed to them in the same way. At 1 

 p\ m. V2 pint of cracked corn was given 

 in the litter as before. At 3 p. m. in 

 winter, and 4 p. m. in summer they 

 were given all the mash they would eat 

 up clean in half an hour. 



"The mash was made of the following 

 mixture of meals: 200 pounds wheat 

 bran ; 100 pounds corn meal ; 100 pounds 

 wheat middlings; 100 pounds linseed 

 meal; 100 pounds gluten meal; 100 

 pounds of beef scraps. The mash con- 

 tained one-fourth of its bulk of clover 

 leaves and heads obtained from the feed- 

 ing floor in the cattle barn. 



"The clover was covered with hot 

 water and allowed to stand for three or 

 four hours. The mash was made quite 

 dry and rubbed down with the shovel in 

 mixing, so that the pieces of clover were 

 separated and covered with the meal. 

 Cracked bone, oystershell, clean grit and 

 water were before them all of the time. 

 Two large mangels were fed to the birds 

 in each pen daily in winter. They were 

 stuck on a large nail which was partly 

 driven in the wall a foot and a half 

 above the floor. Very few soft shelled 

 eggs were laid and so far as known not 

 an egg has been eaten by the hens dur- 

 ing the last five years." 



Feeding mash dry — More recently the 

 station has been feeding the mash made 

 as above described, dry. It is fed in 

 troughs and kept constantly before the 

 birds at all times. The dry mash is not 

 relished to the same extent as the wet, 

 but is eaten a mouthful or two at a time 

 whenever the hens feel like it. When 

 thus fed the hens do not gorge them- 

 selves and do not get overfat or lazy or 

 lay soft shelled eggs, as is so commonly 

 the case in Plymouth Rocks when given 

 warm mashes and corn in the morning. 



