140 



THE LEGHORNS 



of-season requirement of chick health and normal growth, 

 lit simply is a case of the owner or caretaker having to 

 •do for the chicks what Nature can not do at this time of 

 :yezT, or under conditions imposed by the poultryman. 

 -Another important point is this: Even when chicks and 

 <owls have quite a large yard or space in which to range, 

 ithey are very liable to exhaust, in a few days, the limited 

 supply of worms, bugs, etc., in which case they soon show 

 the need of meat food in some other form. The same 

 is true of what might be called the natural supply of grit 

 and shell-forming materials. To give a dozen or more 

 brood hens the range of a farm is one thing; to raise the 

 .«ame number of chicks or several hundred chicks in re- 

 rstricted quarters, is a very different matter. When chicks 

 are raised or fowls are kept in confinement, the suc- 

 cessful poultryman finds it necessary to supply the green 

 food, meat food, grit (chicken "teeth") and shell-forming 

 materials that the birds require and can not obtain other- 

 lyise. 



Sixth Week 



Give the chicks nothing else up to the sixth week, 

 'except charcoal. Chicks a week old crave charcoal, and 

 when it is first given to them will stand at the hopper and 

 eat until white chicks look black. Charcoal aids digestion 

 and prevents sour crop and bowel trouble. The safe plan 

 is to keep chick-size grit and chick-size charcoal before 

 them from the first, supplying both in a self-feeding wall 

 hopper to prevent waste. Fed in this way, the little chicks 

 can begin eating finely-granulated charcoal when they 

 need it and will not take a wasteful amount. 



Remember, that if best results are to be secured, 

 ■young chicks must not be overheated or allowed to chill. 

 Both cause diarrhoea and expose the chicks to head and 

 lung colds. Fifty to seventy-five per cent of all bowel 

 trouble in young chicks comes from chilling or overheat- 

 ing, and most of the other cases result from incorrect 

 feeding. The day of the self-regulating brooder and 

 brooding hover is here to stay. Newly hatched chicks 

 cannot stand being exposed to changes in hover temper- 

 ature, ranging from ten to forty degrees in as many hours, 

 •which often will be the case if the brooding hover is not 

 self-regulated. Even when self-regulating brooders are 

 used out-doors, they should be placed in the shade, other- 

 wise the temperature on warm, sunshiny days will go be- 

 yond the danger point — well above one hundred degrees 

 for example. Do not try to raise chicks in warm weather 

 without shade. Cloth or burlap tacked on frames or nailed 

 to stakes will answer early in the season. Later on, grow 

 sunflowers in clumps or rows, or plant corn in hills and 

 rows, thus allowing the air to circulate freely on hot, 

 sultry days. Be sure that the ground of an out-door, 

 small-space chick run does not become foul from too long 

 use or from neglect. If yard space is limited, frequent 

 spading and seeding will freshen the ground. If there is 

 room to do so, use a hand or horse plow. Seed with oats 

 or rye, oats preferred. Where yard space is available, 

 out-door brooders should be moved to new ground at the 

 end of each two or three weeks. 



Deep-Litter Feeding of Chicks 



Ideal deep-litter feeding of young chicks, as strongly 

 recommended by us, consists in using eight inches of 

 finely-cut litter in the coop, house or indoor runway oc- 

 cupied by the chicks, but the plan can be modified for use 

 in any size or style of indoor or outdoor brooder by 

 burying chick foods in two to four inches of litter on the 

 floor of the brooding chamber or exercising apartment. 



and this modified form will give good results, though not 

 as much food can be buried at one time in the shallow 

 litter, and therefore, the saving in labor is not so great. 



Ideal Form 



If your chicks have an indoor runway or exercising 

 pen, proceed as follows: Cover the entire floor of the pen 

 with two inches of good litter, short-cut alfalfa or clover 

 prefeired, but hay-mow chaff, cut hay or straw will serve 

 the purpose. Then scatter over this fifteen pounds of 

 finely granulated chick food, next repeat with two inches 

 more of litter, then fifteen pounds more of the food, until 

 you have eight inches of litter and sixty pounds of food 

 in a pen that is meant to accommodate fifty chicks. We 

 do not advise more than fifty chicks in one flock, though 

 seventy-five can be kept together in safety during the first 

 few days. This supply of food will last fifty chicks about 

 six weeks, on the average, together with the beef scrap 

 and green food that is to be supplied. The litter need 

 not be changed during the six weeks. The amount of 

 litter here recommended will remain free from odor a much 

 longer period. Five or six inches of litter for chicks up 

 to fourteen weeks of age will give as good results as eight 

 inches, except that you will have to feed oftener. The 

 chicks should go to bed with full crops. If in doubt about 

 the matter, feel of their crops at night and if they are not 

 well filled, put some more food in the litter. 



Modified Form 



If your chicks are housed in a brooder used out of 

 doors, so that it is better to feed them inside the brooder, 

 especially while they are small, proceed as follows: Cover 

 the floor of the brooder with an inch or two of finely-cut 

 litter, then scatter over this three pounds of chick food; 

 next add another inch or two of litter, then scatter three 

 pounds more of the chick food and cover this with a lib- 

 eral sprinkling of litter. A quart of chick food weighs 22 

 ounces, therefore, three quarts weigh about four pounds. 

 The larger the brooder the more food you can bury in the 

 litter at each feeding. The six pounds here mentioned 

 will last fifty chicks three to five days, the time shortening 

 as the chicks grow older and eat more. Changing the 

 litter once a week is often enough if two inches of litter 

 are used, and once in two weeks if four inches are used. 

 If individual brooders — outdoor or indoor pattern — are 

 used indoors, the chicks should be given a runway out- 

 side the brooder, in which case the feeding should be done 

 in eight inches of litter placed in the runway, as directed 

 in the foregoing paragraph. Early in the season outdoor 

 brooders can be used indoors to advantage, especially in 

 the case of newly-hatched chicks, but the chicks should 

 be induced to exercise freely in dry, well-lighted, fresh-air 

 quarters where they are protected from the drafts. Making 

 them work for all the grain food they get to eat, is the 

 only practical way to compel chicks to take this exercise 

 while they are kept indoors. The same urgent need for 

 life-giving, body-building exercise exists when chicks have 

 only a limited outdoor runway. In all such cases we must 

 provide enough exercise to take the place of the all-day- 

 hunting on range for seeds, bugs, tender green shoots, 

 etc., if we are to raise profitable numbers of healthy, 

 vigorous, large-framed, well-feathered chicks — the kind 

 that grow rapidly, and develop into prime specimens for 

 any use to which we may decide to put them. To chicks 

 that are being raised in outdoor brooders feed the beef 

 scrap, grit and charcoal in hoppers or open dishes placed 

 in exercising apartment. The use of hoppers will prevent 

 a 25 per cent waste. 



