142 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



will run along with you and eat it as fast as you can throw 

 it down and the other hens will not get their proper share. 

 If you crack the corn, the hens will not follow you along 

 but will stop and eat it with the rest, and they will all stand 

 a chance of getting their share. 



Be very careful of variety. "Variety is the spice of life," 

 but it is very hard to balance the simplest rations and a few 

 kinds of grain without getting variety of mixture. A variety 

 of foods simply means a variety of troubles. 



Keep grit before your hens at all times — granulated bone, 

 charcoal and shells. Always have the water before the hens 

 fresh and clean. When in a place where the water is bad, 

 I boil the water that I give to the baby chicks for the first . 

 few days. The precise effect which the water at different 

 locations has upon poultry and upon feed cannot be deter- 

 mined. There is a great difference in the effects it has on 

 human beings. I am of the opinion that it also affects the 

 hen and necessitates her having a slightly different ration. 



IMPORTANCE OF SANITARY METHODS 



Sanitary methods should be employed. Dropping-boards 

 should be cleaned every day if diseases such as chicken-pox 

 are to be avoided. Hens in a natural state show that they 

 know the value of sanitary methods by roosting in trees and 

 by selecting a high roost where they do not have to breathe 

 the fumes from the droppings. Droppings left on the drop- 

 ping-boards day after day, create the finest breeding place 

 for diseases that is known. How hens can remain healthy 

 roosting a foot or two above a place filled with droppings, 

 which have been accumulating for weeks and from which 

 noxious fumes arise, is a mystery. The result is often shown 

 by the fowls becoming diseased. 



