50 



HOW TO FEED POULTRY FOR ANY PURPOSE WITH PROFIT 



For small broods on range the ration described above 

 gives ample variety. In fact, if the range is a good one, 

 the ration could be of mash and cracked corn as far as 

 the chicks are concerned and they would grow as well 

 as on any carefully compounded ration that could be de- 

 vised for them. The hen, however, confined to her coop 

 would soon become very fat. The coop should be moved 

 its own width or length once every three or four days, 

 any droppings that can be easily taken up being removed 

 from the ground, especially if it is intended that after a 

 few shifts the coop will go back to its first position and 

 make the circuit a second time. 



With early chicks, the hen should always be confined 

 to the coop until the chicks are weaned. In no other 

 way can we be sure that the hen will brood the chicks as 

 long as they need brooding. When a hen hatches a brood 

 of early chicks and is allowed to run with them, and is 

 well fed, she is almost certain to begin to lay before they 

 are feathered, and most hens that begin to lay when at 

 large with chicks soon drive the chicks from them and go 

 back to the old flock. Not one hen in a hundred that is 

 kept confined with her brood, and not allowed to asso- 

 ciate with any other fowls will refuse to brood them after 

 she resumes laying. On the contrary, though not so solic- 

 itous for their chicks as before, hens handled this way 

 will often lay almost daily for weeks and brood the chick- 

 ens readily at night, even if they refuse to do so in the 

 daytime. With late broods it is not so important for the 

 hen to attend to brooding when chicks are three or four 

 weeks old. They may get along very well by themselves, 

 yet it will always be found that, when the period of the 

 hen's brooding is so short, her brood is more backward 

 all through the season than those that have had proper 

 brooding until well feathered. 



Variations in Feeding Chicks With Hens 

 The ration that has been discussed provides an al- 

 ternation of soft and hard feeds. Such a ration does not 

 start chicks off as fast as one of nearly all, or all soft 

 feeds, but it builds up the digestive system, and chicks fed 

 by this method can consume larger quantities of feed to 

 advantage and use more rough feeds in the later stages of 

 growth than those which by heavy feeding of soft feeds 



COOP RUN TO USB WHERE CHICKENS MUST BE PROTECTED FROM CATS 



This run is 6x12 feet on the ground and 2 feet high, and is made with the 

 sides and ends hinged so that it can be folded up when not in use. That con- 

 struction works well while the hinges are new, but hinges not used soon rust 

 and become immovable. The best way to make this coop is with top and sides 

 and ends separate panels to be held together when in use by eight-penny fine 

 nails. Only ten or twelve nails are needed to make the coop stiff enough to 

 move about as desired, and a coop of this size is much easier to handle in 

 separate pieces. 



make remarkable growth at the start. For stock birdsj 

 either for laying or breeding, the system that builds up a] 

 strong organism with power in every function is the best. 

 For growing poultry to be marketed at an early age the! 

 other method may be better. 



The feeds are given on page 49 in the order in which 

 they are most commonly fed. It really makes no difference 

 about the order of the meals, except that, in general, the 

 chicks will show the best appetites for the feed in differ- '. 

 ent forms if hard and soft feeds are alternated. If john- 

 nycake is used instead of mash, or in place of mash and 

 of one other feed, the system instead of including two 

 soft and three hard feeds, would have three soft and two 

 hard feeds. This would be more desirable if commercial ! 

 chick feeds were not used, or if the cracked corn obtain- 

 able were at all inferior in quality. It should not be as- 

 sumed that because small chicks will eat and will do well 

 on a ration that includes some feeds of grain as fed to 

 adult fowls, the matter of giving them things espe- 

 cially prepared for them can be entirely put aside. The 

 practical point is to strike a happy medium between the 

 common ration for mature poultry, and the methods of 

 chick feeding which call for different rations for the 

 chicks at every meal. 



For chicks in confinement, or on limited range, both 

 green feed and animal feed should be provided from the 

 first. Many instructions for feeding chicks defer feeding 

 these things for a week or ten days, or even more, giving 

 the impression that earlier feeding of them is detrimental. 

 Such opinions appear to have arisen from the common 

 piactice of postponing the giving of other than the "baby 

 feed" most easily obtained as long as it was possible for 

 the chicks to thrive on a limited diet. Before oat sprouting 

 came into general use, suitable green feed for early chicks 

 was extremely scarce. Poultry keepers used to grow a 

 little lettuce, or sprout a little grain in a small box, to 

 give the chicks an occasional taste of green feed, but the 

 amount so provided was generally insignificant in com- 

 parison with the wants of the chicks. Green feed being 

 so difficult to get, it was customary to put off feeding it 

 until the chicks were really suffering for want of it, and 

 then to give it more as a medicine than as a feed. When 

 we put chicks on good range in the 

 spring, giving them ideal conditions, 

 the ration we have discussed in detail 

 is supplemented from the start by 

 grass and other tender green feed in 

 considerable variety, and by worms 

 and insects. When there is not a 

 range for chicks that affords these 

 things, the poultry keeper must sup- 

 ply them as fully as is practical and 

 economical. 



What is practical and economical 

 depends in part upon the circum- 

 stance and the purpose for which 

 poultry are grown, but also very 

 much upon the ingenuity of the poul- 

 try keeper, and his ability to secure 

 early and continuous supplies of 

 green feed from quite limited space 

 outdoors, in the season, in addition 

 to making use of the oat sprouter for 

 the earliest chicks. The writer has 

 seen as good chicks as were ever 

 grown under the most ideal condi- 

 tions produced year after year in 

 small bare yards, but at a cost in 



