ng. When eggs are scarce it will be a great
treat to be able to have our own supply instead of paying a high price
at the grocer's.

The fact that it is possible to get really fresh eggs in midwinter
shows that with the proper care hens will lay. The average farm hen
does not lay more than eighty eggs a year, which is hardly enough to
pay for her feed. On the other hand, at an egg-laying contest held in
Pennsylvania, the prize-winning pen made a record of 290 eggs per year
for each hen. This was all due to better care and proper feed.

The birds were healthy pullets to begin with, they had warm food and
warm drinking water throughout the winter, their coop was a bright,
clean, dry place with an outside scratching shed. The grain was fed in
a deep litter of straw to make them work to get it and thus to obtain
the necessary exercise to keep down fat. The birds in this contest
were all hatched early in March and were all through the moult before
the cold weather came. Most of the advertised poultry feeds for winter
eggs are a swindle. If we give the birds proper care we shall not
require any drugs. It is an excellent plan to give unthreshed straw to
poultry in winter. They will work to obtain the grain and be kept
busy. The usual quantity of grain for poultry is at the rate of a
quart of corn or wheat to each fifteen hens. A standard winter ration
is the so-called hot bran mash. This is made from wheat bran, clover
meal, and either cut bone or meat scraps. It will be necessary to feed
this in a hopper to avoid waste and it should be given at night just
before the birds go to roost, with the grain ration in the morning,
which will keep them scratching all day. Always keep some grit and
oyster shells where the chickens can get it; also feed a little
charcoal occasionally.

A dust bath for the hens will be appreciated in winter when the ground
is frozen. Sink a soap box in a corner of the pen and sheltered from
rain or snow and fill it with dry road dust. Have an extra supply to
fill up the box from time to time.

The best place for a chicken house is on a sandy hillside with a
southern slope. A heavy clay soil with poor drainage is very bad.
Six-foot chicken wire will be high enough to enclose the run. If any
of the chickens persist in flying out we must clip the flight feathers
of their wings (one wing, not both). Do not put a top board on the
run. If a chicken does not see something to fly to, it will seldom
attempt t