532 



. Winter Egg Production. 



[dec, 



up the fowls too closely in ill-ventilated houses at the approach 

 of hard weather, thus rendering them unhealthy and unfit for 

 laying. 



A roosting house for winter use should be substantially built 

 in a well-sheltered location, with a solid foundation, a good dry 

 floor, and walls and roof without cracks or crevices which would 

 admit rain, dampness, or currents of cold air. It should be well 

 lighted and well ventilated and to each bird a space of about 

 ten cubic feet ought to be allowed. Since it is quite as impor- 

 tant that the hens should be provided with adequate shelter in 

 the daytime as it is that they should be comfortably housed at 

 night, it is advisable that they should have a large well-lighted 

 open shed in which they may spend the day instead of being 

 forced, as they are on very many farms, to seek shelter on the 

 lee side of a hedge or hay-rick or under cover of a waggon, 

 wheel-barrow, or other farm implement. Hens that mope and 

 crouch and stand on one leg throughout the day are certainly 

 not going to do much towards keeping the egg basket full, and 

 these are habits which they must not be permitted to acquire. On 

 the contrary, they must be induced to take exercise by every 

 possible means, for the great value of exercise] as a means of 

 promoting winter laying is well known to practical [poultry- 

 keepers. The shelter shed which is provided ought, therefore, 

 also to be converted into a " scratching shed," by keeping the 

 floor well littered with such materials as chaff, mill-dust, loft 

 sweepings, &c, and by burying or raking into this litter a large 

 proportion of the unground corn which is fed to the hens every 

 day. This plan promotes exercise and keeps the hens busy 

 practically all the day. A busy hen is a healthy hen and a 

 regular layer. 



Winter Feeding of Laying Hens. — No matter how strong the 

 inherent instinct to lay may be, and it is not very strong in the 

 depth of winter, the hen cannot produce eggs if she is not 

 supplied with suitable food, and the question is what foods or 

 combination of foods can be advantageously and economically 

 fed to promote winter laying ? It is certain that the profits 

 will be light if the feeding for winter eggs consists of corn 

 or meals made from corn alone, for these are not sufficiently 

 nitrogenous, and do not supply the proper materials for egg 



