9* 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



or peat-rnoss litter. This should be either re- 

 newed or thoroughly cleansed at least twice a 

 week. The best way to do this is to rake out all 

 the litter in the morning, and give each coop a 

 very slight sprinkle merely to keep the wooden 

 floor clean. Then in the evening a bed should 

 be given at least a quarter of an inch deep, or 

 half an inch would be better. At night the hen 

 and her charges will settle down, and not, 

 as during the day, at once proceed to scratch 

 the newly-made bed outside of the coop. An- 

 other good plan, perhaps best of all in cold 

 weather, is to bed on straw-chaff as the top 

 litter, as this material, besides being warm, can 

 be easily removed when it becomes fouled. 



Cooping the hen with her chickens has been 

 condemned by some who have written on the 

 subject without much practical knowledge, and 

 who have alleged that the " natural " plan of 

 allowing her to wander at will with them is to 

 be preferred. We have tried both ways, and 

 assert without hesitation that this notion is 

 altogether a fallacy, and that a brood placed 

 with a hen properly cooped, with a moderate 

 and fresh grass-run, well sheltered if possible 

 by a few shrubs, and regularly supplied with 

 suitable food, will thrive better and grow faster 

 than if left at liberty. Game and Aseel, in 

 which size is no consideration, but hardness of 

 flesh of great importance, may be exceptions, 

 and do well with free range: but nearly all 

 hens over-tire their chickens if left to their own 

 discretion, and from this most chickens suffer 

 severely, besides being often surprised by 

 showers where there is no adequate shelter. 



After the first meal or two of egg-food, the 

 chicks will have to be more regularly fed : and in- 

 deed there is not the slightest need of egg-food at 

 all. We have reared many which had no food at 

 first except whole groats (the grain of the oat with 

 the husk removed, often called " hulled oats " 

 in America) cut with a knife, and bread-crumb 

 moistened with milk. Some of the " patent 

 groats " are as coarse as chopped groats. What- 

 ever be used, newly hatched broods learn to peck 

 best and quickest at something ivhite, whatever 

 it is, according to our experience. They should 

 be fed partly upon meal food, and partly upon 

 dry seeds or grain ; and the result of many 

 /ears' chicken-rearing convinced us that it was 

 best, for stock birds, if the two 

 alternated. For fattening and killing 

 it is different ; but unless there is 

 plenty of grain food, the chicken's gizzard is 

 not brought sufficiently into action for really 

 vigorous health. Indeed many find that they 

 are more successful in rearing upon dry food 

 alone for the first four weeks, as mentioned 



Diet and 

 Meals. 



on p. 104. In regard to frequency of meals, 

 at first one should be given every two hours. 

 This may continue for two or three weeks ; 

 but by a month at farthest the time should 

 come down to every three hours or so ; and 

 at ten or twelve weeks to four times a day. 

 Chickens will live and grow up very healthy 

 with less than this ; but we are here discussing 

 their rearing to become large birds, yet with 

 health and vigour. More than this interferes 

 with the latter condition, and it has been proved 

 does not increase real size. 



Food will, of course, change with growth ; 

 small, tender beaks cannot manage at first what 

 might be splendid food for grown birds. For 

 the first start off, perhaps the best soft diet is 

 a mixture of stale bread-crumb with coarse oat- 

 meal, which may be moistened with skim milk, 

 or for the breakfast with the custard before 

 described. In cool weather even whole milk 

 may be used, but the skim is better. Sour 

 milk does not answer for chickens as with 

 fatting fowls. Where there is no grass run, 

 upon which chickens soon learn to help them- 

 selves, green food should be cut up very small 

 and mixed with this, before the water or milk 

 is added. Take a good wisp of fresh clean grass 

 in the left hand, and with strong scissors cut it 

 off into small green chaff less than a quarter 

 of an inch long. A teacupful of this, one of stale 

 crumbs, and one of coarse oatmeal may all be 

 mi.xed together dry, and will last a large brood 

 for a day, moistening a little as required. 

 Rather thick porridge is also greedily eaten ; or 

 cooked porridge may be mixed with sharps or 

 a further portion of dry coarse oatmeal. After 

 a day or two chicken food, prepared in the 

 form of good biscuit meal,* may be mixed with 

 the bread-crumb, and next day quite supersede 

 it ; and as the beaks gain in power, ground oats 

 may supersede oatmeal, or be given alone, but 

 is kept more friable with a little biscuit meal. 

 Later on, sharps and barley meal may come 

 into use, and any other good change of meals 

 will find a place, such as sharps and biscuit 

 meal, or a mixture of bran, oatmeal, and maize 

 meal. It is during early days that whiter and 

 softer materials are advisable ; but oatmeal and 

 ground oats stand out in feeding value to the 

 end. We would give a special caution against 

 barley meal for very young chickens ; they 

 cannot digest the husk, which passes out and 

 causes irritation at the best, but sometimes 



* We here use biscuit me.-il as a general lerni for any of the 

 prepared foods which 'are baked into rough biscuits and then 

 granulated. In America, breeders very largely mix their raw- 

 meals and bake it themselves into what they call Johnny-cake, 

 which is then crushed, and forms very similar diet. 



