436 Effective Farming 



supplied with green feed, such as lettuce, sprouted oats, alfalfa, 

 or clover, but the best place to raise chickens successfully is 

 on a good range where no extra green feed is required. Fine 

 charcoal, grit, and oyster shell should be kept before the 

 chickens at all times, and cracked or ground bone may be fed 

 where the chickens are kept in small bare yards, but the latter 

 feed is not necessary for chickens that have a good range." 



Young chickens should be fed from three to five times 

 daily, depending on one's experience in feeding. Undoubtedly 

 chickens can be grown faster by feeding five times daily than by 

 feeding three times daily, but it should be borne in mind that 

 more harm can be done to the young chickens by overfeeding 

 than by underfeeding, and at no time should they be fed more 

 than barely to satisfy their appetites and to keep them exer- 

 cising, except at the evening or last meal, when they should be 

 given all they will eat. Greater care must be exercised not to 

 overfeed young chicks that are confined than those that have 

 free range, as leg weakness is apt to result in those confined. 



" The young chicks may be fed any time after they are 36 to 

 48 hours old, whether they are with a hen or in a brooder. The 

 first feed may contain either hard-boiled eggs, johnny cake, 

 stale bread, pinhead oatmeal, or rolled oats, which feeds or 

 combinations may be used with good results. Mashes mixed 

 with milk are of considerable value in giving the chickens a 

 good start in life, but the mixtures should be fed in a crumbly 

 mass and not in a sloppy condition. After the chickens are 

 two months old they may be fed four times daily, and after 

 three months old three times daily, with good results. Johnny- 

 cake composed of the following ingredients in the proportions 

 named is a very satisfactory feed for young chickens : one 

 dozen infertile eggs or one pound of sifted beef scraps to ten 

 pounds of corn meal ; add enough milk to make a pasty mash, 

 and one tablespoonful of baking soda. Bake into a cake. Dry 

 bread crumbs may be mixed with hard boiled eggs, making 

 about one-fourth of the mixture of eggs, or rolled oats may be 



