THE- KUKAL NEW-VOKKER 
The Henyard. 
Village Poultry. 
I LIVE in th-e village and own one- 
fourth acre of ground which I have 
been using for a garden. There are 
”4 poach trees *et two years ago. and this 
\ear I thought I would fence all of it and 
raise »S. C. W. Leghorns of a famoui. 
strain. IIow many can I successfully 
raise on this piece of land? What size 
henhouse will I need and how many pul¬ 
lets to each pen? When would you ad¬ 
vise starting the incubator in this lo¬ 
cality? I have had good success with 
poultry before, but that was when I was 
at home on the farm. M. L. s. 
New York. 
It would be hard to state the limit as 
to the number of chicks that could be 
raised upon one-fourth acre of ground, 
but for a village plant of that size I 
should not recommend more than one 
hundred layers and fewer would probably 
do better. From two to three times as 
many chicks as you wish layers will have 
to be hatched and reared, granting ordi¬ 
narily good success. A henhouse should 
have from three to four square feet of 
lloor capacity for each hen, and a small 
Hock need not be divided into pens. A 
building 15x20 feet would accommodate 
100 fowls or less, and would be a suitable 
size for a village lot; an addition to its 
length of about eight feet would provide 
storage room for feed. Any time during 
the first week in March would be suit¬ 
able for starting an incubator for early 
chicks; they may be profitably hatched, 
however, up to the first of June. m. b. d. 
Age of Breeding Fowls. 
I WAS going to get some year-old hens 
to mate with my cockerel for breed¬ 
ing. but am told that pullets would be 
as good. Is this so? Why has it taken 
my hens so long to molt? Some of them 
started in October and have not got 
through yet and some of them have just 
begun. 1 am feeding them scratch feed 
three times a day in litter and have dry 
mash before them all the time. They 
also have cabbage, raw potatoes and 
mangels. They are in open-front houses 
and are not let out at ail. c. u. V. 
Connecticut. 
It is preferable, for several reasons, to 
breed from year-old fowls rather than 
from pullets, but there is no serious ob¬ 
jection to the latter if the pullets are 
well developed, and I should use them 
in preference to older hens of inferior 
merit. Late molting is now considered 
a sign of worth, as it has been found 
that the best producers among a flock of 
hens are those that molt last and have 
continued laying until late in the season. 
Small producers are apt to lay during 
the natural season in Spring and early 
Summer, molt early, and take a long 
rest; you should be pleased, therefore, by 
this indication of prolificacy in your 
flock, provided that the egg record doesn’t 
contradict its significance. M. B. d. 
Buttermilk for Laying Hens. 
I S buttermilk good for laying hens? Is 
buttermilk suitable for young chicks, 
to be used as a drink in both cases? 
I live near a creamery and can get it for 
one cent per gallon. I wish to use it in 
place of beef scrap, if it will be as good. 
Can it be fed to calves and young pigs? 
Massachusetts. ii. D. P. 
Buttermilk has practically the same 
composition as skim-milk, and may re¬ 
place it for most feeding purposes. It 
is an excellent food for laying hens and 
young chicks, and may be fed to both pigs 
and calves, though its reputation as a 
food for these two latter classes of ani¬ 
mals is not equal to that of skim-milk ; 
very possibly because it is not usually to 
be had in such quantities, and feeders 
have not learned to use it. If buttermilk 
has been kept in dirty tanks and allowed 
to ferment it is a dangerous food; when 
buying from a creamery, therefore, the 
method of handling it should be ascer¬ 
tained. Buttermilk at creameries is 
often considerably diluted with water; if 
you can purchase clear buttermilk at 
one cent per gallon you have access to 
a very cheap source of food and should 
make good use of it. It will not fully 
replace meat scrap for fowls, but will go 
a long way toward it. M. B. D. 
Pullets Fail to Lay. 
