THE LEGHORNS 



139 



poultry netting, located near the hover curtain, will con- 

 fine them within safe limits. Brooder chicks have a bad 

 habit of huddling and dozing in the sun's rays near the 

 window and of moving along as the sun spot moves, until 

 the spot disappears, then they are liable lo remain where 

 they are instead of going under the hover. This natural, 

 but dangerous habit, must be guarded against until the 

 little chicks learn to use their "foster mother." 

 Each time you see them huddling in the sun 

 spot during the early days of their brooder life, tuck them 

 underneath the hover, where they can sleep in safety. 

 During this time the chicks need heat, food, drink, rest 

 and sleep — and the rest and sleep are almost as helpful 

 as the other three factors. The first two or three days 

 there is no better place for the chicks to spend their time 

 "between meals" than under the hover, provided this space 

 — their sleeping quarters — is well ventilated and free from 

 drafts. 



The Third Day 

 Give only two meals of the nursery food, supplying an 

 increased amount of dry, granulated chick food, which 

 now should be scatteied broadcast over the litter and 

 stirred into it. Do not neglect to clean the drinking dishes 

 — especially if you are using milk. Pure, fresh water is 

 essential to chick health and rapid growth. A safe rule 

 is to rinse out the drinking dishes at each feeding and 

 refill them with fresh, clean water. Keep a large vessel 

 of water near at hand for this purpose. Many successful 

 poultry raisers start their chicks on the finely-granulated 

 chick food and do not give them any form of nursery 

 food, but we use the nursery food on Cyphers Company 

 Poultry Farm, as here recommended, and have found that 

 it pays to go to the extra trouble. Another successful 

 plan, if the caretaker does not wish to bother with the 

 nursery food, is to use in its place stale bread crumbs 

 (not musty), merely moistened with sweet milk. Feed 

 the same as directed for the nursery food. 



The Fourth Day 



Discontinue the nursery food and use chick food ex- 

 clusively, feeding it by the deep-litter, "scratch-to-live" 

 method as hereinafter described, or as near to this labor- 

 saving, health-promoting, money-making plan as you can 

 ^ome, depending on how you are brooding your chicks. 

 Beginning on the fourth day, supply the chicks all the 

 green food they will eat and continue to do so until they 

 are ready to go on range or to be fattened as broilers, 

 friers or roasting chickens. Start the green food sparing- 

 ly, especially if it is new-grown and full of juice. Early 

 in the season use finely-cut cured alfalfa or clover. Later 

 on, as the chicks increase in size, coarser short-cut alfalfa 

 or clover can be used, also sprouted oats, garden greens, 

 short-cut lawn clippings, etc., though lawn clippings are 

 liable to be tough and less satisfactory. Lawn grass 

 should be cut to one-fourth inch lengths for small chicks, 

 or it may pack in their crops. Lettuce grows bountifully 

 in limited space and is unexcelled as green food for little 

 chicks, but should be fed sparingly until the chicks get 

 used to it. New clover, cut when the plants are 4 to 6 

 inches high, then chopped or put through a clover cutter, 

 makes a fine green food for chicks of all ages. Tender 

 beet tops are good. So are dwarf Essex rape. Swiss chard 

 and kale, especially if fed when young and tender. These 

 greens are excellent for older chicks and for adult fowls. 

 Steam all alfalfa or clover by pouring boiling water on 

 it, using as much water as the amount of alfalfa will take 

 up or absorb. Cover the vessel and allow the alfalfa to 



cool, then feed on boards or in shallow dishes. To get 

 young chicks to eat steamed alfalfa or clover, mix to a 

 crumbly mass with some form of ground grain, such as 

 wheat bran, middlings, ground oats, or the growing mash 

 given to chicks on the first day. One part bran and one 

 part middlings, or one part of each of the three ground 

 grains, mixed with once or twice their total bulk of the 

 steamed alfalfa will make an appetizing green food mash. 

 Once or twice a day feed as much of this mixture as they 

 will eat up clean before leaving it. Other green food 

 should be cut up fine while the chicks are less than a 

 week old; later on, they can pick it to pieces and will 

 benefit by the exercise. Chicks are greedy for 

 sprouted oats and no better green food is available 

 early in the season. If your chicks at any stage of their 

 growth, have not been getting green food, or if you change 

 the kind of green food to something they like better, be 

 sure to begin with a small quantity and feed sparingly for 

 two or three days until they get used to it, otherwise 

 scours and more serious bowel disorders will result. 



Fifth ana Sixth Days 



Feed the same as on the fourth day. Unless the weather 

 is severe, allow the chicks to run outdoors after the fourth 

 day, even if there is snow or ice on the ground, but they 

 must be taught to find their way back into the brooder 

 house or brooder. Extra care should be used in this 

 connection until the chicks learn to go to the heat when 

 they need it. They will not remain out of doors to a 

 harmful extent during bad weather — not after they have 

 learned the way indoors. Driving them in half a dozen 

 times, doing this before they have had a chance to get 

 cold, will teach them the way. After starting the deep- 

 litter method, or a modification of it, still continue to 

 visit the young chicks two or three times daily to make 

 sure they are getting along all right — that they have not 

 developed the habit of huddling in cold corners and are 

 not bothered by enemies, such as rats, cats, etc. Newly 

 hatched chicks entrusted to double-apai-tment brooders 

 should be taught to find their way from the exercising 

 apartment to the warm brooding chamber, to keep them 

 from huddling in cold places. They learn quickly. Herd- 

 ing them two or three times from the exercising apart- 

 ment into the brooding chamber will serve the purpose in 

 a properly constructed brooder. 



The Seventh Day 



Discontinue the milk, if you have been using it in 

 place of water, and from this time on keep an ample 

 supply of pure, fresh water before the chicks all the time. 

 On the seventh day begin giving them beef scrap in small 

 quantities, feeding it in a hopper to prevent waste, or on 

 a board or in open dishes. At the start an ounce or so 

 for thirty to forty chicks fed twice daily is about right for 

 healthy, vigorous chicks. See that the smaller and weak- 

 er chicks get their share. Beginning with the second week 

 —about the fourteenth day — keep beef scrap before the 

 chicks in a self-feeding hopper all the time and let them 

 eat what they want. 



If chicks are hatched late in the season, after vegeta- 

 tion gets a good start, and are on range (with a mother 

 hen, for example), where they can get a goodly supply 

 each day of worms, bugs and insects they do not need 

 other "animal" or meat food, but if chicks are raised in 

 limited quarters, or early in the season, it is necessary to 

 furnish this food in some form, and unquestionably a good 

 grade of commercial beef scrap is the least expensive and 

 most convenient way to meet this close-quarters or out- 



