12 BULLETIN 561, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



fowls. The monthly average weight of the hens in this pen was 

 5.03 pounds, compared to 5.82 pounds in the other general-purpose 

 pens during their first year, and 5.58 pounds, compared with 6.26 

 for these pens during their second year (see Table 10). These fowls 

 were always hungry and busy scratching, wandering a considerable 

 distance from their house to scratch in the leaves and on the banks 

 of the brook. 



Feather eating developed in this pen and the fowls picked the 

 feathers from the neck of the male. This vice was apparently 

 stopped by keeping salt pork before the birds until the male's neck 

 was healed and covered with new feathers. A slight tendency toward 

 this habit was noted in this pen throughout the year, but was not 

 serious enough to warrant preventive measures except during the 

 month of October, 1914. Feather picking did not develop in any 

 of the other feeding pens, showing that the use of a good ration con- 

 taining beef scrap practically prevents this vice among fowls kept 

 under ordinary conditions. 



The average feed consumed per hen in Pen 9 (see Table 2) was 61 

 pounds, which cost 88 cents, against an average consumption of 69 

 pounds which cost $1.09, for Pens 1, 2, and 3 in 1913. The amount 

 of feed increased to 74 pounds during the second year and cost SI. 10, 

 compared with 65 pounds in Pens 1, 2, and 3, which cost $1.02. The 

 average feed cost of a dozen eggs in Pen 9 during the first year was 

 11.7 cents against 9.51 cents in Pens 1, 2, and 3 (1913), and it was 

 15.3 cents the second year against 15 cents for Pens 1, 2, and 3. It 

 took 8.2 pounds of feed to make a dozen eggs in Pen 9 the first year 

 against 6.04 pounds in Pens 1, 2, and 3, and 10.7 against 9.6 pounds 

 the second year. 



The average egg yield in Pen 9 was 90 eggs compared with 137.6 

 eggs for Pens 1, 2, and 3 during 1913, and 84.3 against 83 in the second 

 year. The 2-year average annual production in Pen 9 was 87.1 eggs 

 against 110.2 eggs in the beef-scrap pens. The 2-year average cost 

 of a dozen eggs was 13.5 cents in Pen 9 .against 12.2 in Pens 1, 2, and 

 3. Pen 9 did not lay well during the winter and practically stopped 

 laying whenever the ground was covered with snow (see Table 6). 

 This affected the value of the eggs materially. Pen 9 was started 

 December 1, while Pens 1, 2, and 3 were put into the experiments 

 November 1, so that the difference in results between these pens is 

 somewhat greater than it would have been if all the pens had started 

 to lay in the same month. 



The average weight of a dozen eggs for the first year in Pen 9 was 

 1.50 pounds against an average of 1.56 pounds for Pens 1, 2, and 3, 

 and 1.56 against 1.62 during the second year. The mortality in Pen 9 

 was 2 hens compared with an average of 4.3 in Pens 1 to 6 during 

 the first year, but was 4 dead from natural causes in the second year, 



