502 



Production of Eggs in Winter. 



Production of Eggs in Winter. 



A statement made before the Select Standing Committee 

 on Agriculture and Colonisation of the Canadian Parlia- 

 ment by Mr. A. G. Gilbert, the manager of the Poultry 

 Branch at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, contains 

 some interesting observations on the results of some experi- 

 ments in the treatm.ent of fowls for the production of eggs in 

 winter. 



The feeding of fowls in order to obtain eggs from them in 

 winter is held by Mr. Gilbert to be a scientific process, inas- 

 much as what will cause the more active and nervous birds 

 of the Mediterranean class — namely, Leghorns, Minorcas,. 

 Spanish, and Andalusians — to lay will make the heavier ajid 

 more phlegmatic Brahmas, Langshans, and Cochins of the 

 Asiatic class so fat that they will not lay at all. Moreover,, 

 past experience at the Central Experimental Farm has 

 proved that hens and pullets require different treatmeiit, 

 since the rations which caused the pullets to lay well would 

 make the hens too fat to lay, or cause them to lay egg's 

 with thin or malformed shells. It has also been found by 

 experiments conducted at the farm that the feeding of three 

 rations per day appeared to be too fattening, and these were 

 consequently reduced to two, one in ihe morning and the 

 other in the afternoon. This practice of feeding poultry only 

 twice daily has, it appears, furnished satisfactory results. The 

 early morning ration was constituted as follows : three 

 mornings, raw or green bones ground, and on the 

 other mornings a warm mash composed of shorts, 

 ground oats, ground barley, ground rye, wheat bran, 

 steamed lawn clippings or steamed clover hay, the latter 

 cut into short lengths. No mid-day ration was given, but 

 vegetables or roots were always kept before the fowls. The 

 afternoon meal was 2olbs. of wheat or buckw^heat, sometimes 

 oats, mixed for 204 fowls. The object of this method of 

 feeding was to incite the laying hens to greater activity and 

 to secure as much variety as possible in the rations in order 

 to prevent the development of vicious propensities such as eg-g 

 eating or feather picking, and to avoid the production of egg's 

 with thin shells or without shells. 



