Vol. LVIII. No. 2585. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 12, 1899. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
EXPERIMENTING WITH THE HEN. 
THE TYPE OF THE LAYER. 
What She Does With Her Food. 
FOUR GOOD PULLETS.—When the experiment 
stations were first organized, the poultry people were 
quick to call for help. Most feeding experiments had 
been conducted with cattle, sheep and hogs. The 
modest and humble hen is the life of many a farm, 
and it seemed no more than fair that she should have 
her share of experiment. Several of the stations have 
responded nobly to this call, and we are beginning to 
know more about the manufacture of an egg than we 
ever did before. Some excellent work has been done 
at the Utah Experiment Station (Logan), and in Bul¬ 
letin No. 60, some valuable facts and figures have 
been collected. The pictures we print this week are 
taken from this bulletin, and they will be useful to 
those who want to select the egg type in a hen. These 
pictures are not designed to show typical representa¬ 
tives of the different breeds. They are only four pul¬ 
lets of good form and good performance. This was 
the kind of stock used in the experiment, and while 
the fanciers, probably, would not give them a high 
scoring, the practical egg man would, probably, select 
them as good layers. Much has been said about the 
dairy form in cows, and after much observation and 
experiment, experts are practically agreed upon the 
shape of the cow most likely to do well at the pail. 
Observant poultrymen have, we think, also agreed 
upon the type of hen most likely to spend a large pro¬ 
portion of her time in celebrating the birth of an egg. 
A small, well-shaped head, with bright intelligent 
eyes, rather long, sldnder neck, with upright, spright¬ 
ly bearing, are usually found in a good layer, without 
regard to the breed. 
THE LAYER TYPE.—The Brown Leghorn pullet 
shown at Fig. 217 is a good type of the laying hen. 
She is deep from the leg up to the back, and long in 
body rather than chunky. The tail is well set, rising 
nearly upright from the body. Just back of the wings 
she is wide and roomy. She usually shows good 
length, in proportion to her size, between the base of 
the neck and the root of the tail, following in one 
sense, the typical form of the best dairy cows. The 
crop is usually well developed, showing good capacity 
for food; as a rule, a good layer has a large propor¬ 
tion of breast meat. This is not fat but pure muscle. 
This excess of breast meat is due, we think, to the 
nervous action of the laying hen, for the layer is 
usually a quick-moving, nervous, high-strung bird. 
’1 he Light Brahmas, as a breed, can hardly be called 
nervous; yet, in our experience, individuals of this 
breed vary greatly in their restless activity. Some of 
WHITE WYANDOTTE PULLET. Fig. 316. 
them are dull and sluggish, inclined to sit early and 
to stay late; others are active, constantly walking 
about, and these are usually inclined to be the best 
layers. We think this will be found true of most 
breeds, and there is more in the nervous character of 
the hen than in any shape or peculiar physical charac¬ 
teristics. 
These four pullets all gave a good account of them¬ 
selves, and they all show, to a greater or less degree, 
the shape and restlessness of the laying hen. It is a 
well-known fact that most poultrymen who spend 
much time with their flocks can pick out the best 
layers. They do not seem to do this by the shape of 
the hen, but more by her actions. The hen does not 
look so much like a layer, but she acts the part. She 
is up early and late, always at work; she is easily 
frightened, and shows every indication of activity and 
high nervous energy. Of course, it cannot be said 
that every skittish or flighty hen is a good layer; yet, 
as a rule, the robber hens in any flock will be the 
thick, chunky, sluggish birds, that are built more like 
a plow horse than like a trotter. 
FOOD AND CARE.—The experiments at Utah were 
quite complicated and interesting. The method of 
feeding was as follows: A warm mash was fed every 
morning. This consisted of two parts of bran, one 
part ground oats, one part ground corn, seasoned with 
ROSE COMB BROWN LEGHORN PULLET. Fig. 317. 
a little salt and a small amount of Cayenne pepper. 
