NUTEITION FOR LAYERS 45 



etc.) with ground grain, it is possible to feed a some- 

 what narrow ration without feeding an excessive amount 

 of meat. 



With liens fed similar rations, when the hens of 

 smaller breeds give only the same egg yield as the hens 

 of larger breeds, the eggs are more cheaply produced by 

 the smaller hens, but considering the cost of raising and 

 the ultimate poultry value of the hens, the profits will 

 be equally or more favorable for the larger hens. 



What to Do with Fat Hens — When a hen becomes 

 very fat, she is not only a poor layer, but will become 

 broody, droopy at times, have leg weakness, and be 

 unfit for anything but the pot. Such hens should be 

 fed only once, at night. The meal should consist of a 

 pound of lean meat to twenty hens, with a handful of 

 grain scattered for them to hunt up. They will then 

 be hungry through the day, and search for food, while 

 the inducement of a few grains thrown out at night 

 ^rill cause them to keep at work until late. Meat con- 

 tains little of the fat producing elements, if lean, and 

 will greatly promote laying as soon as the surplus fat 

 is removed, which can only be done by compeiling the 

 hens to exercise. If the hens are kept on this exercise 

 diet for a week or ten days, they will be in better health 

 afterwards ; and if they lay well, the one meal per day 

 may be continued. 



A Fowl's Digestive Machine — The gullet takes 

 root from the back of the beak, runs along the neck, 

 behinl the windpipe, and ends in the abdomen, a little 

 to the left. In the hen there exist three divisions or 

 receptacles for food. The first one is the crop, which 

 receives food as soon as swallowed. A little farther 

 along in the breast is the gullet, which contracts and 

 expands so as to form a second receptacle, with thick 

 walls. Next we find the third receptacle, very mus- 

 cular and large, known as the gijizard. 



