Green Cut Bone Nearest Nature
The thing, perhaps, nearest in an artificial way to Nature’s animal food, is green cut bone, and it is certainly relished by the hens, and a great assistance in producing Winter eggs. The exercise of great care, however, in the selection of bone is very necessary, for, if salt bone, or tainted bone, is cut up and fed to the fowls, it will prove most detrimental, and in many instances will mean the loss of the hen.
For those who do not find it possible to set up the necessary bone-cutting machinery there are numerous brands of “Beef Scrap” on the market. This is made from green bone and meat which is then cooked, ground and pressed, so as to preserve it fresh and sweet. This also is a most successful way to supply the hens with the necessary amount of animal food. It is readily mixed into the mash, just as the green cut bone is, and, where the proper mechanical mixer is used, it is possible to thoroughly coat the entire meal mixture with the oily condition coming from the beef scrap, and until one has seen beef scrap mixed into the mash by such a mixer he has no idea how successful the operation is in preparing a high grade mash. The beef scrap and also the fresh cut bone carry a high percentage of phosphorus, and in fact have about all the ingredients found in animal food secured by the hen while running on Range.
There are now appearing numerous advertisements of a prepared fish, to take the place of other animal foods, but The Corning Egg Farm is unable to give any opinion as to the efficiency of this preparation. It has been the rule at the Farm, when we have thoroughly tested and found satisfactory any article of food, not to experiment with the various substitutes which at all times are so widely advertised.
CHAPTER XVII
A Time for Everything—Everything on Time
In any business, or occupation, that one attempts to carry on successfully there must be system. Nature teaches system, and the hen, as a part of Nature, is a very regular performer. She does everything on time, and at a given time, and if her routine is broken in upon she is a very much upset individual. The owner who rudely disturbs her routine suffers in the loss of eggs.
The schedule of work among the fowls on The Corning Egg Farm is without variation each day. In Summer the houses are always open and need no attention in the morning, but in Winter the drops are raised in ordinarily cold weather, as soon as it is light enough to enable the hens to work in the litter for grain. On very cold mornings the raising of the drops is deferred until the Sun is up, and when this is done the drinking cups in the fountains are filled with hot water.