FEEDING CHICKENS 207 



a good bony frame, especially in dogs of the large breeds, an abundance 

 of bone-forming salts must be furnished. The growing dog thrives best 

 on animal nutrients, raw meat, bones and blood. Food of a vegetable 

 nature should of course be added to these; peas, beans, lentils, also 

 ground oats, corn and barley. In addition to this character of food the 

 young dog should always have a supply of ground raw bones, in as fresh 

 condition as possible. Transition foods, to be given in the weaning period 

 should consist of cow's milk (goat's milk is better), with a little chopped 

 meat added. The milk may be discontinued in the eighth to tenth week. 

 Pups should be fed four times a day until 8 weeks old. then three times 

 until 5 or 6 months old, when two feeds a day will suffice. 



VII. Poultry Feed 

 1. Feeding Chickens 



Freshly hatched chicks are provided with a sufficient food supply for 

 the first 24 to 48 hours in the form of the unused portion of the yolk 

 which has become enveloped in the abdominal cavity. Beginning with 

 the second or third day they should have as much cracked buckwheat, 

 cracked oats or hulled millet every two or three hours as they will eat 

 up clean in half an hour. Toward the end of the first week they may 

 have soft feed consisting of old wheat bread and finely chopped greens. 

 Ants' eggs (larvae) are an excellent addition in this stage (easily obtained 

 by a little search under old boards, wood, etc.). This feed should be 

 alternated with the grain, feeding every three hours as before. The soft 

 feed, bread, may be improved by addition of finely chopped hard-boiled 

 eggs or scrambled eggs, with cheese, etc. The scrambled eggs are pre- 

 pared by mixing equal parts of eggs and fresh milk and finely broken 

 eggshells, stirring and heating. One egg per day is sufficient for 15 

 chicks. 



Beginning with the second week, mixed dry or soft feed (mash) is 

 suitable. The latter is prepared by mixing oat, barley, corn or buckwheat 

 meal with sufficient water or milk to make a moist, crumbly (not pasty ") 

 mass. The addition to this of greens, like finely chopped clover, notch- 

 weed (Atriplex), spinach, entrails of fowls, grass, nettles, dandelions, 

 cress, yarrow, etc., or grated carrots, sprouted grains, or finely chopped 

 meat, soft cartilage from veal, tankage or fish meal, blood meal, hard 

 curd or cottage cheese, finely ground bone, etc., is a common and com- 

 mendable practice. Estimated amounts per head per day consist of meal, 

 2 to 5 grams for the first three weeks and 10 grams thereafter; ground 

 bone or bone meal, 5 to 10 grams or phosphate of lime, >:+ to 2 grams, 

 in place of the bone meal. Meat fiber chick feed. "Spratt's patent" and 

 other similar preparations have proved very satisfactory. The commer- 

 cial preparations are usually fed as complete rations, exclusively or alter- 

 nating with other feed. 



The feed is strewn out on little boards, put in galvanized boxes or 

 troughs, etc. All paraphernalia of this sort should be kept clean. Only 



