PROGRESSIVE POULTRY RAISING 



in the morning. The latter is not difficult to do where 

 one has been following the practice of giving a morning 

 feed. 



During the winter the birds should be fed twice a day 

 on equal part of oats, wheat and corn. Something in 

 the line of green feed should be given and also feed of 

 animal origin such as meat scrap, high grade tankage or 

 sour milk. 



As a usual thing it is the best plan to raise the poults 

 with their natural mothers or with chicken hens. Turkey 

 hens are the most satisfactory mothers for poults but 

 where it is desirable to break up the broody turkey hens 

 and get them to laying again, chicken hens may be used. 

 Turkey hens will ordinarily cover fifteen to seventeen 

 eggs while chicken hens of the middle weight breeds will 

 take care of seven to nine. Whether turkey or chicken 

 hens are used the nests should be made on the ground 

 and lined with straw. The setting hen should always 

 be carefully dusted with sodium fluorid so that she will 

 certainly be louse free at the time of bringing off the 

 hatch. 



For brooding young poults plenty of exercise and 

 dryness are the two great essentials. The coop used for 

 the mother hen should be weather tight, though allowing 

 for ventilation. It should also be movable so that it 

 can be shifted about from place to place. Where the 

 poults are on range they will usually need little, if any, 

 feeding. When the conditions are such that they can- 

 not be out on the range some attention must be given 

 to their feeding. The following is a method outlined in 

 Farmers' Bulletin No. 791 of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, "For the first two days after hatch- 

 ing, poults require no feed, the yolk of the egg which 

 they absorb before breaking out of the shell being suf- 

 ficient to maintain them for that length of time. Access 

 to clean drinking water and a little coarse sand and 

 green feed to pick at, is all that is needed until the third 



Page Thirty-Nine 



