280 
The Henyard. 
Care of Laying Fowls. 
^ hat would be reasonable to expect 
from a pen of 75 pullets at this season? 
I divide four quarts of grain, one buck¬ 
wheat, one cracked corn, one wheat, one 
quart oats, equally between three pens of 
75 each; at noon they are given four 
quarts Alfalfa, having had boiling water 
turned on and let stand two or three 
hours, four quarts bran, four quarts mil- 
filings, four quarts meal, two quarts beef 
scraps, one-half pint oil meal, and handful 
salt mixed together and divided. They 
are given cabbage, apples, small beets and 
sometimes sprouted oats, to work at be¬ 
sides the dry mash. At night they are 
given a good handful apiece of eight 
quarts cracked corn, four wheat, two 
quarts oats, two quarts buckwheat mixed. 
Fresh water is given three times a day, 
oystershell and grit are kept in hoppers, 
propping boards are cleaned each morn¬ 
ing and clean chaff is scattered over 
them; each pen is given a dust box of 
sifted coal ashes. w. E. d. 
I think that you can reasonably expect 
a 30% to 40% egg yield from your pul¬ 
lets in January if they were hatched in 
April or before. Your method of care 
and feeding is good, though if you are not 
giving the fowls access to dry mash in 
addition to the food that you mention, 
you are feeding very lightly, it 
seems to me. Four quarts of grain is 
a very light breakfast for 225 pullets, IS 
quarts of mash for dinner and a handful 
of grain apiece for supper is also a long 
way from overfeeding; I presume, how¬ 
ever, that you are giving dry mash in 
addition, as you mention it. While it is 
impossible to judge accurately as to your 
feeding, at this distance, I suspect that 
it is more food rather than a tonic that 
your pullets need. si. b. d. 
5TWH: KUKAL NEW-YORKER 
February 21, 
Substitute for Trap Nests. 
I wonder whether there has been any 
way devised by which a woman who is 
too busy to watch trap-nests as carefully 
as possible, could arrange her chicken 
house so that the hens would sort them¬ 
selves into layers and drones each day? 
The trip or two could be managed, but 
I have tried the regular traps that one 
has to remove the hens from, and find I 
cannot devote so much time to it. al¬ 
though I am most anxious to breed and 
cull along egg lines. If anyone has de¬ 
vised a satisfactory way, I sincerely wish 
that he would pass it on. mrs. b. b. 
Niles, Mich. 
I know of no satisfactory device that 
will take the place of the trap-nest in 
picking out the layers from the drones. 
I am reminded, however, of a device, a 
description of which was sent me by a 
friend in Washington, D. C., who fre¬ 
quently has business in the U. S. Patent 
Office. This device was to be attached 
to a hen at the vent in such a manner 
that the egg when being laid came in 
contact with a self-inking attachment, 
that marked the egg. One of these de¬ 
vices had to be attached to each hen. A 
copy of the “claims” as filed in the pat¬ 
ent office was sent me, and is probably 
somewhere among my papers now. On 
paper it looked quite plausible—in prac¬ 
tice I doubt if it would work. I have 
heard of other devices, but have never 
seen them. Perhaps some of The R. N.- 
Y. readers know of them. Most trap- 
nests are not made deep enough from 
front to rear. They should be 24 inches 
deep, so that the nest part would be far 
enough back to allow of room for the hen 
to stand comfortably when entirely out¬ 
side of the nest proper. This prevents the 
breaking of the egg by the hen’s attempt 
to escape, also prevents or lessens the 
liability of the nest becoming soiled by 
the droppings, where the hen is not 
promptly removed. With such nests no 
great harm is done if the hen has to be 
confined an hour or two. But plenty of 
nests must be provided. 
CEO. A. COSGROVE. 
Alfalfa Hay for Fowls. 
How shall I prepare and feed Alfalfa 
as a separate feed to take the place of 
green stuff like cabbage, beets, etc? What 
is your opinion of its value? s. F. h. 