About 10 o’clock, a small amount of grain was fed, 
wheat one day and oats the next. Experiments were 
conducted to show the value of exercise in the hen. 
This exercise was induced by throwing the grain into 
a litter of straw about six inches deep. In the pens 
where no exercise was desired, the grain was fed in 
boxes. In the late afternoon, the hens were fed all 
the wheat they would eat up clean, and three times a 
week, cut bone or butcher scraps were fed. During 
the Winter, leaves of Alfalfa were used for green food, 
and in Summer, green Alfalfa and clover. In the early 
Spring, part of the yard was in green rye, which gave 
a fair pasture. Coal ashes were kept in the box in 
each pen, also ground oyster shell. 
Accurate accounts were kept of the amount of food 
consumed by these hens, and some surprising results 
were obtained in this way. An average of five pens 
of Brown Leghorns showed that they consumed 3.23 
ounces of food per day for each fowl. The Light 
Brahmas averaged 4.55 ounces per day for each fowl. 
One hundred Leghorns, on this basis, would consume 
20 pounds of total food, while 100 Brahmas consumed 
28 V 2 pounds, and 100 Plymouth Rocks would require 
27 pounds. It was found that, when a hen is in full 
flow of eggs, she consumes considerably more food 
than when she is not laying. The Leghorns averaged 
BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCK PULLET. Fig. 318. 
in weight about 3^ pounds each. The Brahmas aver¬ 
aged something over 7 pounds, and the Plymouth 
Rocks nearly 8, the Brahmas being considerably under 
the standard in weight, while the Plymouth Rocks 
reached more than the average. 
EGG COST AND WEIGHT.—The cost of food varied 
considerably. For example, one pen of Brown Leg¬ 
horns averaged during the year 164.6 eggs per hen. 
The cost of food was 60^ cents, each hen consuming 
during the year 70 1-5 pounds of total food. The best 
pen of Light Brahma pullets laid an average of 129 
eggs per hen, each hen consuming 100 pounds of food, 
worth 82.9 cents. The cost of a dozen Brown Leghorn 
eggs was 4.4 cents, and the cost of a dozen of the Light 
Brahma pullet eggs was 7.7 cents. The following 
table will show what food these pullets consumed 
during the year: 
Oyster 
Mash. 
Wheat. 
Oats. 
Bones. 
Corn. 
Shell. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
lbs. 
Leghorn . 8.2 
32V 2 
20.2 
8.8 
.4 
1 
Light Brahma. .16.8 
43 
26 
1 
12.2 
7 
The eggs of the pen of Brown Leghorns which gave 
the best yield averaged 1.67 ounce each; a dozen eggs 
weighed 1.25 pound; each fowl, during the year, laid 
17.01 pounds of eggs, which cost 3.52 cents per pound. 
The Light Brahma pullets laid much heavier eggs. 
They averaged 2.07 ounces each; a dozen of their eggs 
weighed 1.55 pound, and each fowl averaged 16.69 
pounds of eggs during the year, at a cost of 4.95 cents 
per pound. 
KEEPING OLD HENS.—The experiments indicate 
that it does not pay to keep two or three-year-old 
hens. In every case, the pullets were far ahead of 
their older sisters in egg production and profit. This, 
we think, however, should not be taken as a settled 
rule. In our experience, we have found a number of 
hens which have done better in their second and even 
third year than as pullets. We certainly believe, also, 
that for breeding stock, the older hens are much bet¬ 
ter than pullets. We think it pays to keep the very 
best of the pullets over the average second or even 
third year to serve as breeding hens. 
An effort was made to show the effect of exercise in 
egg production, but the results are not conclusive; in 
fact, one year gave one result, while the next year 
gave exactly opposite returns. The experiment has 
not been finished, as it would naturally take a num¬ 
ber of years to obtain anything like definite results. 
The figures, however, showing the cost of feeding a 
hen and the different results obtained by different 
breeds and different individuals, are very valuable, 
and ought to be very useful to all practical poultry- 
men who wish to improve their stock. 
