124 MAINE AGRICULTURAL ElXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



COST OF PULLETS RAISED FOR LAYERS. 



Last season 2,000 pullets were raised for layers and the 

 following materials w'ere used in producing each one : 

 28 pounds of grain, meal and scrap, costing.. 44.5 cents- 



^ " cracked bone 1.5 



Yz " oyster shell .25 



2>:i " Mica Crystal Grit i .25 



34 " charcoal .5 



1 ]/> pints of oil 2.5 



2 eggs 4-0 



54.5 cents. 



Before they were moved into winter quarters, many of them 

 v/ere laying in the brooder houses, and the eggs from them at 

 that time, had sold for a hundred dollars. 



Feeding, the Hens. 



For many years warm mashes made from mixtures of different 

 meals, sometimes with the addition of cooked vegetables, were 

 given to the hens every morning during the winter season and 

 in warm weather mashes of similar composition but mixed with 

 cold water were fed. The hens seemed to like mashes made in 

 this way better than anything except corn, and if fed anywhere 

 near enough to satisfy their appetites, they would load them- 

 selves with food and then sit down in idleness durng the early 

 part of the day. They were not willing to scratch in the floor 

 litter for the wheat, oats and cracked corn that had been buried 

 there for them. 



The losses of hens from what appeared to be the system of 

 feeding, caused the change of the time of feeding the mash, from 

 morning until near night, and giving the cracked corn, wheat 

 and oats, in the litter, in the morning and near noon. 



These changes resulted in the better health and productiveness 

 of the birds, but the crowding for the mash at feedng time and 

 the hurried filling of their crops to repletion even near bed time,, 

 did not argue for the best. 



Several different plans of feeding were compared by testing- 

 them for a year and finally the moist mash was abandoned 

 altogether. The present system of feeding has been practiced 



