"/l MAINE) AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



little things have learned how to eat. It is fed sparingly, in 

 the litter and sand, on the brooder floor. 



About the third day, they are fed a mixture of hard, fine 

 broken grains, i. e., cracked corn, wheat, millet and pinhead 

 oats, as soon as the birds can see to eat in the mornings. This 

 is fed in the litter, care being taken to limit the quantity so they 

 shall be hungry at 10 o'clock. Several of the prepared dry 

 chick foods have been tested. They are satisfactory when 

 made of good, clean grains without grit. The grit and char- 

 coal can be supplied at less cost and must be freely provided. 



At 10 o'clock the rolled oats and ^g'g mixture is fed, in tin 

 plates wath low rims. After they have had the food before 

 them 5 minutes the dishes are removed and they have nothing 

 to lunch on, except a little of the fine broken grain which they 

 scratch for. At one o'clock the hard grains are again fed, 

 as in the morning, and at 4.30 to 5 o'clock they are fed on the 

 rolled oats and tg'g mixture, giving all they will eat until dark. 



When they are about 3 weeks old, the rolled oats and t^^ 

 mixture is gradually displaced by a mixture made up of 2 parts- 

 by weight, of good clean bran, 4 parts corn meal, 2 parts mid- 

 dlings or red dog flour, i part linseed meal and 2 parts screened 

 beef scrap. This mixture is moistened just enough with water 

 so that it is not sticky, but will crumble, when a handful is 

 squeezed and then released. The birds are developed far 

 enough by this time so that the tin plates are discarded for light 

 flat troughs with low sides. 



The hard broken grains may be safely used all the way 

 along and the fine meals left out, but the chicks do not grow 

 so fast as when the mash is fed. There seems to be least danger 

 from bowel looseness when the dry grains only are fed, and it 

 is ver}^ essential that the mash be dry enough to crumble, in 

 order to avoid that difiiculty. Young chicks like the moist 

 mash better than though it was not moistened, and will eat 

 more of it. There is no danger from the free use of the 

 properly made mash, twice a day, and being already ground 

 the young birds can eat and digest more of it, than when the 

 food is all coarse. This is a ver}' important fact and should' 

 be taken advantage of, at the time when the young things are 

 most susceptible to rapid growth. But the development must 

 be moderate during the first few weeks. The digestive organs- 



