FEEDING IN GENERAL 



191 



fattening than corn. If your fowls are 

 on free range and have plenty of green 

 food and animal food or milk, sorghum 

 seed will be an excellent food for them. 

 You should write to the Director Agri- 

 cultural Experiment station, University 

 of California, Berkeley, and ask him to 

 send you "Bulletin 164 on Poultry Feed- 

 ing," then you can see just the right 

 way to balance your ration. 



Kaffir Corn — Is kaffir corn the same 

 as Egyptian corn, and is it an egg food 

 or simply a fattening food? 



Answer— Kaffir and Egyptian corn 

 belong to the same family and are very 

 much alike. They are both fattening 

 grains, and I prefer mixing them with 

 other grains, such as wheat, barley, oats 

 or buckwheat. 



THE EGG QUESTION 



Egg-Bound — I have the White Mi- 

 norcas. Have IS hens and get from 12 

 to 14 eggs per day. I have a pullet 

 and an old hen that seem to droop and 

 sit around all day, and sometimes stag- 

 ger; they had been laying all the time 

 and their combs are still red, but they 

 do not lay now. I feed them bran mash 

 in the morning with alfalfa meal and 

 egg-maker, and once a week chopped 

 onions and red pepper, and at noon we 

 give them green grass, and at night 

 wheat, besides this they get lots of meat 

 scraps from the table; they have oyster 

 shell and grit before them all the time. 

 They have not eaten anything since they 

 felt this way, but seem to kind of gasp 

 for breath, and they do not seem to 

 have anything in their craws. Thank- 

 ing you in advance for a reply, I re- 

 main.— Mrs. J. W. S. 



Answer — Your hens certainly have 

 been doing very well. Minorcas very 

 often get egg-bound, as their eggs are 

 so large they have difficulty in laying 

 them. This may be the case with yours, 

 and I would advise you to examine 

 them. You might also give them some 

 Epsom salts, half a teaspoonful in a 

 tablespoonful of water. If it is indi- 

 gestion, the Epsom salts will help that. 

 I think your hens may not be getting 

 green food enough. 



Egg-bound is most common in slug- 

 gish birds, or those closely confined 

 without opportunity to exercise. Active 

 fowls, such as Leghorns, seldom take 

 life easy enough to get fat, hence are 

 not subject to this disease, which is 

 largely owing to an overfat condition of 

 the entire system, in which the e?g 

 passage is pressed upon by the accumu- 

 lation of fat, hindering the passage of 

 the egg. Not only are there large col- 

 lections of fat in the abdominal cav- 

 ity, but much of the muscular tissue is 



replaced by streaks of fat. This weak- 

 ens the muscles of the egg passage, so 

 that the egg may be arrested in the pas- 

 sage where it sets up inflammation. This 

 same egg-bound condition sometimes 

 causes death from heart disease. The 

 bird goes on the nest to lay, strains vio- 

 lently to pass the egg, the heart muscles 

 are decidedly weak from fatty degen- 

 eration, the extra exertion is too much 

 for the weakened heart, and it gives 

 out, the bird being found on the nest 

 dead. 



In the early stages, when the irrita- 

 tion is slight, it is sufficient to inject a 

 small quantity of olive oil and gently 

 manipulate the parts. Afterwards give 

 cooling green food, and if the hens are 

 too fat, reduce the ration. In case the 

 expulsion of the egg cannot be obtained 

 by the injection of oil, immerse the low- 

 er part of the body in water, as warm 

 as can be used without injury, and hold 

 it there half an hour or more, until th" 

 parts are relaxed. Then inject oil and 

 endeavor to assist the bird by careful 

 pressure and manipulation or by gentle 

 dilatation of the passage. 



It Cured Them — How long can eggs 

 be kept for setting and do they require 

 any special treatment? I have a favor- 

 ite hen and I want to set as many of her 

 eggs as possible, but I do not know how 

 long they will remain fertile, as I have 

 no hen wanting to sit at present. Sev- 

 eral of my fowls had a touch of roup 

 and I tried a remedy that you gave 

 (castor oil, camphorated oil, kerosene, 

 turpentine and a few drops of carbolic 

 acid) squirted up her nostrils. I also 

 mixed another remedy that you gave 

 (cayenne pepper, mustard, vinegar, lard 

 and flour) and gave it to the fowls, in 

 pills, as you said. I happened to leave 

 it where they could get at it. and found 

 that I need not give it in pills, for they 