Alfalfa meal is usually mixed with 
the ground grains as a mash, fed either 
wet or dry. If you have short cut Al¬ 
falfa, either home-grown or purchased, 
you can steam it by turning boiling water 
upon it in a covered pail, or it may be 
fed dry, though this is more wasteful. 
If the hens do not readily eat the steamed 
Alfalfa, mix a little ground feed with it. 
It is not to be expected that they will 
eat the coarse stems, but they should 
clean up the leaves and finer parts. Al¬ 
falfa does not exactly take the place of 
succulent food, like cabbage; it is a food 
of a different class, still it is a fair sub¬ 
stitute if roots are not to be had, and 
it or clover should be fed anyway when 
available, as it is one of the best poultry 
foods. M. B. D. 
Poultry Questions. 
I. For Leghorns, would 
half buckwheat and half 
the morning? 2. I 
by April 15, one 
Would you advise 
air incubator? 3. 
you prefer one- 
scratch feed in 
want to set 1000 eggs 
batch after another, 
a hot water or dry 
I have two roosters, 
good birds, and 25 hens, two years old. 
The' roosters are one year old. Is this 
mating desirable, and does it tend to 
produce pullets? 4. Can I save the 
eggs from now (early January) unti 
the first of February? 5. Does an early 
pullet moult before it lays? 6. IIow 
many quarts of feed would you sug 
gest to 100 Leghorns, mash feed morning 
and night, damp mash for dinner? 
New York. c. ir. 
1. Buckwheat is one of the standard 
grain foods for poultry, but may be fed 
more heavily in the Winter than in the 
Summer, being of a fattening, or heat¬ 
ing, nature, like corn. I would not re 
commend making the grain ration one 
half buckwheat; one-fourth to one-sixth 
would be a better proportion. 2. There 
is no difference in the chicks hatched in 
liot-water and in hot-air incubators, the 
source of the heat being utterly immate¬ 
rial, as far as the chicks are concerned. 
The hot-air machines are the most pop¬ 
ular, however, and in the larger sizes, 
especially, are probably to be recom¬ 
mended. 3. Two-year-old hens, mated 
with yearling roosters, should give good 
results as breeders if all are of suffi¬ 
cient vigor to insure fertility. There is 
no tendency toward either pullets or cock¬ 
erels in the progeny of this, or any other, 
mating, so far as known. 4. Eggs for 
hatching should not be kept longer than 
two weeks, if possible to avoid it. After 
this length of time, their hatchability de¬ 
creases rapidly. They should be stored 
in as cool a place as is available while 
being kept, but the temperature should 
not, of course, reach freezing. 5. If 
hatched too early, before the latter part 
of March in this latitude, a pullet is apt 
to lay a few eggs in the Fall and then 
molt. Bullets or hens will lay as well 
when there are no males in the flock, and 
except during the breeoing season, males 
should he kept out of all flocks from 
which eggs are sold. 0. One hundred 
Leghorn hens should have from four to 
six quarts of whole grain, fed twice 
daily in the litter, when they have a mash 
also at noon. These amounts cannot be 
definitely fixed, however, but should be 
varied according to the appetites of the 
hens. m. b. d. 
Late Molting. 
I have a flock of B. P. Rocks 1 y. 2 years 
old; were heavy layers all last Winter 
and last Summer, but as yet they have 
have not shed a feather, and have about 
stopped laying. What is the trouble with 
them, and are they worth keeping? 
Thomaston, Me. u. p. c. 
liens that are very late in molting have 
been given a certificate of good character 
by recent investigations which seem to 
show that the hens that continue to lay 
through the late Summer and begin molt¬ 
ing late are the hens that make the best 
yearly egg record. Early molters are 
under suspicion, nowadays, and are ex¬ 
cluded from the breeding pens; so the 
fact that your hens have laid well, and 
haven’t stopped to molt, should be a mat¬ 
ter of satisfaction to you. m. b, 
i>. 
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M’F’G CO. 
■ox |OCt 
Srenloch, N. J. 
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No. 3 (illustrated)—Capacity one 
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See your hardware dealer or 
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Buy A 
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