64 California Poultry Practice 



Several years ago I experimented along the lines given below, 

 which are taken from Bulletin No. 145, by Horace Atwood, and issued 

 by the West Virginia Experiment Station. The bulletin is entitled 

 "Some Facts Affecting the Weight, Composition and Hatching of 

 Hens' Eggs." The author says: 



"The feeding of green feed had no effect on the size of the eggs 

 produced, as was shown by the experiments reaching over a period 

 of an entire year. Throughout the year the average weight per hun- 

 dred eggs was 11.89 pounds for fowls receiving green food, as com- 

 pared with an average of 11.88 pounds for fowls that did not receive 

 any green food. At the conclusion of the test the eggs laid by the 

 pen without green food averaged larger than those of the other pen. 

 But, and here is the point, the pen receiving green food made an 

 increase in production of 26 per cent. And yet there are poultrymen so 

 foolish as to neglect this one great means of increasing egg produc- 

 tion and lessening the food bills at one and the same time. 



"Liberal feeding noticeably increased the weight of eggs produced 

 and also the percentage of fertility. As was to be expected, liberal 

 feeding resulted in much larger production than when the hens were 

 scantily fed. It may seem to some that there is no occasion, at this 

 late date, for demonstrating or discussing such an elementary point, 

 but as a matter of fact a large proportion of those who keep fowls 

 especially on the farms, are still of the opinion that it pays to half 

 starve hens, so that they will forage and collect a considerable por- 

 tion of their food on the range. I doubt if any flock handled in this 

 way, even on the farm, ever gives as profitable results as they would 

 with more liberal feeding. As this bulletin points out, heavy feeding 

 increases the size of the eggs as well as the number. 



The fertility of eggs in the scantily fed pens was found to be low, 

 but the eggs that were fertile hatched practically as well as a similar 

 number of fertile eggs from the heavy fed pens, and in all the tests 

 made the per cent of losses of chicks from the scantily fed pens 

 were smaller. 



There was greater uniformity throughout the season in the per- 

 centage of the scantily fed pen. Hens on a full ration lose heavily 

 in fertility as the season advances because of their inability to main- 

 tain their vigor indefinitely. The only practical means of keeping 

 up the vigor of the breeding stock through a long hatching season 

 is to restrict production to what may be called the natural physio- 

 logical limit. 



This scientific test bears out what I have told you in another 

 chapter of this book, on feeding the breeders. Hens that are stimu- 

 lated past what they would lay under fair, natural conditions do not 

 endow the progeny with enough vigor to make much of a fight for 

 life. At the first little hardship, or change of climatic conditions, 

 they go under, and are only to be counted as "has beens." I have 



