MEETING SHORTAGE

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21417, 10 May 1941, Page 2

MEETING SHORTAGE

LAWN MOWINGS FOR HENS BETTER EGGS RESULT (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, February 21 Better quality eggs, record production figures and half the usual number of deaths among his hens are the results of a new poultry diet ■worked out by Mr A. Jenkins, of Riversleigh Farm, Warton, near Lytham, Lancs,, says the Daily Mirror. He feeds his hens on dried lawn mowings and household scrap. The grass almost cuts out imported feedings stuffs—now rationed for poultry—and constitutes 10 per cent of the meals. It is thought it may be possible to increase the grass to 20 per cent. Household scrap, collected from customers of the farm, takes the place of other “old-fashioned” foods. Chickens, too, are on a special i diet. They are fed on 80 per cent substitute food. Each pullet on the farm has 44 oz of food a day, and a record it kept of every bird’s work. If it falls below a certain standard out it goes. In these times there is no room for “passengers.” Mr Jenkins studied every book on the subject of grass drying before he designed his diet. Then he adapted a Dutch system. After months of experiment he built for a fraction of the normal *;ost suitable plant for drying grass. His maintenance costs are only a few coppers a week.