FEEDING AND FEEDS II3 



amount of good feeding will make up for lack of 

 good breeding or good housing. 



It is now recognized that food affects the quality 

 of eggs. While it is doubtful if the hen could lay 

 eggs wholly unfit for food, it has been shown by 

 experiment that the quality of eggs can be injured, 

 especially in flavor. Onions and fish have both been 

 found to give an unpleasant flavor to eggs when fed 

 to excess ; so will beef scrap. Doubtless other feeds 

 Avill do the same. It is not necessary that these 

 feeds should be discarded, because when fed in 

 normal amounts they will not perceptibly flavor the 

 eggs. When hens have been starved for want of 

 green food or animal food and then get a chance 

 to eat to excess they will produce unpleasant results 

 in the eggs. This shows that hens put into the 

 eggs what they find in the feed. Hence the impor- 

 tance of supplying good, wholesome feed at all times. 



Skillful feeders can vary the shade of yellow in 

 the yolk of the egg by the feeding, but not alter the 

 color of the shell. Dried alfalfa has been found to 

 produce eggs with good yolk color. Sugar beets 

 produce a pale tint. Kale makes a good yellow. 

 Some people hold that yellow corn will color the 

 yolk, but this has not been credibly verified. Pale 

 3-olks indicate that hens are not getting sufficient 

 green feed. Probably clover, vetch, rape, grass and 

 other green feeds will all produce yellow yolks. 



FEED AFFECTS QUANTITY OF EGGS 



There is no question that food affects the quantity 

 of eggs. Good feeding will help to make good hens 

 productive. In one instance a pen of four fowls 

 laid over 800 eggs in one year. Another pen of full 



