HOUSE AND GARDEN 
March, 1912 
31 
the roosts at frequent 
intervals, putting it on 
with a brush so that it 
will permeate all of 
the cracks. In using 
kerosene it should be 
put on as early in the 
morning as possible, 
thus giving it time to 
soak into the wood be¬ 
fore the chickens go 
to roost, otherwise it 
is apt to make their 
feet sore. 
As to food, I con¬ 
sider cleanliness and 
regularity just as im¬ 
portant for fowls as 
for human beings. 
They expect to be fed 
at certain times, and 
they should not be 
disappointed. If the 
best results are to be 
had in the number of eggs as well as the general condition of the 
chickens, the hours for their feeding must be regular and not just 
when anyone happens to think of it. Another point in which the 
amateur is often mistaken as the 
feeding of promiscuous scraps 
from the table, or to be more 
exact, from the garbage pail — 
he usually thinks anything will do, 
from crusts of bread to highly 
seasoned salads and rich desserts. 
To many an economical soul it 
seems far better that the chickens 
should have such scraps than that 
they should be thrown away and 
apparently wasted. I am careful 
to let the chickens have nothing 
from the table except the left-over 
portions of salads and green veg¬ 
etables, and then only when any 
dressing or seasoning has been 
washed off. The condiments that 
go into most of the food prepared 
for the table are decidedly harm¬ 
ful to chickens, and they are much 
better if they do not eat anything that has been spiced or seasoned. 
As everyone who has ever had the care of chickens knows, 
wheat and bran with a little charcoal mixed in, a liberal quantity 
of grit and shell, and some corn during the winter season are the 
proper foods for fowls. I find that the cost of feeding my twenty 
hen flock averages three dollars a month, or ten cents a day. A 
sack of wheat costing about $1.90 will last almost one month, a 
sack of bran at $1.30 lasts three months, while of charcoal, grit or 
shell I use about 50 cents’ worth each month. Twice a week I 
buy a pound of a cheap cut of meat, have it ground fine like Ham¬ 
burger steak and mix it with the mash, and in every mash that is 
made I put a handful of charcoal so that the fowls eat it regularly 
whether they like it or not. Grit and shell are kept in a small 
open box in the pen where the hens can get at it when they choose. 
Unless chickens can take a good deal of exercise they are bound 
to get fat and stop laying. When they are kept in a pen and not 
given free range of the yard or lot this is a fact that should not 
be overlooked, and a scratching pen is a real necessity. I have a 
pen 8x10 feet in size, the bottom covered with several inches of 
straw into which the 
wheat is dropped and 
raked over, so that 
they are obliged to 
scratch for it or go 
hungry. This pen is 
under cover, as is also 
the dust bath, another 
necessary adjunct to 
every chicken yard, 
for both would be 
quite useless if they 
were not protected 
from the wet. 
Even though the 
hens get considerable 
exercise in scratching, 
it is much better to 
give them the run of 
the yard for at least a 
short while each day, 
and I always let them 
out of the pen for fif¬ 
teen or twenty min¬ 
utes in the middle of the day or late in the afternoon. A certain 
amount of green food is almost a necessity, and for a great part 
of the year they can pick at the grass during their few minutes’ 
outing. In case there is no grass 
available chopped alfalfa or kale 
or cabbage, any sort of green in 
fact, is good, and it is best to give 
them this green food if possible 
in the middle of the day. When 
such food is not to be had I feed 
them very sparingly at that hour, 
and contrary to the custom of 
many successful chicken raisers. I 
give them wheat in the morning 
and dry mash at night. This pro¬ 
vides them with exercise early in 
the day and sends them to roost 
with full craws that they do not 
have to work for, and so far I 
have no reason to think that it is 
not the best method. 
An abundant supply of fresh, 
clean water is still another abso¬ 
lute necessity in the chicken yard. 
I use crocks holding one gallon .each, made of white earthenware, 
so that it is easy to see that they are perfectly clean, and they are 
filled with fresh water twice a day. During the summer I occa¬ 
sionally put a little copperas in the water just by way of precau¬ 
tion. 
One more item often overlooked by the novice in poultry rais¬ 
ing is that the hens should be kept quiet, and not disturbed or 
frightened. They are silly things, with little sense at best, and 
are easily alarmed, a condition that is almost certain to interfere 
to some extent with their laying. If hens are kept clean and 
comfortable, quiet and contented—for there is such a thing as 
content in a chicken—and are properly fed, there is no possible 
reason why they should not lay regularly, if not phenomenally. 
During the last year my twenty hens laid 280x3 eggs, an average 
of 140 apiece, and this of course included the moulting period and 
also time wasted by a number of ambitious hens that wanted to 
sit and had to be broken of the desire. My family of three en¬ 
joyed the luxury of new-laid eggs the year round, and we sold 
{Continued on page 68) 
White Plymouth Rocks were found to be a very serviceable general purpose fowl, being 
excellent for table use as well as egg production 
A small sheltered pen in which straw is scattered furnishes 
yarded fowls with a place to scratch 
