62 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK. 



Each apartment accommodates thirty to forty hens, 

 and each flock has a yard in front of its apartment 

 twenty-four by sixty-four feet, in which are growing 

 one or two peach or plum trees. These houses for 

 convenience, cheapness and practical business cannot 

 easily be excelled. 



The general rules of feeding given in Chapter II 

 when treating of the best method of getting fertile 

 eggs for hatching, will apply in this case. 



It will, however, be entirely safe in feeding hens for 

 market eggs alone to force them a little harder by feed- 

 ing more highly seasoned and more nitrogenous foods 

 than would be advisable when hatching eggs are wanted. 



On every egg farm there should be a large boiler 

 or steam cooker for cooking vegetables and making 

 compounds of meat, ground grain and vegetables A 

 good morning ration may be made of equal parts of 

 corn meal, fine middlings, bran, ground oats and ground 

 meat. This should be stirred into a pot of cooked 

 vegetables while boiling hot until the mass is as stiff 

 as can be manipulated by a pair^of strong arms. Sea- 

 soned with salt and cayenne pepper. Potatoes, beets, 

 carrots, turnips, onions or any vegetable clean and 

 free from decay will be acceptable. Cut clover hay 

 may be substituted for vegetables for an occasional 

 meal. The above contains a variety of food elements 

 such as compose the egg, bone and muscle of the hen, 

 the fat-forming elements not being prominent. For 

 the noon meal, wheat is the best single grain. It may- 

 be mixed with good oats and scattered in chaff or 

 leaves on the feeding floor. The night feed should be 

 a light one, consisting of whole corn. 



