FEEDING YOUNG CHICKENS. 



collects into an impacted mass and causes 

 death. The same is the case with ground oats 

 if not properly ground. 



Green food must be kept up all through 

 chicken-rearing. Finely cut grass has been 

 , already mentioned; if this cannot be 

 had, cabbage or lettuce may be 

 minced small and used in the same way. Or 

 mustard and cress can be kept growing in a 

 couple of boxes of earth, or a little rape. 

 Dandelions make excellent green food. We 

 have occasionally known them refused at first, 

 but once used to dandelion leaves most fowls 

 prefer them to all other green food, and they 

 are so wholesome as to be well worth growing 

 from seed where many chickens are reared. 

 Seed may be sown in the autumn, thinning the 

 plants out, when they come up, to about a foot 

 apart. Also sow again about March. These 

 two sowings will last all spring and summer, 

 and will last two years, when they should be 

 superseded, in order to keep the leaves tender 

 and succulent. Care should be taken, where 

 dandelions are grown, to cut off the flowers 

 regularly, or the seed will become a nuisance 

 and pest to all the neighbours. Chopped onions 

 and leeks are very wholesome, and nettles are 

 also good, but require to be boiled. Best of all 

 is a grass run, if clean and sweet. The chickens 

 will then help themselves when a few days old, 

 but should have the cut grass or vegetables as 

 above for nearly a week, until their beaks are 

 strong. The constant and free use of grass or 

 other green food is the great safeguard against 

 bowel complaints in chickens. A free supply 

 after deprivation will, of course, often cause 

 diarrhoea ; but a constant and ample supply is 

 the great and natural regulator of the system, 

 maintainer of healthy appetite, and prophylactic 

 against liver disease. 



Where space does not allow of a really open 

 grass-run for chicken-rearing, but is not exces- 

 sively confined, and the soil is suitable, we have 

 seen great benefit from an ingenious plan 

 adopted and described by a correspondent of 

 Poultry. Two or more frames are prepared — ■ 

 less than three are scarcely worth while — of 2 by 3 

 inch quartering, two feet wide and three or four 

 feet long, and covered one side with inch-mesh 

 wire netting. The ground being first prepared, 

 is sown with suitable grass and clover seed, 

 and covered with these frames, the netting 

 uppermost, and thus raised two inches above 

 the ground. All is fenced away from the 

 chickens till the grass and clover under one 

 frame is sufficiently grown, when they are 

 allowed access to one, and pick at the green 

 food through the netting, but cannot trample 



Feeding 

 on a 

 Boaxd. 



it down or scratch it up, and foul it much less 

 than if allowed to walk over it. When they 

 have fed down one frame, it is fenced off and 

 another left open ; then the third, and the rest 

 if more in number. By this time the first frame 

 will have made fresh growth, and in this way 

 much real help may be obtained. We have 

 also known six-inch strips of ground fenced off 

 by perpendicular wires i ^2 inches apart, which 

 allowed the chickens to pluck the grass, but not 

 to walk upon or contaminate it. Such strips 

 should be manured (with poultry manure) dur- 

 ing the winter months. 



After trying various methods of feeding, we 

 still think best of all for the young chickens, 

 while with the hen, a smooth board in front 

 of the coop. We always laid this on. 

 the projecting ends of the timbers in 

 Fig. 54. Vendors of appliances say 

 that such boards cannot be kept 

 clean, or get " sour " ; that was not our experi- 

 ence during many years. For people who prefer 

 them, there are all sorts of troughs and other 

 things. We think it best to rather scatter the 

 soft food on the bare board, to which it will not 

 adhere if mixed in a properly friable condition. 

 After the food has been placed on it, a moderate 

 time should be allowed for the chicks to eat all 

 they really care about. Then whatever remains 

 should be at once removed with the scraper 

 shown in Fig. 55. This scraper is also the best 

 implement for cleaning the coops, and should 

 be freely used. By it all remains of the meal 



Fig. 55. — Scraper. 



are scraped off the wood into a dust-pan, a little 

 coarse sand being strewn upon the board after, 

 a portion of which is meant to adhere to and be 

 eaten with, the next meal of soft food given. 

 Many experienced breeders think this sanding 



of a board not sufficient, and advise 

 Chickens ^ ^'"'"^ carefully sifted grit (for which 



some of the smaller flint-grit should 

 be sifted through a wire sieve which will just 

 allow millet seed to pass easily) to be given 

 once a day, with one of the soft meals. Much 

 will depend upon the chicken run. Where this 

 is ample and grit abounds, to mix it in food can 

 hardly be necessary. Otherwise it is safe, and 

 can do no harm, and in a small space is really 

 needful for the chickens. In all cases, a supply 

 of small grit should be kept well scattered around 

 the coop. Our experience has been that a 

 saucer of it is not sufficient. 



