Personal Experiences 31 



housing it is work for her; she does not need work then; sick 

 people and sick hens need rest. What hens need is a properly 

 balanced ration and a properly ventilated home — the same 

 as yourself. If these conditions are provided, you will notice 

 that whereas you could not previously make her work you 

 cannot now stop her from playing. But your ration must be 

 correctly balanced, or your labor is in vain. 



My hens were scratching most all day, but they were very 

 fat and laid only an occasional soft-shelled egg. One thing 

 which I wish to impress distinctly on your mind is that, 

 although these hens were scratching most of the day, they 

 were very fat — too fat to lay, although in excellent condi- 

 tion otherwise. I have never since been able to keep hens 

 in such a condition for so long a time, although I have often 

 fed the same feed but from a different milling company. 



I fed S 's Method — except that I used wheat for grain 



and "Beef, Blood, and Bone'' instead of beef-scrap — and did 

 not feed any green food, but no eggs resulted. I then thought 

 that if fat was the cause of my not getting any eggs I would 

 quickly remedy that, so I continued feeding the wheat twice 



a day, but instead of the S 's receipt I gave them dry 



bran for a week. I was sure that that would reduce them, 

 and after a week of the bran and wheat feeding I would give 



them the S 's receipt again. In a few days the feathers 



began to fall from the hens, especially the feathers of the 

 neck. The dry bran caused a moult, although not a very 

 heavy one. (Hens should never be fed on dry bran with 

 such a little amount of grain, unless they are very fat, and 

 the result is apt to be disastrous to the weaker ones if con- 

 tinued). The combs of the hens now began to turn red, 

 they began to cackle, and the eggs began to come by the 

 hundreds. The hens would keep this up for abotft a week 

 and the soft-shell eggs would begin to appear again, and at 



