FEEDING FOR WINTER EGGS.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2730, 13 July 1925, Page 5

FEEDING FOR WINTER EGGS.

Many farm poultry keepers take it for granted that hens will not lay in winter. Th c weather is too cold, anyhow to get eggs in winter; so why feed and care for the hens properly] if they won’t lay anyway? Thc result is that many flockls lay just about the number of eggs you would expect* them to lay for the care they got. There is more fact than theory in this statement. |

Proper care or good care moans feeding regularly twice a day on hard grain or scratch feed, giving a soft; warm mash once a day rcguarly and keeping the flock supplied with green: feed, oyster shell and grit, in addition! to giving milk of some kind to drink, I if it is available, or meat food every few days if no milk is to be had. | We cannot lay down any hard and fast rules as to what to feed and how to feed, but we know that certain things are absolutely necessary in the system or methods followed if we are to get eggs. Among these are, first,* that hens must have exercise if they are to keep in healthy laying condition. Exercise is compelled by keeping the floor of the poultry house cov-

cred with from 8 to 10 inches of straw or chaff and throwing all scratch feed into this both morning and night, just high enough so the birds will have to jump to pick at it will make them exercise still more. For green feed, give a head of cabbage, a mangel, a few turnips or a few carrots. Hens must have some kind of green or succulent feed if they are to lay. At night the flock should receive a feed of hard grain in the litter. Peed this early enough so that they will all get enough to cat before it gets dark , and. they have to go to roost. Of course, if one has electric light in the poultry house the hens can eat by electric light.