FOODS AND FEEDING. 
(warm in winter), and the water pans are care¬ 
fully rinsed every day.” 
Feeding for Eggs: How Much. 
The problem, as every poultryman knows, is 
not what to feed, but how much. If you do 
not believe this write the editor of your favorite 
poultry paper and ask him how much food you 
.should give a flock of 15 hens, and see what he 
will say. It takes a great deal of care to steer 
between over-feeding on the one hand and under¬ 
feeding on the other. I believe, however, that 
there is a scientific principle underlying the 
matter, and think that after a great deal of 
study and experimentation I have discovered 
the principle. 
In order to determine how much to feed we 
must again interrogate Nature. Before we had 
begun to dissect the crop of the hen we had 
killed, suppose we had put it on the scales to 
ascertain its weight. If the hen from which 
the crop was taken was of an American breed, if 
she had been running in the fields all day and 
just before she had been killed had been given 
all the corn that she would eat, her crop with 
its contents would weigh not far from six ounces. 
Allowing that two ounces of food have 
passed from the crop into the gizzard during 
the day, and from the gizzard into the intestines, 
it will be seen that when a hen is on the range, 
supplied with abundance of food, she will con¬ 
sume about eight ounces of food in the course 
of 24 hours. It would seem therefore that this 
is the amount of food a hen needs to supply all 
the demands of her system and leave a margin 
for egg production. But before we settle down 
to this conclusion there are some things to be 
taken into consideration. On the range the 
hen has had plenty of exercise, and needs more 
food to supply the tissue lost than when in con¬ 
finement. On the range food is more bulky and 
less nutritious than the food the hen receives in 
her pen. It contains a larger proportion of 
grass and vegetables. It is probable that in 
the pen, where the hen does not exercise so 
freely as she does on the range and where her 
food is more concentrated, she docs not need 
so much food by one-fourth as she does when at 
liberty. Six ounces of food a day ought there¬ 
fore to be ample to supply all the needs of a hen 
in confinement. 
Suppose we try a little experiment to verify 
this conclusion. Let us take a laying hen a 
year old and shut her up in a pen by herself, 
feeding her but once a day, but giving her all 
she will eat at this meal. The food we set 
before her is a mash containing all the elements 
for nutrition and egg production. We will find 
that the hen will continue to thrive and lay eggs 
on six ounces of food a day. There will be a 
falling off of egg production, owing to the close 
confinement and change in methods of feeding, 
but the hen will live and lay on six ounces of 
food a day. We are now confirmed in our 
conviction, that in the American breeds six 
ounces of food a day is about the normal amount 
for a hen in confinement. Whether she needs 
a little more or a little less must be determined 
by individual experimentation. 
Six ounces of food a day for a hen weighing 
six pounds seems at first sight an enormous 
quantity. In the same ratio a man weighing 
160 pounds would consume 10 pounds of food 
every 24 hours. But before we dismiss the 
matter as absurd, let us consider a moment. 
The hen’s food is not so concentrated as the 
man’s. It contains far less nutriment in pro¬ 
portion to bulk. A considerable proportion of 
it will be voided in the form of excrement. Then 
the hen has a task to perform such as is imposeel 
upon few other creatures. She is expected to 
lay an egg weighing not less than two ounces; 
anel an egg, as everyone knows, is one of the 
richest of food-products. Deduct from the six 
ounces of food two ounces for waste anel two 
ounces for egg production, and it will be seen 
that only two ounces are left to repair the tis¬ 
sues anel maintain the temperature of the body. 
The laying hen needs a generous diet, anel these 
doctrinaires who advocate keeping her in a 
state of semi-starvation have no support in rea¬ 
son for their theory. 
—From “200 Eggs a Year ptr Hen: How to G(t 
Them.” 
97 
