148 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
fowl that has fed for a long time on wet mash develops a larger— 
or more extended—crop than the dry-fed bird. The reason is 
fairly obvious. With moist feeding the birds get their day’s food 
put before them in one heap and they immediately stuff themselves 
to bursting point. They gorge till they can gorge no longer. 
Hens are greedy animals and they are afraid they will not get their 
share. Consequently some of them at least eat themselves into 
a state of coma, and instead of running about and scratching 
for more food, as they have to do in a state of nature, they retire to 
a corner lazy and satisfied, too stuffed up to move. The result 
is that the bird gets fat and lazy, and a fat and lazy bird does not 
lay many eggs. Now the old bird put on to dry mash tries to 
stuff and finds it impossible. Some of them with enlarged crops 
probably fail to get enough to eat, and too little food is 
just as bad as too much when eggs are wanted. Thus it is 
possible that old birds reared on wet food may not do so well 
when put to dry feeding. With them malnutrition is quite 
conceivable. 
Dry mash gives its best results when the fowl is introduced to 
it early in life, say before the egg-laying period, or better still, 
perhaps, when it is reared on dry feed from birth. Such a bird 
will be harder, leaner, firmer to handle, more active and more 
vigorous—in other words, it will be in that physical condition which 
conduces most to egg-production. Dry mash induces activity. I 
have briefly described the condition of the average moist-fed bird. 
It is difficult to know just how much food it should have. One 
may allow two ounces (dry weight) per bird, but if put down before 
a hundred hungry birds some will inevitably get too much food 
and others will just as inevitably get too little. Most fowls are 
greedy, but there are always some shy feeders. One cannot feed 
them separately, and therefore with a moist mash presented 
once a day in one lot there are bound to be overfed and 
underfed. 
It is not the case with dry feeding. Here is a hopper filled with 
food, open all day, or so many hours per day, so that every bird 
can get as much as it desires. 
