HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 165, 4 July 1876, Page 4

HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER

(American Agriculturist.) We will not say that the farmer who leaves his poultry to roost in the apple tree at the corner of the barn, and to pick up their living at the pigs' trough and in the barn-yard, may not occasionally get an egg in winter. But as a matter of fact, there is on most farms a dearth of eggs from November to March. With a warm shelter and suitable feed, pullets that begin to lay in the fall will continue to lay through the winter. It is mainly a question of feed. The staple feed is Indian corn, especially in the West, because it is the most plentiful and most convenient. It furnishes plenty of fat, and keeps up the heat of fowls, but it is poor in albumen and phosphates. They want a variety of grains and vegetable, and, to do their best, one feed daily of warm cooked meal aod vegetables. Most farmers have milk, and if this can be added, it will be all they need. Butchers' scrap cake is good, and may safely be kept in the poultry yard where the fowls can help themselves at pleasure. Boiled potatoes or turnips, mashed or mixed with Indian meal, make an excellent feed for laying hens, Fowls are particularly fond of cabbages and turnips at all stages of their growth, aod eat them raw greedily every day if they can get tbem. We have found so good results from feeding cabbages to iaying hens that we always lay in a large supply for the winter. Refuse from the butchers, and offal from the fish market, also furnish good material for making eggs. These are accessible to most villagers, and to be had at small cost. A ben is only a machine for producing eggs. If you want the finished product you must pot tbe raw material into the hopper. It should not be forgotten that there is a liberal grinding goin<» on in the gizard, and the laying bird should have free access Jo gravel with , sharp grit, broken oyster, and clam shell, which assist in reducing the grains and forming eggshell. With a plentiful supply of eggproducing food, hens will lay well in winter, when eggs bring the highest price.