POULTRY, BIRDS AND BEES 249 



provide them with plenty of shelled corn or other grain, 

 fresh water and a box of ashes or road dust for their dust 

 baths. It will be well also to dust some insect powder in 

 the nest to keep away lice and mites. It is but little more 

 work to care for a dozen sitting hens in this way than to 

 care for one. 



The Young Chicks. — For the first day or so after the 

 young chicks are hatched they will not need anything to 

 eat, and it is well to keep them in the nest. If the room 

 is darkened, the old hens will not be in such a hurry to 

 leave the nests. When the chicks are about thirty or thirty- 

 six hours old, give them some bread crumbs sHghtly moistened 

 in milk. Feed them several times during the day. After 

 a day or so, some ground oats, with the hulls removed, may 

 be added, and after a week or ten days some ground or 

 cracked grain, as corn or wheat, may supply a part of their 

 ration. Very small kernels of wheat and millet seed are 

 also very good. The chicks should be supplied at all times 

 with pure, fresh water and fine grit. Too much care can- 

 not be taken in keeping their water and feed clean. Plenty 

 of exercise is also necessary. On the farm the chickens 

 usually have the run of the whole place, which is the best 

 possible condition for them, as they can then get exercise, 

 insects, grit, and green food — things that are not so easily 

 suppHed when they are confined. 



Care of Hens in Winter. — Eggs are one of the chief 

 products of poultry, and one's success in the business usually 

 depends upon getting eggs in the winter, when they bring 

 a good price. Pullets hatched early in the spring are more 

 likely to lay during the winter than old hens. To get eggs 

 in the winter, one must supply as nearly as possible summer 

 conditions. In other words, chickens must be forced to 

 get exercise by scratching for their feed, as is necessary if 

 their grain feed is thrown in loose straw or litter. They 

 should have something to take the place of bugs and worms 

 that they get in the summer. Scraps of meat and ground 

 bone will answer. They must have something to take the 

 place of the sharp stones and gravel that they pick up as 

 they run about the fields. Crushed .stone or crockery will 

 supply this grit. Such material is sold on the market as 



