THE FORCED MOLT. 



A Description of the Method Used on Several Successful Egg 



Farms to Produce Early Shedding and Rapid 



Feathering, that the Fowls May Lay in the 



Season of High Prices. 



By H. A. Nourse. 



Inducing an early molt is comparatively a new operation 

 in the business of poultry keeping. If we mistake not, the 

 first to publicly describe the practice, was the prosperous 

 proprietor of a New York egg farm. This man was in 

 demand as a lecturer at agricultural institutes and it was 

 during his lecturing tours that the method was first made 

 public. 



The advantages of such a method are manifest. As a 

 rule the best layers of the first year molt late in the follow* 

 ing fall. This applies with equal force to yearlings and two- 

 year-olds. Molting late, they naturally molt slowly, 

 and before they have entirely produced their new plumage 

 and recovered the strength lost in the process, and are in 

 condition to produce eggs, the best of the season of high 

 prices is over. During the latter part of the summer when 

 the price of eggs is low they can readily be spared from the 

 ranks of producers and at that time molting should take 

 place in order that the fowls may recover their wonted pro- 

 ductiveness before the beginning of cold weather. 



Obviously the hens could not molt successfully while in 

 full lay. Therefore the poultryman conceived the idea of 

 turning these fowls loose in the fields to search for most of 

 their food, feeding them only so much grain as was necessary 

 to support them and that of a non-fattening nature. Under 

 such treatment the egg yield decreased rapidly until it was 

 represented by zero and the fowls themselves were rather 

 tM'n in flesh, yet their blood was good and they possessed 



