110 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



ers a little corn and sunflower seed in the scratch 

 grain, and add y% part linseed meal to the mash. A 

 moist mash fed once a day is especially beneficial 

 during this period, and if a little fresh meat is 

 cooked in this, so much the better. A sheep's pluck, 

 which can be bought for five cents, cooked and 

 chopped , and the soup in which it was cooked thick- 

 ened with bran and middlings, makes a good break- 

 fast for these molting hens, and is worth far more 

 than it costs. 



Many poultry keepers feed stimulants and tonics 

 during the molt, but I have never found it necessary. 

 A hen that is not vigorous enough to go through the 

 molt in good shape without tonics had better be sent 

 to the butcher. 



The molting period is a good time for culling out 

 the hens that are lacking in vigor. As a rule the 

 older a hen is, and the later she molts, the more 

 Quickly will she molt. Hens that molt more slowly 

 than their contemporaries or that seem weakened or 

 depressed may well be eliminated from the flock. 



Overfat hens should, of course, be "reduced" be- 

 fore they go into the molt. 



The practice of starving the hens in order to force 

 an early molt is condemned by nearly all experiment 

 stations. After experiments with White Leghorns 

 covering several seasons the Cornell Station declared 

 that there was nothing whatever to be gained by 

 forcing the molt. In the words of the bulletin (No. 

 258): 



"As compared with the fed flocks, the starved hens 

 molted slightly earlier and more uniformly ; were in 

 somewhat better condition at the end of the molt; 

 molted (average) in slightly less time; gained less 

 above first weight during molt ; gained slightly more 

 in weight during the year ; resumed production some- 



