The experiment with mustard, with the eighteen hens, was carried on over a term of twelve months. We do not believe, however, that it is wise to feed mustard to the layers and breeders after June 15th, unless the early months of Summer should prove to be exceptionally cool. The mustard nourishes very strongly and puts an immense amount of red corpuscles into the blood, so that if continued into warm weather the hen is not in best condition to stand extreme Summer heat.
It is not necessary to gradually decrease the mustard, but it may be simply cut right out of the Mash without any detrimental effect.
Keep Appetite Keen
The great thing, then, to be remembered, when one is feeding for eggs is constant watchfulness of the flock, to so feed that the appetite is always keen, but yet the necessities of the bird fully satisfied; to be most watchful as to the exercise the bird is forced to take for its grain ration, and to keep the litter deep. Right in this connection we may say, a deep litter does not necessarily mean one that is so broken up and packed together that the grain cannot readily sift through it. The litter straw should be constantly added to so as to offer a surface that the grain will readily sift through.
For the past years, in feeding the layers, The Corning Egg Farm Mash was prepared on Sundays and fed exactly as on any other day of the week. With the increase of the work on the Farm it has been a study to lighten Sunday labor as much as possible.
On investigating the litter around the Mash Boxes there will always be found a certain amount of Mash that has been scratched out of the troughs, and to a certain extent neglected. The experiment was therefore made of omitting the Mash on Sunday, and at once Biddy became extremely energetic in her efforts to extract from the litter every particle of Mash which she had wasted through the week. It is quite possible that by continuing the Mash ration on Sunday a trifle higher egg average might be maintained throughout the week. When the cost of feeding is figured in, however, it is found that there is a real saving in discontinuing the Mash for one day. The plan has now been in operation for over eight months, and there is no reason, so far as can be seen, why the old method of preparing the Mash seven days in the week should be returned to. The economy lies in the fact that Biddy cleans up what might otherwise be a considerable waste, and in this way supplies herself with a fair mash ration for the one day.
Of course the green food and the grain ration are fed exactly as on any other day.
The original experiments in mustard feeding, referred to in this chapter, were conducted by Messrs. Ralph R. Allen, Editor of Monthly Hints on Poultry, and Mr. A. J. Odam, at Llangammarch Wells Poultry Farm, Great Britain.