Food for Little Chickens 211 



doubtedly is best. If they are given food in 

 suitable quantities, feeding from five to seven 

 times per day will be found to be none too often 

 for young chicks. As they become older it will 

 not be necessary to feed so often. The following 

 is quoted from an experiment station publication : * 

 "If skim milk be added to the ration fed to 

 young chickens it will increase the consumption 

 of other foods given. The great increase in aver- 

 age gain was coincident with the periods when 

 the greatest amount of skim milk was consumed. 

 Skim milk is especially valuable as a food for 

 young chickens during the hot dry weather; and 

 becomes of less importance as the chickens grow 

 older and che weather becomes cooler." 



Ground grain is preferred to whole or cracked 

 grain, and should constitute the chief part of the 

 daily ration. Practical poultry men and experi- 

 menters are fairly well agreed on this point. The 

 following illustrates : t "A ration consisting mostly 

 of ordinary ground grain foods and containing no 

 whole grain was more profitably fed to chicks 

 than another ration consisting mostly of whole 

 grain and containing no ground grain. ... In 

 every trial more food was eaten when the ground 

 grain was fed than when the whole grain was 

 fed." 



* Summary of Bulletin No. 71, Purdue University Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. 



t Bulletin No. 126, New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



