Feeding 77 



who sold them to us did not tell us the truth. The fact of 

 the matter is, we have made the hens moult the second 

 time by changing from a ration high in protein to one low 

 in protein. On many poultry farms hens are kept continually 

 moulting for four or five months by wrong feeding. 



After a short time our hens become weak, and we think 

 the hens we bought were not of very good stock after all 

 and we buy no more hens or chicks from the same man. 

 The fact is we ruined the flock by wrong feeding, which will 

 turn the finest kind of hens into poor hens. Do not blame 

 the stock when the feed is at fault. 



We will say that you started in feeding Ration No. 9. 

 Your hens show watery droppings, and start to eat grit, etc. 

 You do not know what to do. Knowing that middlings and 

 flour are constipating, you add these. But they will not stop 

 the trouble; sometimes they make it worse and produce 

 white-diarrhoea. Then we add a little bran and it does not 

 work well. Now we add oats and that seems to make them 

 worse. We read where Conboie says "if hens eat grit or 

 want corn very badly, give them plenty of corn.'' We cut 

 out the wheat and give them nothing but corn for grain. 

 They are very eager for it, but here the hens are misled, 

 for the craving is caused by the meat, or they have indiges- 

 tion, and we find that the more oats and corn we give them 

 the worse off they will be. We come to the conclusion, 

 therefore, that corn is not good for poultry. 



It is instances like this that cause people to form an 

 opinion of a grain and hold it forever afterwards. But the 

 trouble is that the grain was used when conditions were 

 such that the worst results would be obtained. When hens 

 have watery droppings that are very slimy and of a grayish- 

 white or creamy color, oats are very bad, nor should corn 

 in excess of what is in Ration No. 7 be used. When hens 



