OCR Text |
Show EARLY MOLTING OF CHICKENS Western Poultryman Gives Excellent Method of Controlling Hens in Changing Feathers. Most people believe that if they can force their hens to molt early they will lay more eggs during the season, but this is not true. Hens that have molted late will lay more eggs during the winter than the early moiters. This has been shown by the most careful experiments, but the facts are not generally known. Molting hens require a large amount of feed containing nitrogen such as oil meal, meat and other feeds rich in protein. pro-tein. Molting can be forced by cutting down the feed of hens as it has been shown by experiments that scantily fed hens begin molting earlier than those on full feed, but the former do not finish molting much earlier. Starved hens molt more uniformly than others and this is particularly noticeable In hens two or three years old. In an experiment conducted by the Cornell experiment station It was found that on a basis of 100 hens the fed flock produced eggs to the value of $29.97 more than by the starved flock. The total income from all the birds was $278 for the starved flock and $350 for the fed flock, a difference in favor of natural molting for the year of about $95. A western poultry'man of long experience ex-perience gives his method of controlling controll-ing molting as follows: As soon as the hens are through laying he turns them out on alfalfa, feeding them dry bran only, in addition. addi-tion. Under this treatment they get thin. Then he feeds them a mixed ration of grains and meat, giving a light feed m the morning and all they will eat. at aoon- and night. Under this treatment they finish molting quickly, get new feathers and begin' laying in September. By October 1 they are all in good laying condition and make a profit through the fall and winter. |