THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 7 
168 
FEEDING A HEN. 
Part IX. 
As our readers know, we have advo¬ 
cated the use of meat or cut bone as a 
part of the winter ration. In many in¬ 
stances, the meat ration is the cheapest 
and aside from that it is hardly possi¬ 
ble to obtain the needed proportion 
of muscle-makers without using some 
strong food. It is evident that our read¬ 
ers hold different opinions on this point. 
Here, for example, is a note from the 
boy who told us about his little poultry 
experiment, on page 89. 
Tun R. N.-Y. says in relation to bone cutters, 
“ How is it with you ? ” In our town, one of the 
leading butchers bought a Mann’s power bone 
cutter, runs it with a water motor, and sells green 
cut bone at two cents per pound. It is the only 
power cutter in town, and I think that it will pay, 
both the butcher and the poultrykeepers of the 
vicinity. My egg account has increased since I 
commenced feeding green cut bone. H. w. gilbett. 
Most of our reports are to the effect 
that a moderate ration of meat helps 
the hens, both as regards their egg yield 
and their general health. The trouble 
is that most of these reports are mere 
guesses with no actual statistics to prove 
anything. It is very easy to deceive 
ourselves with the results of an experi¬ 
ment, when any part of it is left to guess 
or estimate. Here is a report more in 
the line of J. A. W.’s “revolutionary” 
methods: 
I am beginning to doubt that meat is so essen¬ 
tial in the make-up of the winter ration for eggs, as 
most poultry authorities would have us believe. 
Here is the ration I have given 43 P. Rock pullets 
since January 1. Mornings, one peck of oats; at 
night, corn and oats, one quart of each; milk 
from a creamery separator during the day. Wood 
ashes and finely broken up crockery are kept in 
good supply. With the addition of oat straw to 
scratch in, this constitutes their full ration. The 
house is 12x20 feet, built of common lumber with 
battens over the cracks, with two glass windows 
at the south side; not a warm house by any 
means. Here is the egg record: Average number 
of eggs per day during January, 14; first two 
weeks in February, 18; the six days following, 16, 
26, 21, 22,18, 26, respectively, with the mercury 
below zero each morning. Considering the breed 
and the lack of warm quarters, it seems to me 
that this record indicates nearly a balanced 
ration. dwight hkrrick. 
That is certainly an excellent record. 
The oats and corn, as we know, would 
make a wide ration—about one part 
muscle-makers to 6% parts fat-formers. 
A full feed of skim-milk will reduce 
this to a little below one part to six. 
You will remember that, some time 
ago, we had a discussion as to whether 
skim-milk would take the place of 
meat in a lien’s ration. Opinions were 
divided, but the general conclusion 
seemed to be that if they could have 
access to plenty of milk or curd, hens 
needed little, if any, meat. Whether an 
increase of meat would increase the egg 
yield, can be answered only by experi¬ 
ment. It is chiefly a matter of providing 
an economical ration, and certainly 
where one has plenty of skim-milk, it 
would be foolish to buy expensive meat. 
The P. Rock breed in that house will, 
we think, stand a wider ration than 
should be fed to Leghorns in a warmer 
house. 
