The Corning Egg Farm book, by Corning himself

Unless a hen is properly fed she may have been purchased from the greatest strain of layers that it is possible to imagine, and still you may have an empty nest so far as eggs go.

The food which the hen takes into her system goes first to supply her bodily wants, the surplus she turns into eggs, and if properly bred she will turn that surplus into profit very rapidly.

Easy Assimilation

She must be fed, then, so as to have what is generally termed a “balanced ration,” which really means a ration supplying all her different wants.

She must be fed so as to be able to assimilate her food with ease. She might be fed a ration which she could easily digest, but the ration might not so assimilate and combine as to be an egg maker.

The greatest factor in assimilation is proper green food, and the hen should have this in a crisp, succulent state, and plenty of it. The egg being to such a large extent formed of water, unless she is supplied with all the drinking water she will take, your labor will go for naught, and the hen will not be able to lay eggs.

Her grain ration must be of the best, and it should be fed in such a way that she is forced to work for it.

Perfect Health or No Eggs

If Biddy is to lay, she must be kept in perfect health, and without exercise that is impossible.

She must live in a house without draughts but in which the air is always fresh by means of perfect ventilation, and she must have sunshine.

Her quarters must be kept clean and sweet, and a good supply of coarse oyster shell, sharp grit, or sifted, hard coal ashes, should be always accessible in quantities.

Abundant Animal Food

She must have an abundance of animal food, either in form of green cut bone, or beef scraps, and this should be mixed as we feed it in The Corning Egg Farm Mash, which is a mixture of different meals in which the animal food is thoroughly distributed. Of grain, to one hundred hens, eight quarts of a mixture of wheat, corn and oats, should be given; in Summer, about two-thirds wheat and one-third cracked corn, reducing the wheat to a third and increasing the corn to about two-thirds in cold weather, adding to this mixture at all times two quarts of oats. That is to say, six quarts of wheat and corn and two quarts of oats.

The Corning Mash the Secret

The amount of Mash fed in the troughs varies in accordance with the way the birds clean it up. The point aimed at being to feed in each House the quantity that the birds will about clean up, by roosting time. The intention is that their first food in the morning shall be obtained by their vigorous scratching in the litter. All the grain is fed at one time, in the afternoon, and is not forked into the litter, as the birds have worked all day up to this time, it is desired that they fill up rather easily from feeding time till dark. As they move and scratch they bury the surplus grain most effectively in the litter, thus saving considerable labor, which is expended on many poultry farms, by using the pitch fork to place the grain deep in the straw.

When the pullets are first put into the Laying House, about ten pounds of Mash is placed in each trough, this being estimated as sufficient for each one hundred birds. If it is not cleaned up, the amount, the next day, is decreased, but if entirely consumed the quantity is increased.

Over and over again it is stated in articles that large quantities of animal food and rich meals in the mash are very stimulating and wear the hen out. This is a great mistake. When the hen is being supplied with the proper ingredients for a large egg production she is not being stimulated, but rather helped and sustained in the natural way.

“Egg Foods” Kill Layers

On the market, to-day, is found an ever increasing number of preparations advertised as “egg foods”; “foods” warranted to produce eggs without fail and in record breaking quantities. An analysis of almost any of these concoctions discloses the fact that Capsicum, or in other words red pepper, is the basis of the preparation, or at least it is the ingredient in the mixture which is counted upon to produce the advertised results, namely, the certain and great output of eggs. If fed in sufficient quantities to actually stimulate the egg organs of the hen it must in a short time kill her, but if it should not have this effect, it certainly does put her in such a condition that she is worthless as a layer. It must be constantly borne in mind that the production of eggs is not a question of stimulation, but is the putting of the hen into a perfect condition of health, keeping her in that condition, and supplying her with foods which are egg making substances, and which nourish her completely, and allow a surplus to be turned into eggs.

On The Corning Egg Farm, this plan has always been the line along which we have worked, supplying the hen with the natural ingredients from which, in a healthy state, she is able to produce the greatest number of large, sanitary eggs.

Mustard Increases Egg Laying

For the last three years experiments have been carried on with mustard. It had been accidently noticed that table scraps, containing some of the leavings of a salad where mustard had been used, and which had been thrown out to a few barn-yard hens, were greedily devoured. It was further observed that, after a few days, the egg production increased. Following this interesting discovery, quite an exhaustive test was carried on with eighteen hens, running over a period of twelve months. The Corning Egg Farm followed this experiment with considerable interest. Six of the hens were fed an ordinary ration; six of them were given Red Pepper, and the other half dozen were fed mustard mixed in their food. At the end of the test all the hens were killed and carefully examined. The organs of the six hens which were fed an ordinary ration were found to be in fair shape, and those fed red pepper had enlarged livers. The six hens which were fed the mustard were found to be in perfect organic condition, and they had been in good healthy shape all through the entire twelve months. They had produced a considerable percentage of eggs beyond either of the other two pens. As a matter of fact the hens fed on the pepper laid fewer eggs than those fed the ordinary ration.

Now, the mustard used in this experiment was highly concentrated table mustard, and while the cost, where only six hens were being fed with it, amounted to very little, on a large plant like The Corning Farm, the question of cost becomes a serious item. Whether to feed concentrated mustard or a mustard bran was found to be worthy of careful consideration, because it was impossible to get nearly as perfect a mixture in the Mash, with a small quantity of highly concentrated mustard, as with a mustard not so strong but running three times the amount in bulk. As an illustration of the advisability of introducing the mustard in form of bran we might say that, by using a small quantity of one certain meal carrying a very high percentage of protein, it would be possible to introduce into the Mash the amount of protein desired, but by using a number of meals, each carrying a small percentage of protein, a much better Mash results, and every bird is able to get its due and necessary proportion of the ingredients.

Mustard Increases Fertility

The three pens before mentioned, after being fed as described through the Winter months, were mated in the month of March, and it was found that the fertility of the eggs of the mustard fed pen far exceeded that of either of the other pens, and that the resulting chicks were much stronger, developed better, and were altogether more desirable than the chicks produced where the birds had been fed merely the ordinary ration, and where the attempt had been made to stimulate the egg production by the use of red pepper.

The exact action of mustard, in the animal or human being, is a somewhat disputed point, but the Medical Fraternity seems to agree that it increases the secretion of gastric juices, and very decidedly promotes good digestion.

A great layer must be a large eater, but she cannot be a large eater unless she is kept in perfect health, and has the necessary appetite which only comes when in a strong, robust, vigorous condition.

The Corning Egg Farm has fed mustard in a way that it has never been fed before; the egg production has increased very materially; the percentage of fertility has run considerably higher; the germs have been strong, large, hatchable germs, and the resulting chicks, have come into existence with a jump and, where they have been properly handled, have rapidly grown into sturdy youngsters.

4,000 Layers Fed Mustard

We started to feed our breeding pens with mustard in the Mash just at the time we desired them to come into eggs, and they responded at once. That is to say, after the Mash containing mustard had been fed to them for about a week, the egg output increased daily, and not only did it increase, but the high marks which were reached were steadily maintained. Four thousand layers have been fed mustard in their Mash daily, and after months of this feeding the flocks have never been in better health, and the egg production has never been equaled even on The Corning Egg Farm.

The Mustard Bran is about twenty-five per cent. of the cost of table mustard.

Mustard Maintains Health

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.