192 The Hen at Work 



used to be fed in a mixture. Now wheat and 

 cracked com are often used without other grains. 

 The value of oats in scratch feed is still in doubt. 

 Some experts prefer to grind them to mix with the 

 mash. You can safely take your choice on this 

 matter, making your scratch mixture of wheat and 

 com, or of wheat, com, and oats, in equal parts 

 by weight. 



A pint of this for each twelve hens should be 

 scattered about in the litter first thing in the 

 morning. The same should be given at ten or 

 eleven o'clock, and again at evening, when the 

 mash is served. This evening grain will not be 

 cleaned up, and some will be left for the early 

 birds to scratch for till the boss gets up. 



Mash.^ — Mash also has been much simplified by 

 experts in the last few years. As many as ten 

 ingredients used to make the mixture for the mash; 

 now these ingredients are frequently reduced to 

 four. The same formula as that used for the 

 growing pullets will be satisfactory. This corre- 

 sponds very closely to that used at egg-laying 

 contests. A hundred pounds, of pure, coarse, 

 bran, fifty pounds of com meal, fifty pounds of 

 middlings, and from thirty to fifty pounds of 