As we are having a sort of experience 
meeting this week, let us see what this 
man has to say about flocks and winter 
eggs : 
I have been much interested in Mr. Mapes’s 
Hens by the Acre, but have been looking for some 
comments on keeping 40 hens in a house 12x10 
feet. I keep hens in about the way he does, ex¬ 
cept that my houses are 12x20 feet—just twice the 
size of his. I commenced by keeping 50 in each 
house, but have reduced the number to 40 and 
think that number do better than 50, and they 
have none too much room. Has Mr. Mapes ever 
tried smaller flocks, or larger houses? I have 
found that my breeding flocks, with 10 to 15 in a 
house, lay better than larger flocks. A word in 
regard to winter eggs and their cost. The state¬ 
ment is frequently made that -winter eggs cost too 
much to be profitable. There are several ways 
of looking at the subject, and it is very hard to 
get at the exact cost. If we get eggs in summer, 
the bens must.be wintered; the cost of winter 
eggs is the difference in the cost of wintering 
them on corn, and in keeping them on egg-pro¬ 
ducing food, and the addition of labor required 
to care for them. In the article on the first page 
February 15, J. A. W.’s hens averaged only about 
11 eggs in the 90 days of winter. My hens average 
between 30 and 40 every winter. At two cents 
each, his hens gave 22 cents each, and calling 
mine 30 each, they gave 60 cents ; a difference of 
38 cents each. As he seems to have taken good 
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care of his, the difference would be only in the 
cost of their feed, and I think 10 cents per head 
would pay that. As to forcing them in winter, 
causing them to lay less the next summer, I do 
not think that it will. I have compared notes 
with some of my neighbors who did not wish their 
hens to lay in winter, for if they did they would 
not lay in summer. In March and April, they 
would be a little ahead, but I would be ahead all 
the rest of the year. A hen will lay 75 or 150 eggs 
a year, according to the feed and care she gets ; 
she is a machine, and if properly run, she has 
got to lay at any time unless she be moulting. 
Bedford, N. Y. w. 
You see that they are all firing away 
at J. A. W. He certainly gave us some 
strong ideas to think over, and we hope 
that he will “ come again ” and reply to 
some of his critics. Here is a letter that 
will stand a second reading : 
Is that “Revolution” a Success? 
It is of no possible use to “ try to shcot 
that profit of $1.74 per hen out of sight.” 
It’s a good profit; but I don’t see why 
our friend, J. A. W., did not use oats al¬ 
most entirely instead of wheat during 
open weather, at least, and thus further 
reduce his grain bill at least one-lialf, 
adding the difference to his $1.74 per 
hen ! He could have claimed science as 
well as common-sense (too often looked 
upon as diametrically opposite) on his 
side. For, with a judicious mixture of 
about two parts oats to a little more 
than three parts pasture, he would have 
had a ration running about one to four ; 
and that’s just about what he got with, 
say, half wheat and half pasture, isn’t it ? 
Of course, we don't know what his 
“sundries” amounted to; but calling 
them the odd $32, his expenses per hen, 
on this “cheap ” system, were $1.50 per 
year for grain ! For ourselves, we feed 
as nearly as possible on the scientific 
plan, buying everything our fowls eat, 
except what green food their moderate 
yards can supply and the garden waste. 
We pay the highest prices for grain, yet 
our fowls have never cost us for feed 
more than $1.25 per year, each, besides 
the meat, and if we fed a full supply of 
meat for 365 days in the year, it would 
not bring the average cost to us to more 
than $1.50 per hen ! 
On the other hand, if his sundries in¬ 
clude the cost of that netting to inclose 
five acres, the feed bill would be less, 
perhaps, but lie would fall afoul of an 
expense for fencing quite as heavy as 
would be incurred in inclosing small 
yards. I confess that I can’t figure the 
thing out in any way to show that J. A. 
W. proves the points that he set out to 
prove. However, 1 have a large bump 
of curiosity. First, I am anxious to 
know what J. A. W. calls the cold 
months, when he says that eggs “do 
not (according to common error) bring 
the highest prices on the average in cold 
weather.” The months of lowest prices 
which he gives are March, April and 
May. Surely eggs are not lower from 
October to December than in the four 
preceding months ? If not, then the 
months of highest prices are, with him, 
as elsewhere, October, November, De¬ 
cember and January. Aren’t these gener¬ 
ally considered to belong to the season 
of cold weather ? My curiosity led me 
further to look over the market reports 
in The R. N.-Y. file for 1895. Taking 
the price as near the middle of each 
month as the date of a weekly would al¬ 
low, the range of prices, April to Sep¬ 
tember, was from 13% to 17% cents, and 
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