294 CARE OF LAYING HENS 



of grain should be so regulated that the fowls will clean it 

 up in two or three hours. 



How to Feed. — In the spring and summer time, when it 

 is possible for the hens to get green feed in the yards, no 

 other feeding is necessary before noon except filHng troughs 

 with skim milk, or buttermilk if it can be had. If, however, 

 there has been a long drought and the vegetation in the 

 yards is withered and parched, green alfalfa or alfalfa hay, 

 cut in short lengths and soaked in water long enough to 

 swell and become succulent, may be placed in the troughs 

 at about ten o'clock in the morning. 



At noon more grain is scattered in the litter, and again 

 at four o'clock in the afternoon. At the last feeding an 

 effort should be made to feed just a Httle more than the 

 hens will clean up, so that there will be something left in 

 the htter for them to start work on again early in the 

 morning. 



Importance of Drinking Water. — One of the most im- 

 portant things about caring for hens is to see that they 

 always have plenty of clean, fresh drinking water before 

 them. More than 65 per cent of the egg is water. Water 

 also makes up 55 per cent of the hen's body. Unless a hen 

 has water she cannot produce eggs, nor can she properly 

 digest food. Many a hen, otherwise well fed, fails to lay 

 because she is compelled to go without sufficient water. 

 When laying freely, a flock of five hundred hens will re- 

 quire from forty to eighty quarts of water per day. The 

 warmer the weather, the more water required. The more 

 eggs that are laid the more water is required. Small eggs 

 usually result from a shortage of drinking water or from 

 the fact that the water is so cold that the hens cannot 

 drink their usual amount. 



