8 
Colorado Experiment Station. 
the fowls. The more you can coax your laying hen to eat and as¬ 
similate, the more material will she have to turn into eggs. Her 
body must be nourished and material supplied for eggs. To provide for 
both purposes during cold weather means grinding up a great deal of 
food. The grit helps to do this and the oyster shell furnishes material 
for the egg shell. Charcoal furnishes no nourishment but promotes di¬ 
gestion, and is a bowel corrective. 
Nutritive Ratio .—A poultryman should know the approximate 
food value of his feeding stuffs in order to supply the necessary nutri¬ 
ents at the least cost. No one has yet proven the superior value of wet or 
dry mash, and whether or not you keep a hopper of dry, ground grains 
before your fowls, they will occasionally relish a moist, steamed mash 
of vegetables and ground grain, seasoned as you would like it for 
yourself. Let the morning meal in winter be cracked grain of some 
kind in the litter, and feed the mash either at noon or in the evening, 
and never more than they will clean up. We have as yet found nothing 
more gratifying to our fowls for supper than corn, either whole or 
cracked, and this should be fed in clean straw, or in such a manner 
that the fowls must use some energy in digging it out. When you 
find your hens becoming anxious for their meals is the time to feed 
rather than at some fixed hour. 
Feeding Chicks .—What we have said about feeding fowls can 
be applied to the chicks, when they get hungry do not withhold 
food because a certain time has not elapsed. Some of the 
brood will eat very heartily, some not at all and a little 
prepared chick feed, rolled oats, bread crumbs moistened 
with milk, or a hard boiled egg, will certainly do no hurt to 
the hungry chick. It may be possible to raise them without water, as 
some advocate, but we cannot understand how anyone who has ever 
seen the little fellows pile into a water dish can withold this from them; 
so provide cool, clean water and milk in any form in clean dishes. What 
applies to the hen applies also to the chickens, variety and plenty with 
exercise. For a few days the chicks should be fed regularly, after that 
much time and labor may be saved by having plenty of cracked grain 
in fine litter (alfalfa leaves are good) where the chicks can get it at any 
time. 
Bear in mind in poultry raising that cleanliness is one of the neces¬ 
sary factors for success. Cleanliness of buildings and coops means 
freedom from vermin. Cleanliness of yards and runs will be a more or 
less difficult matter depending upon how your plant has been arranged 
and upon your methods of housing and yarding. When many fowls and 
chicks are kept on a small acreage, frequent turning up of fresh earth 
is essential to cleanliness. To do this by hand is a very difficult job, so 
have the yards and runs of such size and shape that a horse can be used. 
