FEEDING CHICKENS 99 
must be furnished grit and oyster shells, 
which they cannot otherwise find as they 
could if at liberty, although oyster shells 
should be supplied even to hens outside. 
Clean, fresh water is very essential. Par- 
ticular care should be used to see that the 
hens have all they want to drink. Laying 
hens especially need plenty, eggs being com- 
posed of two-thirds water. Give your hens 
and pullets special care during the winter 
and feed them more than you would in the 
spring. This will seem hard sometimes, 
when eggs are so few it is hardly worth 
gathering them, but you cannot by any pos- 
sibility get winter eggs unless your birds 
have all they need to sustain them and also 
produce the eggs. Farmers are very lax on 
this question. Evidently they feel they wont 
get eggs anyway, so the less feed bought the 
more they are in pocket. But they are 
wrong; for even if they did not get the eggs, 
their hens would be better nourished and so 
better prepared for early spring laying. 
From October to February eggs are worth 
say 3% cents average. It requires only that 
a hen should lay three eggs a month to pay 
for a good substantial ration. Five cents a 
month might keep the hen alive but an addi- 
