RAISING CHICKENS. 131 



sitting hens are a nuisance when not wanted, am glad to be 

 rid of them. Can raise a very much larger per cent of chick- 

 ens by hand than a hen will raise, and at a less expense. 

 Chickens raised by hand in confinement are more tractable, 

 grow faster, lay earlier, and lay more eggs. Hens properly 

 cared for will sit from February to August, and then be in 

 better condition to eat, or put to laying eggs, than if they 

 had been running with chickens. The chickens require a 

 place heated in some way to about a hundred degrees till 

 they are three days old, with plenty of air ; then mercury 

 may fall to eighty degrees or eighty-five ; and Brown Leg- 

 horns, at one week old, will stand sixty to seventy degrees, 

 and do well, if they have plenty of nutritious food. Like 

 almost every thing else, the heat of the sun is the best for 

 them ; and in a cold-frame, when the sun shines, they are all 

 right even in pretty cold weather (part should be covered 

 with boards for a shade). I have boxes (cheese-boxes are 

 just the thing) that are well ventilated, and let twenty to 

 thirty-five occupy a box ; and they will soon learn to huddle 

 in them when there is a change to cold in their runs ; and, 

 after they are a week old will soon have a warm place from 

 their own heat. 



FEEDING CHICKENS. 



On this depends the success of the poultry man or woman. 

 Get your chicks well started on good nutritious food, and 

 then one-half the work of raising is done. I feed yolks of 

 eggs boiled hard and made fine (a three-tined fork will do 

 it), and mixed with dry crackers made fine, or bread-crumbs, 

 for a week, giving them plent}^ of fresh water that they can 

 go to any time they please. Indian meal mixed with new 

 milk, and baked a long time till dry, and then pulverized, is 

 as good a grain-feed as I ever gave chickens for two weeks, 

 when they can begin to eat crushed wheat and small kernels 

 some, and fine scraps (beef-scraps are best), or some other 

 animal food or milk, one feed a day, and one or two feeds of 

 green globe Savoy cabbage leaves or heads, or some other 

 tender, raw vegetable (if grass or clover, it should be made 

 fine), one-half inch long. Boiled or baked potatoes, apples 

 or squashes, or mashed raw potatoes or apples, are devoured 

 with avidity, and make a nice living for one feed a day. 

 The sexes should be separated as soon as they can be dis- 



