Show FEEDING LAYING HESS the tendency of the farmer dur lug the spring and summer bummer months Is to feed his hns hens too little or to over teed feed grain tecil feed at to Is difficult to determine which la Is the worst practice the well fed lien hen will accumulate ft a lot of tat fat while the other will be poorly fleshed neither flock will lay consistently one shoud bear in mind however that poultry must be lib ernly fed all the time it economical ess egg production Is to be expected it Is a tact fact that summer feeding present a different problem than does winter feeding in winter hens need an abundance of grain food to furnish an abundance of heat it if for no other reason one should teed feed more grain in winter in summer in order to make adjustments because of the lower requirements of the hen tor for beat producing feeds less grain should be fed thus the rations tor for summer and winter are the same but thi the proportion between grain and mash are changed tile tho important par part t of any r ration is the mash A mash Is a combination ot of ground feeds and includes some animal foods such as meat scraps or milk in some form A good mash can be made by mixing 4 pounds each ot of bran shorts and corn meal and three parts of meat scraps or ian kage one pound ot of salt should be added to each P pounds of 0 the above mixture the hens must be fed liberally this or a similar mash in tact fact the egg production Is dependent upon the amount of mash the hens eat the more mash consumed the more eggs will be produced and cheaper will be the cost of producing a dozen eggs the mash should be kept before the hens all the time for foil feeding a teed feed hopper about I 1 feet long to 16 which the birds have access from both sides should be provided tor for each hens in addition to keeping the dry mash before the hens all the time I 1 it Is a good idea to teed feed a most crumbly mash once daily feeding just what the birds will clean cle a n up u P in 20 minutes wet mash feeding la Is very important especially in hot weather when the birds have little appetite with reference to grain feeding one ona should teed feed little it if any grain in the morning and just what the birds will clean up at night while in winter it la Is recommended that 15 pounds ot of grain be the daily allowance tor for hens in summer probably 7 or 8 pounds per day will be sufficient the farmer should not make the mistake this summer that many of them did bastl e skimp on teed feed when egg prices are low and teed feed was comparatively high recent studies made by the writer based on the farm prices of grain and eggs and figu on an n annual production of eggs per hen per year show that there has been only tour four different months in the last ten years yeara when a hen has not more than paid for her teed feed this should otter offer encouragement to the poultry raiser and give him confidence in hla his poultry flock a confidence which the flock richly deserves utah farmer |