RAISING BROILERS 55 



that is necessary in order to get them in condition. To have them 

 about three months old when ready for the table, there has been no 

 feed lost, no time spent in useless feeding and your runs can soon be 

 ready for the next lot. 



The Rapid Plan 



To use this plan it is absolutely necessary to start with good 

 strong chicks that have been starved 72 hours after leaving the in- 

 cubator. 



Being sure on this part, start in and feed them every 2 hours. 

 Commence at six o'clock in the morning and feed every two hours 

 until you have given them seven feeds. Don't overfeed the first ten 

 days, because if you do the chicks will get stalled and go back on 

 their feed. The last feed in the evening may be the one exception, 

 for then they should have all they can eat of chick food. During these 

 first ten days the food should consist of something easy to digest, such 

 as stale bakers' bread soaked in milk, rolled oats partly cooked but 

 not pasty. Green food ad libitum, cooked vegetables, cooked rice and 

 even a little dry bran, but the cooked foods must predominate. A 

 boiled liver and some vegetables cooked "in the water, then pin head 

 oats mixed in last and just let steam a little, the liver being chopped 

 all through the feed, makes a great dish for them. Animal food is 

 one thing a chicken rarely stalls on. 



By this method of feeding it is possible to make a broiler plant 

 pay a good profit. Where the hens are not stimulated to heavy egg 

 production there will be no diarrhoea, unless the brooding is wrong, 

 no leg weakness and very few chicks dying. 



To succeed with broilers the parent stock must be strong enough 

 to give the chicks vitality to overcome these things. I have known 

 cases where the chicks lived ten days and then commenced to die 

 like flies. When the parent stock has been fed on too much starchy 

 foods, it reacts worse on the chicks than too much meat diet, that is, 

 there are always more losses. 



