90 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



tern. The best practice in the use of moist mash seems to 

 be to moisten the regular dry-mash mixture with skim milk 

 or butter-milk, giving about what the hens will clean up in 

 thirty minutes. Soaked or germinated oats may be included 

 with this feeding at the rate of about three quarts of dry 

 oats per hundred hens. Such a mixture should be given 

 about noon or a little earlier so that it will not interfere 

 with the other regular feedings. Moist mash must be used 

 with care as there is greater danger of overfeeding and a 

 resulting loss of appetite than where only dry mixtures are 

 fed. 



Cheaper Feeds May Be Substituted. 



The feeds which are to be included in any ration must 

 of course be considered from the standpoint of price and 

 availability. The cheapest ration which will produce a high 

 egg yield is the aim rather than the best ration regardless 

 of price. For example, wheat mixed feed or ground whole 

 wheat may replace bran and middlings in the mash if local 

 prices for these latter are too high. Standard middlings will 

 occasionally be cheaper than the combination of bran and 

 flour middlings and may be substituted for these. Hominy 

 feed may replace corn meal. Tankage or crackling meal 

 may replace meat scrap if the latter is too costly. How- 

 ever, meat scrap is much more readily eaten and it is there- 

 fore usually unwise to replace it with tankage unless there 

 is a considerable difference in price. A difference of ten 

 dollars a ton between meat scrap and tankage means a dif- 

 ference of only one to two cents a day in the cost of feeding 

 a flock of one hundred hens. One extra egg daily will pay 

 for this small difference. 



Any change in the ration should be made gradually 

 rather than abruptly for the reason that marked changes 

 suddenly made are almost certain to cause a drop in egg 

 production and may cause the birds to molt. 



Green Feed Stimulates the Appetite. 



Green or succulent feed is greatly relished by poultry 

 of all ages. No ration can be considered complete without 

 it. In early spring and summer the fowls can of course se- 



