38 



=^^ 





Rearing field, Sherburne Game l^nin Nnir -trips of huckwliiat wliich furnish cover for 

 young birds and serve to keep the birds to the field as they get old enough to wander. 



with the cracker dtist, work it in with the jBngers and repeat the action 

 till the eggs are dry and crumbly. 



HALF AN EGG TO EACH BROOD.— Half an egg to each brood of 

 twenty chicks will be ample at first. It is quite likely that not much more 

 than half this amount will be taken the first few days. Use good eggs. 

 Take as much of the prepared egg as you can hold with the thumb and 

 first two fingers and throw it directly in front of the coop, together with 

 some whole corn for the hen. She will quickly call the chicks to their meal. 

 Pass on to the remaining coops and when the last has been attended to, 

 return to the brood first fed. If all the food has been taken and the 

 chicks still seem hungry, throw down a second pinch of egg. If, on the 

 other hand, all the food has not been consumed and the chicks are no 

 longer working at it, remove it, as food that has been exposed to the sun 

 long enough to sour is very dangerous. Throw a handful of chick char- 

 coal and grit on the ground by the egg feed. 



WATER. SHALL IT BE GIVEN CHICKS?— No water is given the 

 chicks during the first four or five days, their first taste being had when the 

 frame run is removed from the front of the coop. Their food during this 

 time contains a good deal of moisture and they get the dew off the grass in 

 the frame run in which they are confined by stripping the blade cleverly 

 with their bills. On the New Jersey Farm no water is given young birds 

 during the first month or six weeks. The foster mothers of the chicks are 

 supplied with water through the medium of boiled whole corn which is 

 too large, of course, for the young birds to swallow. It is the general 



