The Corning Egg Farm book, by Corning himself

A goodly supply of green food is necessary to all birds, the growing chicken as well as the yearling hen, for it is a great aid to digestion, helping to properly assimilate all foods as they are taken into the crop, and passed through the great grinding mill of a chicken.

There is no possible hope of a full egg supply from any Laying House where a large quantity of green food is not fed daily. It may be fed in many forms. Clover or Alfalfa (and we are now speaking first of the Winter supply of green food) may be procured in a dry state, and by properly scalding it with hot water it may be made to almost live again, so far as its freshness and delightful odor go. In many cases the preparation of Clover or Alfalfa spoils it. The water should be quite at the boiling point, and it should be poured over, preferably it should be put on with a sprinkling can. The method at The Corning Egg Farm is to place whichever we are using of the Clover family in pails, a given number for each Laying House, and as they stand in rows the hot water is applied with a sprinkling can. The contents are not allowed to steep, but as soon as the second wetting of the long row of pails is reached they are placed on the delivery wagon and at once taken to their destination. When the contents are emptied from the pails they will be steaming hot, too hot for the birds to take at first, and you will find them standing in a ring around the Clover, and from time to time testing the heat. As soon as it is cool enough they will devour it with great avidity.

Where Alfalfa is fed some flocks give considerable difficulty at first as they do not seem to relish it, but after a short time they seem to acquire the taste, and become very fond of it. It contains a higher amount of protein than the ordinary Clover which can be bought in the market, but in purchasing Alfalfa products one should be careful not to buy a large quantity of dirt, but get what is known as “short cut,” and have it carefully sifted.

By many people cabbages are considered a most excellent green food for Winter use, but if they are chopped up and fed to the layers considerable caution should be used in the feeding. They are very apt to upset the digestive organs of the birds, and that means a very decided decrease in the number of eggs. This is equally true of Mangle beets and other roots which in many cases are used.

Sprouted Oats Best

At The Corning Egg Farm we are strong believers in Sprouted Oats as a green food, and we now maintain a cement Cellar, with good drainage, which is used for nothing else. The method of sprouting oats is really very simple, and does not require the arduous labor which one would imagine from numerous articles written on the subject.

How They Are Grown on the Farm

We have frames three by six feet in size, built of ordinary boards, but not matched material. The sides are about four inches high. These frames are laid on the floor of the Cellar, and each frame is filled with forty-eight quarts of oats spread evenly over the bottom. We have a large sprinkler attached to the hose, and the oats are thoroughly wet as they lie in the trays, and this wetting is repeated every morning. In a temperature from fifty to sixty degrees we find that the oats have started to sprout about the third day, and from this on the growth is very fast. Parts of the oats in the frame will swell two or three inches in places, above the surrounding mass of oats, and we make it a practice to place the sprinkler directly on top of this swelling, and it is found by so doing that the frame in a short time will present a very even growth.

If the Sprouted Oats are fed when the green tops are from one and a half to two inches in length the chemical quality of the oat is not lost, and we really get a double ration when it is fed. If allowed to go beyond this length, they are then just an ordinary green food.

In many instances we have noticed writers advocating soaking the oats overnight, and then, for the next few days, to periodically stir them. And in other cases writers advise, when they are placed in the frames to turn the oats over. This is a serious mistake, for anyone can readily see that the tender shoots, which grow most rapidly after the third day, would be broken off, and where this occurs the oats will rot.

Oats, of course, can be sprouted in sheds, or even out-of-doors, if they are covered up so that the sun will not dry them out too rapidly.

A frame should be made in such a manner that the water sprayed over the oats will slowly drain away. There are a number of different contrivances now being placed on the market for sprouting oats, and we have no doubt that, on small plants, some of them would prove quite satisfactory. Where it is desired to sprout oats in a small way, in the Cellar of one’s house, a rack can be built with run-ways for the trays to slide on, with a space of two inches between the trays. By thoroughly sprinkling the top tray the water will run down through from one tray to another, and, as the growth progresses, the more advanced ones can be moved up from the bottom of the rack, as they require less water than those in a less advanced stage.

The oats sprout more quickly if grown and sprinkled in a fairly dark place, and it must be remembered that too warm a temperature will rot the mass after the growth has reached its fourth or fifth day.

Timothy and Clover Cut Green

As one enters The Corning Egg Farm, on the left of the drive, there is about an acre of Timothy and Clover. This acre has been very heavily fertilized and brought up to a high state of cultivation. The Timothy and Clover grow so rapidly, and the growth comes in such abundance almost before the snow is off the ground, that cutting it as we do, so many rows each morning, it is impossible to cross the entire plot before that which was first cut has almost grown beyond the succulent point. To make a change for the hens we cut this in the early Spring, and pass it through the Clover Cutter, reducing it to quarter inch lengths, but we find that after the first few days of feeding the hens show a decided preference for Sprouted Oats, and now we make it a rule to feed the Timothy and Clover one day and the Sprouted Oats the next. This works very well, and the “Biddies” seem to enjoy the different rations on alternate days.

The Colony Range is so cared for and fertilized that the growing pullet, for the Spring and Summer months, finds an unlimited supply of succulent green food at her door.