FEEDING CHICKS FROM HATCHING TO WEANING 



49 



chickens can eat and do well on the same feeds that are 

 fed to mature birds. This is of great advantage to those 

 who grow a few chickens under circumstances that admit 

 of this method of feeding. 



A Simple Standard Chick Ration 



Morning Moist mash as fed to old stock. 



Middle of Forenoon Chick feed mixture (preferably 

 a standard commercial chick feed). 



Noon Wheat. 



Middle of Afternoon Mash same as in the morning. 



Evening Cracked corn. 



In using this ration the only thing supplied espe- 

 cially for the young chicks is the commercial chick feed. 

 Considering the ration in detail we will begin with the 

 morning mash. The composition of a simple standard 

 mash for adult breeding stock at this season of the year 

 will be given, but for full information on the method of 

 making moist mashes the reader should refer to the pre- 

 ceding chapter. 



As we are considering the case of poultry (old stock 

 as well as chicks) on range where they get green feed 

 and animal feed, the mash used will be an all-grain mash: 

 1 part of corn meal to 2 parts of wheat mixed feed, or 

 bran and middlings (see page 39). 



To a hen with a brood of ten or twelve chicks, as 

 much of this should be given as is usually allowed per hen 

 in feeding the adult stock. Most novices make the mis- 

 take of feeding too much at first, not realizing what small 

 quantities are eaten by chicks just starting. Supposing 

 that this feed is given between 6 and 7 o'clock in the 

 morning, the chicks will each eat a little of it, but all to- 

 gether they will not eat enough to make much difference 

 in the hen's allowance. She may not have all she would 

 eat, but as she is now on a five-meal-a-day routine that 

 will not hurt her. The hen should -be in a coop with 

 slats through which the chicks can pass freely. The feed 

 should not be put on the ground in the coop, but either 

 on the ground or on a board or small flat trough or dish 

 just outside, where the hen can eat of it but cannot 

 scratch it. If the coop is on clean grass there is no need 

 of a feeding board. 



After eating, the chicks will usually go under the hen, 

 especially on chilly days, but when they begin to get hun- 

 gry again will be likely to run 

 about, picking at whatever attracts 

 them and eating a little of what 

 they find. About 9 to 9:30 o'clock 

 they should be given about a table- 

 spoonful of commercial chick feed. 

 This should also be put just outside 

 the coop. If the grass is so thick 

 that much of it may be hidden if 

 scattered, put it on a board or just 

 in a little pile. Once the chickens are 

 accustomed to eating it they will dig 

 it out from among grass roots when 

 scattered in them, but for the first 

 few feeds it is as well to have it 

 easy to get at. 



About noon give what wheat would 

 make a fair allowance for the hen, 

 scattering it either in her coop or 

 outside keeping in mind that she is 

 to eat the most of it. In the middle 

 of the afternoon give mash, the same 

 as in the morning, a little less if the 



hen does not seem keen for it. It will usually be found 

 that the hen has a fair appetite for five meals a day, and 

 allowing her all she wants brings her quickly into laying 

 condition again. That is an objection or an advantage 

 according to how she is handled. Particulars on that 

 point will be discussed a little farther on. Toward dusk 

 give cracked corn a fair allowance for the hen. 



For the first few days the chicks take very little at 

 a time. The amount they eat of any meal given is so 

 much less than most persons would estimate as what the 

 chicks should have in addition to the hen's allowance, 

 that hardly one person in a hundred feeding a hen with 

 a brood fails to put out about twice the feed needed. The 

 best working rule is to forget that the chicks require any 

 specific amount, and just feed the hen, letting the chicks 

 take what they want of her ration. After a week to ten 

 days the chicks begin to take .enough so that the feeder 

 sees that the hen needs more than he has been giving, 

 and from this time on the increase necessary for the grow- 

 ing chicks is easily determined. 



The water for a hen and brood should be outside the 

 coop, but where the hen can reach it. Vessels of the 

 "fountain" type that the chicks cannot get into, are not 

 as essential as for larger lots of chicks, but are most 

 convenient. If open pans or saucers are used they should 

 be shallow. Then if the chicks do get in them the down 

 is not wet. With fountains, watering once a day should 

 be enough. With open vessels the number of waterings 

 depends upon how much dirt gets into them. On clean 

 sod once a day may be enough. It is not advisable to give 

 milk in open vessels, or in any vessel that gives the 

 chicks a chance to smear each other with it when drink- 

 ing. Notwithstanding the recommendations sometimes 

 given for milk for young chicks, the writer considers that 

 its use should not be allowed if thereby the chicks are 

 smeared and the down made rough and the chick uncom- 

 fortable and miserable looking. Some may suppose that 

 the chick is none, the worse for that, but a mussed-up lot 

 of chicks never looks thrifty, and it may reasonably be 

 doubted that the milk taken with this result contributes 

 more in nutriment than is taken away in discomfort. Milk 

 should either be fed so that the chicks are not soiled 

 with it, or given in the mash, or withheld until they are 

 large enough to drink it without as much soiling as when 

 small chicks have it in ordinary vessels. 



METHOD OP 



The young chickens 



COOPING YOUNG CHICKS WITH HENS AT LESTER 

 TOMPKINS' FARM, CONCORD, MASS. 



here are always put first on grass land on which no poultry 

 was allowed to run in the previous year. 



