FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 93 



Gradual reduction of the daily grain allowance during the 

 spring and summer encourages the hens to eat more mash, 

 with the result that egg production is kept up during the 

 summer and early fall, when the natural tendency is to- 

 ward fewer and fewer eggs. When hens stop laying in the 

 fall they eat much less mash than they have been eating, 

 and it is then a good plan to increase the grain allowance 

 gradually so that the hens will keep in good flesh. 



For those who desire a plan of feeding to follow while 

 acquiring the experience on which to base their judgment, 

 the following schedule of approximate amounts of scratch 

 grain per hundred hens per days is given. It is assumed 

 that a mash such as previously described will be kept be- 

 fore the hens at all times. If a mash containing no corn 

 meal or ground oats is to be used, the amounts of scratch 

 feed per day should be increased accordingly. 



Approximate Quantities of Scratch Feed Daily Per 100 Hens 



Month Morning Evening 



November to February, inclusive 2 to 4 qts. 6 to 8 qts. 



March 2 to 3 qts. 6 to 7 qts. 



April and May 2 qts. 5 qts. 



June 1% qts. 5 qts. 



July 1% qts. 41/2 qts. 



August 1 qt. 4 qts. 



September and October : 1 qt. 3 qts. 



The change in amounts will not, of course, come 

 abruptly on the dates indicated, as may be inferred from 

 the schedule, but should be made very gradually. Sudden 

 changes in rations are likely to throw the hensi off feed. In 

 the case of a very late-laying flock, the amounts scheduled 

 for October should be continued into November. 



Do Not Starve the Broody Hen. 



Broodiness seems to be a natural instinct of hens. The 

 wild ancestors of the hen probably hatched but a single 

 brood of chicks a year, and our domestic hens commonly 

 go broody but once if allowed to hatch and rear a brood of 



