138 POULTR?Y-CRAFT. 
heated term; extra good laying except in a few rare individual cases is 
not to be expected. The hens need to be kept cool. The houses should be 
opened wide enough to be comfortably cool at night. There should be cool, 
shady loafing places in which they would pass the hottest hours of the day. 
Their exercise should be early in the morning and late in the evening. It is 
a good plan to feed grain mornings and evenings, and the mash at noon. 
Once a day—about the middle of the afternoon is the best time, — they 
should have all the green grass or vegetable tops they will eat. On exces- 
sively hot days, green stuff may be fed to advantage, twice —just after the 
morning feed, and just before the evening feed. They should have all the 
cold water they want, and may also be given all the milk they will drink. 
Milk is good at all times, but is most appreciated in warm weather. It does 
not wholly take the place of water. Fowls would not suffer much from 
thirst if given milk and no water; but they want water, and it should always 
be accessible, whether they have milk or not. If one has plenty of milk, and 
can give it constantly, the best way is to have two drinking pans in each 
pen, one for water, one for milk— and let the fowls drink as they please. 
When the weather is extremely warm, the mash for fowls in confinement 
should contain but little corn meal, and no whole corn should be given. For 
ordinary summer weather, the mash need not be much varied from that 
used in winter, and the whole grain ration need differ only in the amount of 
corn fed. If given the opportunity to eat vegetables freely, the hens will 
balance the ration for comfort, not_for egys. Indeed, unless fed vegetables, 
as suggested, when they are not very hungry, the hens will eat a much larger 
proportion of bulky food than is consistent with good laying. * 
184. When Hens Stop Laying Too Early in Summer. — There are 
always some hens, sometimes a large proportion of a flock, that cannot 
be kept laying through the summer when handled in the usual way; these it 
is not profitable to keep in idleness. (Too many poultry keepers do keep 
them along until fall). They should be culled out of the general flock, 
separated and fed differently ; — the object being to put them in market con- 
dition. They should be fed a heavy laying ration, with little exercise. On 
this treatment many of them will begin laying again. Those which do not 
should be marketed as soon as fit, and those which lay for only a few weeks 
should also go to market, as they stop laying again. Those which show a 
disposition to keep right on laying should be given exercise to keep them in| 
condition. An egg farmer should never sell a laying hen unless he has more 
eggs than he needs, or has another to take her place; as long as the hen 
* NoOTE.— Those whose hens are kept on a good grass range, would do well to watch 
this point. If the hens will not stop to eat grain in the morning, but go foraging, they 
may be let alone as long as they lay well. If they are not laying as well as they ought to 
be, it is worth while to try the experiment of keeping them in the yard attached to the 
poultry house until they have eaten a light feed of grain, which will often give them just 
the solid food they need to bring the egg yield where it should be. 
