330 POULTRY CULTURE 



It has been found that when the hours of Ught are increased, 

 either naturally by longer days or by artificial light, there is 

 an increased consumption of feed and more eggs produced in 

 proportion to the feed consumed. It has been found that 

 there is a corellation between the number of eggs produced 

 and the number of hours sunshine. Electric lights have also 

 been used in giving longer days to fattening and to growing 

 chickens with the result that there were greater gains in a 

 given period. One 40-watt lamp is sufficient in a pen 20 feet 

 by 20 feet. 



Artificial illumination should not be used on the breeders 

 in the fall of the year. A breeding hen should not be tired out 

 before laying the hatching eggs. Such hens should be allowed 

 to "hibernate" during cold weather and come into full laying 

 during the hatching season. 



Amount of Feed Consumed. — -Small breeds such as Leghorns 

 and Campines will consume on an average about 65 to 70 

 pounds of feed per hen per year. Large breeds as the Ply- 

 mouth Rocks and Orpingtons will consume an average of about 

 85 pounds feed per hen per year. 



Palatability. — ^In tests run by Payne it was determined that 

 the most palatable dry mash consisted of cornmeal, ground 

 oats, and beef scrap. This also proved the most economical 

 in all his tests. 



Ground alfalfa and linseed meal are not so palatable and 

 detract from the palatabihty of the mash, while gluten feed adds 

 to palatability. Cotton-seed meal is at first very palatable, 

 but if an excess be eaten the birds will become sick of it and 

 may refuse it. Hens consume mash as a filler so that when 

 the grain ration is increased the mash consumed will decrease. 



Kempster's work on palatability places grains and other 

 feeds in the following order of palatableness as shown by his 

 practical feeding tests of single feedstuffs: wheat, kaffir corn, 

 corn, cornmeal, wheat middlings, oats, sunflower seed, beef 

 scrap, grit, oyster shell, bran. The nutritive ration of a ration 

 in the self-selected feeds tends to become wider as the hen 

 passes from a laying to a non-laying period. 



Yolk Pigment. — ^The natural pigment characterizing the egg 

 yolk, body fat, and blood serum of the hen is physiologically 



