60 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
consumed 3 oz. of grain and 14 oz. of soft food per day, at a. 
cost of 34d. each hen per week. 
If you give your birds the proper sort of food they will rarely 
overfeed. Underfeeding is the common cause of poor egg- 
production. Of thisITam convinced. Mr Hanson, of Basingstoke, 
who is the model egg farmer, gives his fowls two ounces of grain 
per day, and leaves his dry-mash hoppers open twenty-four hours 
per day. His birds get as much as they can eat and they never 
get fat. Too much soft food will make birds fat and lazy and 
prevent egg-laying. Why then give soft food ? 
The majority of those who fail to get eggs from their fowls 
give too little food, or give them food of the wrong kind. To 
produce eggs a hen must be supplied with the requisite egg-forming 
material, Albuminoids must be in the relation of about one to 
five of carbohydrates. The former makes eggs and flesh, the 
latter creates heat and vital energy. Fowls are not by nature 
strict vegetarians. They can exist on vegetable matter, such as 
wheat, oats and cabbage, but on this diet they will not give the 
proper yield of eggs. To give their best results they require a 
mixed diet of grain, meals, meat and vegetables. Meat meal, 
green bone or fish meal is a necessary stimulant for egg-production. 
No doubt if the fowl could get plenty of insects it could dispense 
with meat, but excepting for a short time in spring and summer, 
on a free range, hens cannot pick up sufficient natural meat diet. 
Therefore we must supply it. 
A formula used by some of the most successful men is one part 
(by weight) bran, one middlings, one maize meal, one fish meal. 
If soya-bean meal can be bought at a fair price one part may be 
added. This diet may be given either as dry mash or moist food 
inthe usual manner. If supplemented by not less than two ounces 
of grain per bird per day, fed morning and evening, the feeding will 
be complete. I recommend a hopper for dry food to be open all 
day. The birds eat very little, if any, more than if left open only 
for a few hours, and then one is certain that the shy feeder will 
get her chance. When food is served moist, it is difficult to say 
just what is enough, and the greedy ones gorge, to the detriment of 
