330 COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



all day long. This is the best thing for them — a lot better than 

 gorging at stated intervals. 



When chickens have feed before them in hoppers situated at 

 convenient places throughout the range, they have nothing to 

 draw them in a herd in any one spot, consequently they are not 

 so likely to find one location more attractive than another, and 

 will remain pretty much as they are distributed over the range 

 in the first place. The "always filled hopper" principle goes a 

 great way towand eliminating the bother of over-crowding due to 

 the abandonment of certain houses. 



Feed Hoppers. — There should be plenty of hoppers, of a non- 

 wasteful type, and great care should be taken to make them 

 water-tight and weather-proof. Some of them can be placed 

 indoors. A good plan is to keep the mash hoppers inside the 

 house, where the feed will not be wasted by high winds blowing 

 the lighter meals away. Scratch feed hoppers may be left out- 

 side, in sheltered spots, accessible to the fowls, but in such a way 

 that the hoppers will have protection from sparrows and other 

 thieves. 



Watertight Covers. — Positively the hoppers must be made 

 watertight, not only for the economy of the thing, but to avoid 

 moldy, sour or spoiled food. If the hoppers leak ever so little, 

 it means musty grain, and musty grains mean bowel troubles, 

 maybe serious ones, and heavy losses. Take a little extra care 

 in the making of the hoppers and provide tight lids or covers. 

 And the covers must extend far enough over the sides of the 

 hoppers to prevent driving rains from reaching the contents. 

 The hoppers should have slatted sides through which the birds 

 can reach the grain without difficulty, but not large enough for 

 them to crawl through and perhaps soil the feed. 



The pullet is the favorite — the "star boarder." She is espe- 

 cially cherished on egg farms, and held in preference to the hen 

 for fall and winter egg production — the periods of highest prices, 

 which mean so much to the year's profits. 



Every poultry raiser's experience will substantiate the belief 

 that a fowl's greatest egg-producing capacity is in her first 



