Pratt's Practical Pointers on the Care of Livestock and Poultry Part 15

It is most desirable that the flock begin egg production before the weather becomes severe. Get the laying habit established while the season is favorable, and it is comparatively easy to maintain it. And, as production will not commence until the layers are fully matured, the pullets must be hatched early to give ample time for them to make the needed growth.

As a rule, it takes about seven months to mature pullets of the general purpose breeds and six months for the egg breeds. Therefore, March and April chicks of the former, and April and May chicks of the latter, are most valuable. This is a general rule. Some poultrymen are experts in this matter of growing chicks and can bring them to laying maturity in less time.

If disease appears take instant action to check it. Delay of a day or two may permit an epidemic to get well started. In order to enable you to give proper treatment without delay you may well keep a stock of Pratts Poultry Remedies on hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: APPLYING LICE POWDER]

Give every bird a thorough treatment for lice. Work Pratts Powdered Lice Killer all through the plumage. This will fix the lice, but will not kill the eggs. In antic.i.p.ation of the latter hatching, rub Pratts Lice Salve in the small feathers about the vent and beneath the wings. That means death to the young lice as they appear, but to make sure, apply the salve at intervals of a few weeks.

Don't overcrowd the house. Better have a hundred hens comfortable and laying than double the number crowded and loafing.

Leave all ventilating openings wide open. Keep them open until winter storms make more protection necessary. During the summer months the pullets have had plenty of fresh air. To bring them into a warm, tightly closed house is to invite general debility and an epidemic of colds, catarrh, roup and other allied diseases. (Pratts Roup Remedy dissolved in the drinking water every few days, especially during changes of weather, will help to prevent such troubles.)

Keep the house clean. Remove the litter from the floor as soon as it becomes damp or soiled and replace with new, fresh material. Clean the droppings boards at frequent intervals. Wash with Pratts Poultry Disinfectant or scald the food and water dishes. Disinfect the whole house every few weeks, taking advantage of sunny weather so quick drying will follow. Disease causes loss--disinfection prevents disease.

Therefore, DISINFECT whether you see need of it or not.

~Poultry Feeding~

The more food the birds eat beyond bodily requirements the greater the amount of the salable products they create. Any hen that is a natural layer will turn the surplus food into eggs. If she is naturally a meat producer she will build flesh or take on fat. And the sooner the fat producers are identified and removed from the laying flock, the better for all concerned. Your birds will not "get too fat to lay"--they will get fat if they don't lay. And _the big problem is to induce the layers to eat as much food as they can digest_ in order that they may lay heavily and steadily.

To overcome all possible danger of overfeeding, Pratts Poultry Regulator should be regularly added to the mash. This natural tonic and conditioner contains appetizers, to stimulate the desire for food--digestives, to insure complete digestion and a.s.similation of the food consumed--laxatives, to regulate the bowels--internal antiseptics, to keep the entire digestive tract in a condition of perfect health--worm destroyers, to expel irritating and dangerous intestinal parasites.

Regularly used, Pratts Poultry Regulator insures freedom from the more common poultry disorders, reduces feed bills by preventing feed waste due to sluggish digestion, hastens growth, improves the egg-yield, shortens the molt, makes the entire flock more efficient, swells the profits.

Pratts Poultry Regulator should be added to the mash at the rate of one and three-quarters pound to each hundred pounds of mash. Mix thoroughly so each layer will get her share. The ideal poultry ration is a varied one. It contains mineral matter, green food, animal food and grains. The absence of any one of these groups of foodstuffs means a reduced egg yield.

_I am both selling and feeding Pratts Poultry Regulator, and make a specialty of high-bred Buff Orpingtons. Twelve c.o.c.kerels, worth from $20 to $75 each, were all placed in healthy condition by use of Pratts Poultry Regulator and their quarters disinfected with Pratts Disinfectant.

W.H. TOPP, Westgate, Iowa._

The staple grain feeds are corn, oats, wheat, barley and buckwheat. The grain by-products, bran, middlings and gluten feed, to which may be added corn meal, ground oats and ground barley.

Animal food of some kind is an essential to growth and egg-production.

Skim milk and b.u.t.ter milk, fish sc.r.a.p made from oil-free fish, beef sc.r.a.p, fresh cut green bone and good grades of digester tankage are all excellent. But use only feeds of this character which are of prime quality. Oily fish, poor beef sc.r.a.p and mouldy green bone will surely cause trouble.

Fowls on range during the growing season will pick up all needed green food. In the winter one may feed cabbages, mangel wurtzels, beets, carrots, etc. Or, if fresh stuff is not available, heavy oats may be sprouted and fed when the sprouts are two or three inches long. Dried beet pulp, a dairy food made at beet sugar factories, is a convenient green food. It must be well soaked before feeding.

One saves much time, and not infrequently some money, by buying ready-mixed feeds, especially dry mash. In, making such purchases, be guided by _quality_ rather than price. Adopt some brand made by a reputable concern and give it a fair trial. But do not hesitate to change if a better brand becomes available. Just try Pratts Milk Egg Mash.

_Kingston, R.I.

I have used your Baby Chick Food with the best success and would gladly recommend it to anyone wanting such food. I do not only use it for baby chicks, but for those 5-7 weeks' of age.

C.E. BRETT, Rhode Island State College Dept. of Poultry Service._

~Feeding Dry Mash~

The most simple and generally satisfactory feeding method is the dry mash system. Feed a certain amount of the scratch mixture--whole and cracked grains--each day and permit the fowls to complete the daily ration by eating dry mash--ground grains--at will. Keep mash before them in open hoppers and let them help themselves.

The mash, because of its high protein content, is the real egg-maker.

And during recent years there has been a tendency toward restricting the scratch feed and inducing the layers to eat more mash. Results seem to indicate that this plan is best, increasing the yield and reducing feed costs.

The laying ration now recommended by the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station is simple and efficient. This ration is made as follows:

~Dry Mash~ lbs.

Wheat Bran 100 Wheat Middlings 100 Ground Oats (heavy) 100 Corn Meal 100

~High-grade Fish Sc.r.a.p or Meat~

Sc.r.a.p 100

~Scratch Grain~ lbs.

Cracked Corn 200 Wheat 100 Oats (heavy) 100 Barley 100

The same inst.i.tution has perfected the following feeding table showing what amount of scratch feed should be given the layers daily each month in the year. This is a most valuable guide, especially to the inexperienced poultryman. When the birds are fed scratch grain, as indicated, they will naturally eat enough mash from the open hoppers to meet their requirements.

~Amount of Grain to Feed Layers Each Month in the Year~

Months Amount Per Day Per Pounds For Each 100 Birds Feeding A.M. P.M.

November 12 lbs. 4 lbs. 8 lbs.

December 12 " 4 " 8 "

January 12 " 4 " 8 "

February 12 " 4 " 8 "

March 12 " 4 " 8 "

April 12 " 4 " 8 "

May 10 " 4 " 6 "

June 10 " 4 " 6 "

July 8 " 3 " 5 "

August 6 " 2 " 4 "

September 5 " 2 " 3 "

October 5 " 2 " 3 "

Study this question of mash and grain consumption, for if your birds are not getting enough protein mash, they cannot lay eggs in larger numbers.