SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



night, although the birds fed on an evening mash will undoubt- 

 edly take much more exercise and be more easily kept in good 

 condition than those that receive a heavy feed of bulky warm 

 mash earlier in the day, which disposes them to seek some quiet 

 place to sleep off the effects of the hearty food with which they 

 gorged themselves. 



A good moist mash may be made of four parts (by measure) 

 of wheat bran, one part ground oats, one part ground barley, 

 one part meat meal or beef scrap, and one ounce of salt. This 

 should be thoroughly mixed together dry and wet up with 

 warm skim milk or water. It should never be made sloppy, 

 should always be dry and crumbly, and may be fed warm but 

 never hot. Feed in clean troughs as much as the birds will eat 

 up cleanly and quickly in from fifteen to twenty minutes. The 

 other meals for the day should consist of grain scattered in the 

 Utter, fifty per cent com, and wheat or oats, about twenty-five 

 per cent each, fed separately or mixed together. Usually two 

 feeds a day will be sufficient, one feed of mixed grain in the 

 litter and one feed of mash at night. Some prefer to give three 

 meals, allowing a second feeding of dry grain in the Utter at noon. 

 Green food, pure water, charcoal, shells and grit should be 

 freely suppUed. The only important variation in other moist 

 mash methods of feeding is in the composition of the mash 

 itself. 



A commonly used and very satisfactory mash is made up 

 of equal parts bran, com meal and middlings, with 10 per cent 

 beef scrap and 15 per cent scalded cut clover or alfalfa. 



Another excellent mash may be made of equal parts com 

 meal, ground oats and bran, mixed with warm sweet skim milk 

 into a moist crumbly mash. Ten to fifteen per cent of scalded 

 cut clover or alfalfa should be added to this mash to give bulk 

 as well as supply desirable green food. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS 



There are many other very satisfactory food rations that 

 will give good results in winter egg production. Any one of 

 the above rations can be depended upon to give satisfaction if 

 properly fed. The chief requirements are that the food be 

 wholesome, that there be a reasonable variety, a plentiful sup- 

 ply of food to keep the birds in good condition, and sufficient 

 incentive tp exercise to keep them busy. Whether two or three 

 meals are given daily is a matter of comparatively little import- 

 ance where regular meals are fed. Personally we prefer but two 

 regular meals a day for breeding or laying stock, and where the 

 birds are hopper fed we aim to keep a Uttle grain in the Utter 

 to encourage them to scratch. As a rule moist masTies should 

 not be fed oftener than five times a week, as the stock is Uable 

 to tire of it and so get out of condition. Good pure beef scrap 

 may with safety be kept before the birds all the time, either in 

 combination with the dry mash or separately as may be desired, 

 but fresh meat, blood, or green cut bone should be given spar- 

 ingly and seldom fed oftener than three times a week, the amount 

 fed and the frequency of feeding depending chiefly upon the 

 condition of the birds as indicated by the droppings. Any ten- 

 dency to watery looseness of the bowels indicates the desirability 

 of cutting down the supply of fresh meat food. Looseness of 

 the bowels in fowls fed on moist mash calls for less bran or less 

 meat food and more middUngs. If the looseness persists pow- 

 dered charcoal should be added to the rpash, or the moist mash 

 food should be stopped entirely and the fowls put on a dry grain 

 ration until the droppings again become normal. Fowls fed on 

 moist mashes will frequently void large quantities of wet drop- 

 pings, while at the same .time laying heavily. With such birds 

 it will be common to find that they are laying large watery 

 eggs that cannot be depended upon to hatch well. Dry fed 

 birds produce plenty of good, large sized eggs that are full 

 meated and never watery. 



In conclusion, we want to say most emphatically that no 

 matter what sort of a ration you may now be feeding, if it gives 

 you satisfactory results in good large eggs and plenty of them, 

 with a fair percentage of fertiUty, do not drop your present plan 

 of feeding for the sake of adopting one that is new to you simply 

 because it is giving good results for others. Where desirable 

 results are being attained it is well to "make haste slowly" 

 when it comes to a matter of changing your method of feeding. 



VEGETABLE OR GREEN FOOD 



IS AS ESSENTIAL -AS GRAIN OR ANIMAL FOOD— THE 

 MOST SUITABLE VEGETABLES FOR POULTRY AND 

 HOW THEY SHOULD BE GROWN AND FED -HOW 

 TO "RAISE CHICKENS AND A GARDEN, TOO." 



J. D. STEVENS, Denver, Colo. 



The proper feeding of fowls confined in yards the greater 

 portion of the year, and which cannot he allowed theiir Uberty 

 by reason of garden, lawn, shrubbery, etc., is a matter which 

 has taxed the ingenuity of the poultry keeper for many years. 

 The bewildering array of poultry "foods"'- advertised in aU the 

 poultry journals throughout the country, whioh; according to 

 the statements of their manufacturers, contain all the necessary 

 elements required by the fowls for their best development, best 

 laying, best fattening, best molting, etc., respectively, are no 

 doubt good, but, Uke the numerous infants' foods advertised, 

 they do not contain aU the elements necessary for the best 

 health and development. 



Fowls which have free range over orchards and fields do not 

 need any of these foods. They wiU be able, as a rule, to gather 

 all that is necessary for their best development. But fowls 

 which are kept confined in yards during the summer months, 

 have not this opportunity to properly balance their ration and 

 in order to keep them in a thriving and healthy condition, we 

 must endeavor to supply them with those things which they 

 would obtain if given their liberty. To do this requires con- 

 siderable forethought, planning and labor, and, in feeding and 

 experimenting with the multitudinous foods above mentioned, 

 as we are all apt to do in an endeavor to get the greatest rev- 

 enue possible from our fowls, we are apt to overlook one very 

 important element in the diet of our flock, viz.: green food. 



"GREEN FOOD IS AS NECESSARY AS GRAIN OR MEAT" 



This gi-een food, or vegetable food, is just as necessary to 

 the fowls as the grain or meat ration; in fact, during the late 

 winter and early spring when fertile eggs are needed, it is ab- 

 solutely essential that they have, regularly, a good supply of 

 green food. Steamed clover or alfaUa leaves are a good sub- 

 stitute, but these can not take the place of the fresh, succulent 

 leaves of the lettuce, cabbage, etc., or the juicy root of the 

 mangel-wurzels, and if you want the eggs to run high in fer- 

 tiUty (and of course you do during the season above mentioned) 

 you must give your fowls the freshly grown leaves of such vege- 

 tables as they will eat. 



For very early spring food we have nothing better than 

 lettuce. The seed of this plant is perfectly hardy and can be 

 sown in the fall. If it is lightly mulched, the seed will Ue dor- 

 mant during the winter and will start immediately upon the first 

 warm days of spring, thereby being available for food several 

 weeks sooner than that which is sown in the spring. 



THE MANGEL-WURZEL IS THE STAPLE GREEN FOOD 



Our main staple greenfood, however, is the mangel-wurzel; 

 and the excellence of this vegetable for poultry should be more 



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