102 ] BETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



ground, and can Te- enter the runs on the least alarm 

 to their timid natures, and will thus learn to rush to 

 the hens in future in case of real danger. 



On the morning of the third day remove the runs, 

 they are no longer required, and lay the shelters of 

 boughs a yard distant from the fronts of their coops, 

 throwing the food at feeding time between the coops 

 and the shelters, and chiefly under the latter, in order 

 to accustom the chicks to use them as places of 

 retreat. 



After the runs are dispensed with, by which time 

 the birds should scurry readily to their hens on being 

 clucked home, shift the coops twice a day, morning 

 and evening, to fresh ground, as a means of affording 

 the chicks a new extent of grass for exploration, as 

 well as a chance of removal from the soiled turf they 

 and the hens passed the night on ; retain the coops 

 in their proper order, but move all a yard or two one 

 way. Feed the young birds in the direction in which 

 you are about to move the coops, and whilst they are 

 engaged lift the latter along, just clear of the ground, 

 shuffling the hens inside to their new position ; when 

 the chicks have finished their food they will run to 

 their hens. Next lay the fir-bough shelters each in 

 front of its coop for the birds to resort to when they 

 again venture abroad. After a few days, gradually 

 increase the space the coops are shifted to four or five 

 yards. 



Day by day move the shelters of boughs, first to 



