96 EGG MONEY 



to maturity, when a chick becomes a fowl. The fancier 

 so feeds and so handles his stock that it is fully able to 

 meet the requirements of the different stages through which 

 it must pass. And so, when the molting season comes 

 his fowls are in condition to molt properly. He has brought 

 them to this period fully prepared for the ordeal through 

 which they must pass. 



"Rugged" Fowls Molt Best. 



How has he accomplished this? Well, an answer to 

 this question would necessitate the covering of the whole 

 field of fowl management. Let me tell you in brief how I 

 have handled my stock, and as the work has annually been 

 satisfactory in results, it may be that it will prove of interest 

 and profit to you. In the first place, the stock has been 

 bred right, coming down along the line for years from 

 absolutely healthy and rugged stock. This is impor- 

 tant. Then as newly hatched chicks, as growing chicks, 

 as breeders, they are handled and fed and housed so as to 

 develop their every faculty. But let us more particularly 

 refer to the management having a direct bearing upon the 

 molting of the fowls. From the day the stock is placed in 

 the breeding pens we feed heavily, and by so doing we are 

 sustaining every element in the fowl's nature, flesh, blood, 

 bone, muscle, feathers, etc., and are getting an abundance 

 of eggs. If we did not thus sustain the various elements 

 in the fowl we could not and would not secure a liberal sup- 

 ply of eggs. Here is where a great mistake is made by many. 

 Here is where the theorist in his writings as regards feeding 

 for egg production overlooks a fundamental law of nature. 

 It is a fact beyond dispute that it is during the period of 

 the most heavy feeding, when that feeding is proper, that 

 we secure our greatest egg production. The various or- 

 gans of a hen must be working in harmony with nature's 

 requirements before she can possibly give nature's full 

 output. ■ A hen cannot possibly lay an abundance of eggs 

 unless all her being is supplied fully with the food elements 

 required. There is no product which can be fed to a hen 

 that she can convert entirely into eggs. She must draw 

 upon her food for the maintenance of all her being, and so 



