While you
may not get quite as many eggs, they will all have good strong germs and
the chicks will stand forcing to the limit, while if you force the egg
output you reduce the vitality of the germs and livability of chicks
hatched. The only way to feed hens whose eggs are intended for hatching
chicks for broilers is to feed whole grain and make them exercise for
it, good green feed, or, better still, sprouted oats, and feed beef
scrap in a hopper all the time. At first, while it is new, they may eat
more than you would give them but don't mind that they will regulate the
quantity in a few days better than you can. Get a good grade of beef
scrap and keep it in a hopper that will not let rain in or keep it under
cover and feed all the wheat and oats they require; if you are short on
green feed give them a bale of alfalfa hay to work on.
A Dry Mash.
Will you give a formula for a dry mash?
Wheat bran, 500 pounds; middlings, 200 pounds; cracked corn, 200 pounds;
charcoal, 20 pounds; alfalfa meal 200 pounds; bone meal, 150 pounds;
blood-meal 100 pounds; meat cracklings, if ground, 200 pounds; ground
oats or barley, 300 pounds. Give oyster shell separately and supply
fowls with good sharp grit.
Depluming Mites.
My chickens are losing the feathers from their necks, some three inches
down the front and then extending around the neck.
The loss of feathers is probably due to the depluming mite.
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