Agricultural Extension Service Poultry Science Department
Mimeo P-46
November, 1954
RECOMMENDED LAYING RATIONS
Important Notes About Ingredients
Fermentation by-product (such as "B-Y", "Fortafeed," or "Curbay") should carry 500 units of riboflavin per gram, when used in the amount indicated. Pre-mix one pound with 19 pounds of soybean oil meal.
Condensed fish solubles - the condensed product contains approximately 50 percent solids. In this form, it is difficult to mix it with the other ingredients, without special equipment. It is now available commercially in various dry pre-mix forms, Use enough of the pre-mix to be the equivalent of the needed amount of the condensed solubles with 50 percent solids.
Cod Liver Oil - for laying  hens, this is usually a more desirable source of Vitamin D than some of the so-called "dry D" products which are widely and economically used in baby chick rations. Cod liver oil contains an abundant amount, of Vitamin A in addition to its Vitamin D content. Hens have a higher requirement for Vitamin A than do chicks.
Pasture for Laying Hens
Letting the layers run loose on the farm is not an assurance that they will reap the benefits of good pastures. Good pasture means tender, succulent pasture just outside the laying house door. A bare chicken yard with a scattering of weeds, or the privilege to run in the barn lot, does not mean good pasture.
Fenced, rotated yards of ample size are advisable when hens are not confined. The yards should be fenced so as to prevent the adult birds from ranging over the farm, scattering their droppings widely and leaving virtually no place that is clean for the raising of baby chicks.
The yards should be large enough so that the hens can not kill out the pasture grasses.
They should be rotated so as to give the pasture a chance to recover and to prevent a heavy accumulation of poultry manure.
An excellent arrangement for a medium size flock is to have two yards of elual size. Establish a ladino clover sod in one yard and pasture the hens on it for three or four years while the other lot is being used for garden. The lots are alternated every three or four years. In addition, the lot with ladino is divided with a temporary fence into two smaller lots on which the hens are pastured alternately for about three week periods.
Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics State of Indiana, Purdue University and the United States Department of Agriculture cooperating H. J. Reed, Director, Lafayette, Indiana.
Issued in furtherance of the Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914