76 
Vk RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 10, 1020 
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The Henyard 
Ear Corn for Hens 
Which is the better way to feed corn 
to poultry ; on the ear or shelled? 
New York. c. r. m. 
We feed corn on the cob and let the 
bens do their own shelling. They pick all 
the kernels off and there is practically no 
waste. Some poultrymen run the ears 
through a fodder cutter and feed in that 
way. The objection to ear feeding is that 
you cannot quite tell how much corn the 
hens are getting, and some of the persis¬ 
tent birds get more than their share. Now 
and then a hen acts as if her bill was sore, 
so that it hurts her to pick off the grain. 
Rye for Hens and Pigs 
Is rye good for chickens in scratch 
food or boiled? I have been told by sev¬ 
eral that it will make them quit laying. 
Will hens that are molting now lay before 
Spring? How about hens that molt in 
the late Summer or early Fall? Is cooked 
rye good for pigs after they are four 
weeks old? I am feeding some cooked 
rye to the pigs three or four months old 
and they are growing fine. We lost some 
pigs two months or so. and thought it 
was the rye. I cook all the rye I give 
to them. E. E. B. 
Pennsylvania. 
Rye is a suitable grain for fowls, so 
far as they will eat it. It may be wasted, 
however, if thrown into the litter without 
noting whether or not the hens consume 
it. Late molting (October-November), 
combined with early laying, is a mark of 
good laying and characterizes the best 
liens. Summer molters stop laying too 
early to make a good record for the year. 
Whether heus molting now lay before 
Spring or not depends much upon their 
care and feeding. Good young hens, 
properly cared for. should. 
Ground rye. fed in slop, is recommended 
as a food for pigs by some feeding au¬ 
thorities. being considered as of about 
equal value to barley meal, though of less 
value than cornmeal. Rye, fed alone or 
in large amounts, is capable of producing 
digestive disturbances, and it is best to 
mix it with other feeds. Cooking grain 
for pigs is probably worse than useless, 
its feeding value beiug decreased rather 
than increased by that treatment. Such 
ground grains as form pasty masses, dif¬ 
ficult to swallow when fed dry, should be 
fed in slops and grains hard enough to 
produce sore mouths may be soaked before 
feeding. Cooking food for animals, how¬ 
ever. except perhaps in the case of pota¬ 
toes, is now generally believed to be of 
insufficient value to pay for its cost. 
M. B, D. 
Mice in Henhouse 
Will you advise me how to combat field 
mice, which burrow in the sand floor of 
my chicken house? They burrow under 
the concrete foundation and come to the 
surface inside. The pens affected are oc¬ 
cupied by grown pullets. j. b. 
Long Island. N. Y. 
Field mice usually travel where dig¬ 
ging is easy, or where there are holes al¬ 
ready made, such as cracks or crevices in 
the foundation and floors of buildings. If 
your foundation was solid concrete there 
would be no trouble with mice. In the 
absence of this it would be advisable to 
dig down about 18 in. all around the 
building, and bury woven wire netting 
close to the outside of the foundation, and 
then replace the earth removed. This 
would hold the wire in a vertical position 
and keep the mice from burrowing 
through. The wire netting for this pur¬ 
pose should be from IS to 24 in. wide, 
depending upon the height of the founda¬ 
tion. and should have three meshes to the 
inch. This will beep the mice out of the 
building, and a good eat will soon catch 
those that are already inside. c. S. G. 
"Leg Weakness” 
I noticed on page 1730 au item headed 
"Leg Weakness.” signed by M. B. D. 
I have raised chickens for nearly 45 
years and I have yet to see a case of 
leg weakness as J. F. H. describes his 
trouble. I have had a new trouble, that 
is, new to me, that fits his description. 
I have had four White Leghorn pullets 
nearly ready to lay taken with a stiffness 
in their legs, and when tlipy get a little 
worse, or about the second or third day, 
if one goes near them, they will start 
to run. and finally go over on their heads. 
In four or five days their legs will he 
useless and they will sprawl out and 
lie in one place. They eat well, combs 
are red. The excretions get soft and 
yellow, with a bad odor, and I finally 
chop their heads off to end their misery. 
I have never seen anything like it before, 
and would be very grateful for any in¬ 
formation or help on the subject. After 
I found the second one I changed their 
quarters and did everything to sterilize 
their utensils, but in about two weeks 
another one came down with it. and at 
present I have one pullet, and one Barred 
Rock hen troubled the same way. 
New York. w. w. n. 
