PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
begins. In case molting is much delayed the 
production of the new coat of feathers in cold 
weather is such a drain on the vitality of the 
fowls that few if any eggs are produced until 
spring, while if the molt takes place early in 
the season the fowls begin winter in good condi¬ 
tion and with proper housing and feeding 
may be made tb lay during the entire winter. 
A few years ago Mr. Henry VanDreser pro¬ 
posed a way whereby fowls may be caused to 
molt as early in the fall as is desirable. Briefly, 
this method consists in withholding food 
either wholly or in part for a few days, which 
stops egg production and reduces the weight 
of the fowls, and then feeding heavily on a 
ration suitable for the formation of the feathers 
and the general building up of the system. 
The experiment designed to study this 
method was begun August 5. 1902, with two 
pens of Rhode Island Reds, and two pens of 
White Leghorns, about two years old. One 
pen each of Rhode Island Reds and White 
Leghorns received no food for thirteen days 
except what they could pick up in their runs, 
which had been sown to oats in the spring. 
These runs were fifteen feet wide and one 
hundred feet long and nearly all of the oats had 
been picked from the heads before the begin¬ 
ning of the experiment. The other two lots 
of fowls were fed as usual on mash, beef scraps, 
corn, wheat, and oats. After the expiration of 
the thirteen days all four lots of fowls were fed 
liberally. Each lot of fowls contained twenty 
hens and two cocks. 
The following table shows the number of eggs 
produced during the first thirty days after the 
beginning of the test: 
The Droppings Platform, Fowls Fed as Usual. 
The DroppiDgs Platform, Fowls Fed to Induce an Early Molt. 
1 .. .|Rhode Island Reds |Fed continuously | 75 
2 .. . |Rhode Island Reds |No food | 17 
3 .. . |White Leghorns |Fed continuously 1172 
4 ... |White Leghorns |No food | 25 
Lots two and four ceased laying entirely 
on the seventh day of the test. 
Thirty days after the test began the “no 
food ” pen of Rhode Island Reds had practically 
a complete coat of new feathers, had begun 
to lay, and within a week from that time one- 
half of the hens were laying regularly, while 
the other lot of Rhode Island Reds were just 
beginning to molt, and the egg production 
had dropped down to two or three eggs per day. 
Both lots of White Leghorns were a trifle slower 
in molting than the Rhode Island Reds, 
but otherwise the treatment effected them 
in a similar way. 
For ten days beginning August 19, the 
droppings boards in the two White Leghorn 
houses were not cleaned. At the expiration of 
this time photographs were taken and the 
plates show the great accumulation of feathers 
from the “no food” lot of fowls, and the rela¬ 
tively small amount of feathers which had been 
shed by the other lot. 
Summary. 
Mature hens, which are fed very sparingly for . 
about two weeks and then receive a rich nitrog¬ 
enous ration, molt more rapidly and with 
more uniformity, and enter the cold weather 
of winter in better condition than similar fowls 
fed continually during the molting period 
on an egg producing ration. 
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