NUTKITION FOE LAYERS 39 



A mixture of wheat and corn, or corn and wheat 

 fed alternately, will fatten the fowls quicker than 

 either fed alone, as variety helps digestion and less 

 waste is sustained. Oats and buckwheat are excellent 

 substitutes when needed, but no grain should be fed 

 exclusively.- Some grain is all right, but a part of the 

 food for laying hens should consist of something else. 

 Scalded corn fodder or ensilage, cooked turnips, small 

 potatoes, etc., fed while warm, make excellent feed. 

 The elements of any egg are derived from so many 

 sources that no single food will answer the purpose. 

 Hens to lay well must have a variety. To feed corn 

 and wheat but partially supplies their wants. 



Clover hay is a first-class egg food. It may be 

 chopped fine, scalded with boiling water and allowed 

 to stand over night in a covered vessel. Next morning 

 mix with bran, season with salt and feed warm. 

 Furnish green food by feeding cabbage, turnips, beets, 

 potatoes, etc. Feed meat scraps two or three times a 

 week. Give a variety of grain, wheat, oats, barley, 

 buckwheat, and as the nights grow cold, feed nice, sound 

 corn three times a week for their supper. This will 

 help keep up animal heat during the long cold nights; 

 it is much better if given well warmed. Beans and peas 

 fed twice a ^veek are good for laying hens. Linseed 

 meal is also beneficial if fed sparingly; when given too 

 freely it is apt to cause looseness of the bowels, and has 

 a tendency to produce molting. Plenty of sweet millc 

 is valuable, also clabber and l^uttermilk, though too 

 much buttermilk will often cause bowel trouble. 



Meat, fresh or dried, is a very good food. If a 

 supply of poultry food be bought by the quantity in the 

 fall, it will greatly lessen the feed bill. On almost 

 every farm there are small, knotty apples, potatoes, 

 beets, loose heads of cabbage, allowed to go to waste, 

 which if gathered and stored will help furnish the 



