POULTRY-CRAFT. 135 
into it wearing clothes different from those usually worn, or carrying an 
unfamiliar object, will often send panic through a whole flock. Changing 
the quarters of laying hens is a thing to be avoided, if possible, unless it can 
be done without making a disturbance. The best way to move hens short 
distances is by driving. If this is done carefully, egg production may not be 
affected at all. If the hens must be carried, they should be very carefully 
handled, moved only at night; not caught or carried by the feet. Moving 
short distances, they can be carried in the hands, one at a time; or under the 
arms, two ata time. When this mode of handling is too tedious, the transfer 
should be made in coops. With gentle handling the bad effects of moving 
are diminished. During the natural laying season laying hens are less 
influenced by disturbances than at other times. 
179. In Coldest Weather.— Extreme cold weather is no bar to good 
egg production if the hens come to it without having been suddenly 
checked. The weather condition favorable to winter laying is wséformity. 
It is often said that winter eggs depend on the poultryman’s submitting his 
hens to counterfeit spring conditions. This is but partly true. Hens that are 
comfortably housed can be made to lay well in almost any kind of weather or 
climate, provided fluctuations in temperature and humidity are not too great 
or too numerous. In extreme cold weather a very carbonaceous ration may 
be the best laying ration. The most highly carbonaceous ration that a fowl 
can digest will fail to keep up the heat of the body and leave sufficient surplus 
for a goodly number of eggs. A warm house helps, but in addition, (to 
prevent unnecessary expenditure of food) the hens must be prevented from 
chilling themselves with icy water and ice cold grain. Warm water should 
be given. It ought not to be always warm. The hens want some cold water. 
The point is, to make sure that they cannot, when very thirsty, drink freely of 
water so cold that it chills them to the marrow. If the water is warm when 
put into the drinking pans that is all that is necessary. For fowls with crests 
and beards, and for males with long wattles, drinking fountains which prevent 
the head furnishings from getting wet, should be used. In cold weather wet 
damp crests are almost certain to cause roup. In a fairly comfortable house 
the wattles of hens and of short wattled males are rarely frost bitten; but the 
long wattles of Leghorn and Minorca males may be nipped while wet, when, 
in the same degree of cold, they would not be injured if dry. When there is 
danger of water freezing in the pans at night, the pans should be emptied 
every evening; otherwise valuable time may have to be given to removing the 
ice from them in the morning. It is of little use to warm small grain that is 
to be fed in litter; it remains warm only a few minutes, and the hens cannot 
eat it fast enough to be chilled by it, anyway. Grain that can be eaten 
quickly, it is an advantage to warm. 
180. Ventilating in Cold Weather.— When it is so cold that the 
poultry house has to be closed during all but six or seven of the twenty-four 
