POULTRY RAISING 33 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Feeding a yarded plant for the greatest possible profit. 



I will now tell you how to feed a yarded plant for 

 the greatest possible profit and still have healthy birds 

 and produce eggs that will run fully 90 per cent fertile 

 in January. You also use a light mash under this 

 system. This method will produce more winter eggs 

 than any method I know of at the present time. Keep 

 a hopper of wheat screenings, one of beef scraps, al- 

 ways before them. Also your grit, oyster shells and 

 charcoal — never let them get out of any one of these 

 ingredients. As soon as it is light, give each flock a 

 few handfuls of oats in the litter to keep them busy; 

 say a pint to twenty hens. 



About 8.30 a. m. give a hot mash, composed of 

 wheat bran, ground oats, corn meal. Alfalfa clover 

 meal, equal parts by measure; put in some salt, mix 

 thoroughly, then mix with hot water so it will be 

 nice and crumbly, but not wet. Give a light feeding 

 -of this mash, not over one-half the quantity you usually 

 feed, say one quart to twenty-five hens will be plenty. 



About II a. m. give a light feeding of green cut 

 "bone, just what they will eat up nicely. 



About 2 p. m. feed all the processed oats they will 

 ■eat. 



Just before they go to roost, give a light feeding of 

 •cracked corn, thrown in their litter — they will not take 

 much as a rule. 



In the morning, before you give your mash, give 

 your hens good, clean warm water. This is very im- 

 portant, for the more your hens drink, the more eggs 

 they will lay. 



Always dump all your drinking fountains at 

 night so your hens will be sure to be good and dry in 

 the morning, and start of? with warm water and warm 

 feed. 



If you keep your windows well opened during the 

 ■day, so your hens do not get too warm, you will have 



