78 WYANDOTTES. 



beginning, and, later on, cracked corn and wheat, so that, as the 

 chicks grow older they will be able to provide partly for them- 

 selves, and partake of the fare given to old fowls. 



HATCHING. Such ideas as the above are common to novices. 

 It is advisable to save the eggs from your best laying hens, in 

 preference to those laid by pullets Select the largest and best 

 shaped of the medium-sized eggs, those with a smooth shell and fresh 

 looking in color. When one of your hens manifests a desire to sit, 

 after remaining on the nest when her companions go to roost, put a 

 nest egg under her and allow her freedom to act. If she proves 

 true to her duty, make a nest in a secluded place away from other 

 hens, fashion the nest and surroundings as much like the old one 

 as possible, and move her at night quietly and tenderly, with the 

 nest egg. If she shows business on the new nest after a day, she 

 may be trusted with valuable eggs. Hens are usually steadier 

 sitters than pullets. 



There are signs by which the novice may be able to tell whether 

 the broody hen means business or not; steady laying for some time 

 previous to clucking, remaining on the nest over night, holding 

 possession of the nest against the attacks of the hens, screaming 

 and drawing the head in with the erection of feathers on the head 

 and neck, pecking one's hand when touching her, throwing straw 

 towards her back, shuffling her legs to get a steady pressure for her 

 feet, and when done give out a few notes of contentment and solici- 

 tude, in the same key as when brooding the chickens at night after 

 being disturbed. 



FEEDING. 



FEEDING CHICKENS. Next to warmth and proper brooding, 

 which is so essential to young chicks after being hatched, is generous 

 and judicious feeding. Remember that your brood came from 

 warm tenements, living and breathing at 104 Fah., and now the 

 atmosphere about them is perhaps thirty, forty, fifty or sixty degrees 

 lower. This is wrong ; this is not proper care. Cold checks 

 nutrition; the food absorbed when leaving the shell is not assimilated 

 while suffering from such a rapid change of temperature. Many of 

 the ailments common to chickenhood could be traced to this lowering 

 of the temperature after being hatched, for there is a check on 

 nutrition below 75 Fah. 



The first week, hard boiled egg and stale wheat bread crumbs, 

 or pulverized crackers, half and half, and before mixing them pour 