W IIAT in your judgment is the cause 
of my pullets not increasing their 
rate of laying? Can pullets be 
made too fat to lay? I have -100, and 
they laid well until December 1. They 
were out on range. Then the weather be¬ 
came cold and snowy. I kept them 
housed up and increased the corn in the 
ration as the nights were zero. I feed 
corn, oats and wheat for scratch; ground 
oats, ground corn, wheat feed and ground 
bone for wet and dry mash. The pullets 
are fat. Are not all fowls fat when they 
lay? They are not increasing the pro¬ 
duction of eggs, while the old hens in an 
adjoining coop, which I did not force un¬ 
til two weeks ago, are gaining every day. 
Do you think the pullets too fat? B. H. S. 
It is doubtful if pullets can easily be 
made too fat to lay, but they may easily 
be fed upon too fattening rations, and 
this, I think, you are doing. With the 
exception of the ground bone, by which 
I suppose you to mean green cut bone, 
all the foods that you are giving yo^r 
pullets are fattening in their nature, and 
lack the protein constituents so necessary 
for egg production. It is not the excess 
of fat. but the lack of lean that is at 
fault, and to supply this latter you 
should add beef scrap or meat meal to the 
poultry mash and give skim-milk, if you 
have it. If you are feeding sufficient 
•"eon cut bone, this will take the place of 
beef scrap, however. To the ground oats, 
ground corn, and wheat feed in your 
mash should be added such high protein 
grain feeds as gluten feed, oil meal, buck¬ 
wheat middlings and distillers’ grains; 
not all of these, but one or more of them. 
A good formula, as given elsewhere, is 
equal parts by weight of cornmeal, wheat 
bran, wheat middlings, gluten feed and 
beef scrap. You will find other good for¬ 
mulas for laying hens given in these col¬ 
umns from time to time. The exceeding¬ 
ly cold weather of December cut down 
the egg production of both ‘pullets and 
hens, but they should increase from now 
on. M. B. D. 
O N page S4 is an article under title 
“Pullets Fail to Lay.” I believe the 
efforts of G. D. B. are entitled to 
further suggestions. There are two 
causes for his failu ^ First, take 30 of 
those pullets from ‘ ‘each pen and place 
them in other quarters, the barn if no 
other place is convenient. The inquirer 
can hardly reasonably expect pullets the 
size of these breeds to do their best on 
less than six square feet per hen; his 
have 3.3. Second, feed two quarts more 
of mixed grain in the morning in deep 
litter. Continue the cabbage and if they 
do not lay then they are all roosters. 
Swanton, O. c. D. o. 
Ft, as 11 bight Egg Tester. —I have 
something to say to those who run incu¬ 
bators and have an electric light. It may 
not be new, but it is good just the same. 
Do you want to test your eggs with ease 
and speed, no burning of your fingers; 
no smoking of lamp? Ilemove the egg- 
tray from the incubator, set it on top of 
it with the ends blocked high enough to 
get your hand under it easily. Turn out 
the lights, then take an electric flash¬ 
light and pass it under the egg tray. You 
can test a tray of eggs this way in the 
time it t ould take you to light the old 
oil lamp, to say nothing of the better 
showing up of each egg. Of course the 
lest should be made at night, no matter 
\ hat light is used. geo. w. lawto.n. 
New Jersey. 
Every Month 
in thelfear 
you can use 
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279 
Here’s What One 
Poultry Raiser Said : 
“Hatching on March 28. 
Fed H-O Steam-Cooked 
Chick Feed. First eggs 
from those pullets on Oct. 
3d—6 months only.” 
That’s quick development. Your chicks may not 
develop quite so rapidly but you’ll find that they will 
thrive on this well-balanced ration— 
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A scientific mixture of cut-oatmeal, corn, cracked 
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Write for free sample, prices and descriptive folder. 
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Mills: 
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John J. Campbell 
General Sales Agent 
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Wins in the Two 
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