Feeding Fowls for Egg Production.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 140, 18 March 1909, Page 3

Feeding Fowls for Egg Production.

Nothmg contributes so much to the health of fowls, or to make good layers as a constant variety of food. Two meals a day are generally suffiicent — soft food in the morning, warm during winter and cold in summer, and sound grain at night. If there be any house scraps, they should be minced and added to the morning food, consisting of meal mixed with fine sharps. The meals used are those from barley, oats, dog biscuits, peas, and wheat; in winter add a small quantity of cooked maizemeal. There are several specially prepared foods that are most suitable for breakfast, and are included in our birds' diet. When insect life is scarce, the fowls get cooked meat scraps, but if sufficient be not obtainable from the leavings of the household you can purchase pieces of sheep's or bullocks' pluck,heai£. lights, and liver from the butcher, which cleanse and boil thoroughly, adding a pinch of salt and pepper to the water, and use the decoction for the purpose of mixing the meals. The meat can be given at times as an extra feed; at others mixed with the mash, a pint to a bucketful of prepared meal being about the proportion. Crushed fresh bones are also given occasionally when there is a scarcity of insect life, especially to layers and birds commencing to lay. For the evening meal sound whole grain is allowed, changed as often as may be convenient. Poultry mixtures of the rubbish of all sorts of grain shou Id be avoided.