28 HOW TO HATCH, BROOD, FEED AND PREVENT 



Which is the Best General Purpose Fowl? 



I FIND the Barred Plymouth Bocks or the Silver Laced Wyandottes are 

 the best tor a general purpose chicken, where one wants to keep only a 

 few. But if it is egg production you are after and do not care so much 

 about the market quality of the stock, I would advise you to breed the 

 Single Comb or the Rose Comb Brown Leghorn. There is no use to look 

 any farther; they are good enough and the eggs are easily procured at 

 reasonable figures, for so many people all over the country are raising 

 them. They are hardy and do not require more than half the feed that 

 the larger breeds do. I intend to lay in a supply of thoroughbred Plymouth 

 Rocks and Leghorns this coming season and will try to supply my patrons 

 with thoroughbred stock at more reasonable prices than they can procure 

 them elsewhere. 



Feeding Hens for Egg Production in Winter 



To do this you must commence in the previous spring. Plant beets, 

 carrots, onions, turnips, cabbage, potatoes, squashes, pumpkins, 

 wheat, corn, oats, speltz and millet. You may think this is more of 

 a variety than is necessary, but it is not. You must study what is required 

 for egg production in summer, and make the conditions in winter as near 

 like those of the warmer months as possible. You will have to have char- 

 coal, alfalfa and clover meal to take the place of grass; crushed oyster 

 shells and air-slacked lime to make egg shells; broken dishes or crockery 

 to make a sharp grit to grind their food. If you can get good sharp grit or 

 gravel it will do just as well, but we often forget to lay in a suppl}' till 

 after the ground is frozen, then we cannot get it. But the hen must get 

 something of the sort, or they will have indigestion, and your chickens will 

 droop and die. Broken dishes make a good substitute for grit. It should 

 be broken up into pieces about the size or a little smaller than grains of 

 corn. 



This is how I feed my hens for egg production in winter, and have 

 obtained good results: I feed corn in the morning, then about ten o'clock I 

 feed them a mash consisting of boiled potatoes, chopped onions, alfalfa 

 meal, charcoal, bran, shorts and oil meal. I give them this mash every 

 morning. About twice or three times a week, I feed a little ground bone 

 and blood meal in their mash. I give them baked squash, beets or pump- 

 kin about three times a week. At about one o'clock each day I feed them 

 oats that have been scalded; at about four o'clock I feed corn again. I give 

 plenty of warm water, with a little sulphate of iron (copperas) in it; this 

 keeps them healthy. Now you will think this a great deal of trouble, but 

 if you will watch your hens after feeding them their mash and see how 



