66 Maine; agricultural expe;riment station. 1910. 



Upon reviewing the whole subject of the methods of hand- 

 ling poultry in operation at the Station it finally seemed advis- 

 able to make some changes. These changes were made in 1908, 

 and have now been tried for two years. We have been so well 

 pleased, on the whole, with these new feeds that it is proposed 

 to publish them at this time. The following topics are here 

 discussed : 



1. Feeding the laying pullets. 



2. Feeding the hens, cockerels and cocks kept over the win- 

 ter for breeding purposes. 



3. Green food for poultry. 



I'EEDiNG the; laying pulli;ts. 



The feed of all adult birds, whether pullets or not, consists 

 of two essential parts: (a) the whole or cracked grains scat- 

 tered in the litter, and (b) the mixture of dry ground grains 

 which has come to be generally known as a dry mash. These 

 two component parts of the ration and the methods of feeding 

 them will be considered separately. In addition to the grains 

 and dry mash, oyster shell, dry cracked bone, grit, and char- 

 coal are kept in slatted troughs, and are accessible at all times. 

 Plenty of clean water is furnished. About 5 pounds of clover 

 hay cut into ^^-inch lengths is fed dry daily to each 100 birds 

 in winter. When the wheat, oats, and cracked corn are given, 

 the birds are always ready and anxious for them, and they 

 scratch in the litter for the very last kernel before going to the 

 trough where an abundance of feed is in store. 



It is very evident that the hens like the broken and whole 

 grains better than the mixture of the fine, dry materials; yet 

 they by no means dislike the latter, for they help themselves to 

 it, a mouthful or two at a time, whenever they seem to need it, 

 and never go to bed with empty crops, so far as noted. They 

 apparently do not like it well enough to gorge themselves with 

 it, and sit down, loaf, get overfat, and lay soft-shelled eggs, as 

 is so commonly the case with Plymouth Rocks when they are 

 given warm morning mashes in troughs. 



Some of the advantages of this method of feeding are that 

 the mash is put in the hoppers at any convenient time, only 

 guarding against an exhaustion of the supply, and the entire 



