Care of the Baby Chick. 41 



n 



taken off and stored away in a 



shed in the Fall. When chicks 



are hatched in cold weather I 



put only 15 with each hen; in 



May or last of April I put 20 Fig. 17. HANDY HEN COOP. 



to 25 with each hen. 



"As the chicks are all the same color and age, the hens do not know 

 their own chicks, and will take any of them. The chicks remain with the 

 hen as long as she will mother them. Sometimes a hen will pick at the 

 chicks and drive them away, as soon as she wants to lay eggs again ; 

 others will go to laying and continue to brood the chicks. I let them 

 remain with the chicks as long as they will, until it becomes very hot 

 weather; then I think the chicks are better off without the hen's heat. 

 I feed and water them three times a day, and as soon as the cockerels 

 weight two pounds each, send them to the market for broilers, reserving all 

 the pullets for layers. 



"The most dangerous enemy of chicks in this locality is the little 

 Pigeon hawk, but in June they do not come around so frequently, and 

 then I give the chicks the run of the farm. While they are confined 

 green food is an absolute necessity if they are to thrive well, and lawn 

 clippings furnish this in the best form, especially if cut in the early morn- 

 ing while the dew is still on the grass; I tie a box behind the lawn mower 

 and the clippings fly into it, so it is no trouble to collect them. Insect 

 powder sprinkled on the hen and in the nest freely a week before hatching 

 usually drives away all lice. In hot weather, if the chicks and hens run 

 together, the chicks will get lousy; then I put some of the powder mixed 

 with lard on their heads, if they have head lice, and sprinkle it on their 

 bodies if they have body lice, which are very different things. Two or 

 three times in tne Summer I whitewash the coops with some crude carbolic 

 acid in the whitewash; this is a good disinfectant as well as insecticide. 

 Roosters and pullets all run together until the males begin to pester the 

 females, then they are separated and the roosters confined, the pullets 

 running at large until snow drives them into confinement. 



THE BROODER CHICK.~"With the first pipping of an egg in my 

 incubator I start the lamps under the brooders, that they may be warmed up 

 and regulated to 90 degrees before the chicks are ready to be put in. The 

 chicks are left in the incubators for 30 to 36 hours after hatching. I 

 cover the floors of brooders with sifted sand half an inch deep, laying 

 in a supply in the Summer for 

 that special use. Taking the 

 chicks to the brooder house in a 

 big market basket with a 

 warmed woollen cloth over fig. 18. UNFINISHED HEN COOP. 