I judge from your description that the 
trouble you mention is the same that 
J. F. II. describes. “Leg weakness” is, 
of course, a very unscientific term, mean¬ 
ing simply that the bird’s legs appear 
to be too weak to hold it erect with any 
certainty and, further, that we don’t 
know why. The symptoms are about as 
follows: A growing pullet or cockerel 
suddenly appears to be stiff in the joints 
when walking and disinclined to move 
about. The unsteadiness in its gait may 
increase until it topples over when it 
attempts to hurry, and, finally, it may 
squat down without further effort to get 
about. Until late in the case, at least, 
there seems to be little disturbance of the 
bird’s health. One writer upon poultry 
diseases says that the trouble seems to be 
caused by heavily-fed birds increasing in 
weight faster than in strength: an easy 
guess but a trifle more unscientific, it 
seems to be, than letting it go as leg 
weakness. I have had it in my flocks, 
but have never had any deaths ensuing. 
I am speaking now of farm-raised, free- 
range stock. Undoubtedly others are less 
fortunate. I should not kill birds so 
affected, but should place them by them¬ 
selves. give them a good dose of physic, 
feed lightly, with plenty of green stuff, 
and await results. Many of the cases, 
certainly, will recover. m. b. d. 
Leghorns vs. R. I. Reds 
On page 163 prominence is given to an 
article on the trlily excellent performance 
of the. Underhill Reds at the Vineland 
egg-laying contest. In this article I con¬ 
sider that the writer somewhat slurs the 
Leghorns. I give herewith some facts 
concerning the returns as brought out 
at this same contest. 
Let us take the best pens from the 
Reds and Leghorns, and. while we are 
about it. from the Barred Rocks and the 
White Wyandottes for the three years 
ended October 31, 1019. and consider 
them from the standpoint of returns. 
Table No. 1 shows: 
EGGS LAID 
R. I. Reds; breeder, Underhill— 
First year. 1.966 
Second year . 1.275 
Third year . 2.431 
Bar. Rocks; breeder, Buck— 
First year. 1.956 
Second year . 1.366 
Third year . 2.222 
- 5.544 
Y\. Wyandottes ; breeder, Gusscroft— 
First year . 1.761 
Second year . 1.266 
Third year . 2.225 
_ 5,252 
\\. Leghorns ; breeder, Platt—• 
First year . 2.173 
Second year . 1.690 
Third year . 2.224 
- 6,087 
The total for the three years for the 
Reds is 5.072; for the Leghorns. 6.087, 
a difference in favor of the Leghorns of 
415 eggs for the period. 
Much might be said regarding the ef¬ 
ficiency of the various breeds, the feed 
consumed per layer, the value of the 
eggs, etc., but let us get right down to 
business. What were the net returns 
per layer per year of the Reds and the 
Leghorns? The actual records for the 
year ended October 31, 1919, are not at 
hand, but I have before me the actual 
dollars and cents records of the Reds and 
the Leghorns for the first (pullet) year 
and the second (yearling) year, and tak¬ 
ing these records and applying the aver¬ 
age records of the first (pullet) year to 
the third (pullet) year we have the fol¬ 
lowing : 
RETURN'S ABOVE FEED 
Reds; breeder, Underhill— 
First year .$3.85 
Second year . 1.71 
Third year . 4.39 
-$9.95 
Leghorns ; breeder, Platt— 
First year.$5.48 
Second year . 3.83 
Third year . 4.97 
-$14.28 
During the three years of the contest 
the average return on the best pen of Leg¬ 
horns was 43 per cent over that of the 
best pen of Reds. On a production dur¬ 
ing the last (pullet) year of 243 plus 
per layer for the Reds and 222 plus for 
the Leghorns, the Leghorns actually show 
a profit of 58 cents more than the Reds, 
using the figures given for the efficiency 
of the two breeds during the first (pullet) 
year. Why, it might be asked, do tbp 
figures show a profit of nearly 6c each for 
thr Leghorns over the Reds, when the 
Reds show a production of 21 eggs each 
more per layer? 
Efficiency is the answer, the efficiency 
of the Leghorn compared to the efficiency 
of the Reds, due principally to two items, 
the fact that the Reds averaged 10 lbs. 
of feed more per layer per year (see 
records for first (pullet) year) and that 
the white eggs sold for over 3c a dozen 
more than brown eggs. 
A word of praise for the Underhill 
Reds, or, rather, for the Underhills who 
produced them, is in order. A record of 
243 eggs per layer per year for a pen of 
10 layers is a record to lie proud of: it 
shows intelligence and perseverance of a 
very high order. edw. T. biddle. 
Pennsylvania. 
