FEEDING CHICKS FROM HATCHING TO WEANING 



51 



time and labor far beyond what was profitable when the 

 time could be used otherwise at any ordinary rate of 

 compensation. In some cases this was judicious for the 

 poultry keeper gave only leisure time, but in -others in- 

 terest in the chickens and the determination to leave noth- 

 ing undone that would contribute to their perfect develop- 

 ment led to such neglect of a major occupation that the 

 net result was a steadily diminishing income from a regu- 

 lar occupation, which was not offset by the better results 

 secured from poultry. 



While it is desirable to give chickens all possible ad- 

 vantages, it is useful to know that we can grow good 

 chicks though not the best without some of these ad- 

 vantages. Unstinted supplies of green feed are of great 

 benefit to growing chicks, but when they are not to be 

 had without extraordinary effort or expense we can grow 

 good chickens by giving them just enough to tone them 

 up a little and keep the digestive organs from suffering 

 the effects of a too-heavy grain ra- 

 tion. When this plan is followed the 

 effort should be to have small sup- 

 plies of green feed daily rather than 

 larger amounts at less frequent inter- 

 vals. The situation is greatly helped 

 by the use of clover or alfalfa meal 

 in mashes for the chicks. When these 

 articles are from hay that was cured 

 green and are really of first rate 

 quality they are a good substitute 

 for fresh green stuff. The problem 

 of supplying animal feed is much 

 simpler for the prepared meat feeds 

 are so highly concentrated that small 

 quantities will substitute for the ani- 

 mal feed commonly secured on range. 



Feeding Chicks in Brooders 

 In feeding brooder chicks, with 

 rarely less than fifty in a lot, and 

 the ordinary small lot containing a hundred or more, and 

 the broods on large plants from two hundred to five hun- 

 dred or more, many things must be done quite differently 

 from the practices that will answer very well in handling 

 small broods with hens. 



In the first place, the chickens have no mother to in 

 any way take an interest in them, and are in such num- 

 bers that even when they have some range they quickly 

 strip it of all edible things close to the brooder which 

 range would supply a small brood with feed accessories 

 for an indefinite time. So the large group of chicks has 

 r.o inducement to keep busy looking for feed on the out- 

 side range near the brooder, nor does that land afford 

 them the variety it would to a few of their number. Where 

 a small brood of chicks could eat a fair meal of such 

 hard grains as are fed to older birds, and then busy 

 themselves picking up feed of various kinds on their range, 

 the large group if fed grains that the chicks can "eat 

 quickly will get little else, and the chicks, being naturally 

 inclined to activity, and having so limited a variety of 

 feeds in the large grain, begin to pick at anything and 

 everything in their reach. They pick at each other, and if 

 a chick is listless and instead of resenting it or moving 

 away when picked submits to it until the others start the 

 blood, they soon kill it and develop the habit of canni- 

 balism which causes so much trouble sometimes in grow- 

 ing chicks in brooders. 



If a chick is soiled about the vent, or if the down 

 anywhere is plastered together as it sometimes is when 

 a chick does not dry off well at hatching, or when they 



have access to milk or a soft, sticky mash, or any sub- 

 stance with which they become smeared while feeding on 

 it, that condition seems to tempt the chicks to peck at 

 each other and as soon as blood is drawn the victim be- 

 comes a prey of his little companions. Brooder chicks will 

 sometimes eat building paper when their coop is covered 

 either outside or inside with material of this kind that 

 they can nibble off. In general this does them no harm, 

 and if their ration is a concentrated one the paper they 

 take may be as beneficial in diluting it as the indigestible 

 fiber in any of the common feeds; but when chicks resort 

 to such practices, they do not stop with the destruction of 

 all paper within reach. That of itself is wasteful, for it 

 must be replaced at considerable cost of labor, if not of 

 material, but chicks with abnormal appetites and habits 

 are subject to all sorts of vices cannibalism, feather-eat- 

 ing, eating droppings, etc. 



The practical way to prevent these things is to keep 



WIRE COVERED FRAME TO KEEP LARGE FOWLS FROM FEED 



OF SMALL CHICKS 

 Photograph from U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry. 



the chicks interested in their proper feed. This is done, 

 almost automatically, by giving the grain so finely broken 

 that even when it is fed in troughs the chicks have to 

 spend a good deal of time to fill their crops with it. With 

 such finely cracked feed the advantage of alternating hard 

 grain and soft feeds is not as apparent as when the grain 

 is fed in coarser form; and if the fine feed contains seventy 

 to eighty per cent of one grain as corn or wheat, with 

 the remainder a variety of grains, some cracked peas, and 

 a little granulated meat scrap, chicks may be fed exclusive- 

 ly on this mixture, and a light supply of sprouted oats, 

 for the first two or three weeks. This is probably as 

 nearly a "fool-proof" method of feeding brooder chicks 

 as can be devised. 



As the chicks grow larger, and are able to forage for 

 quite a long distance after spring opens, there is not as 

 great need of giving feed in form that will keep them 

 busy, and they are also more indisposed to pick up the 

 fine particles. Then they are given a coarser mixture of 

 grains, commonly described as an intermediate chick feed, 

 and later on are given the ordinary mixtures as used for 

 adult poultry. The ages at which these changes are made 

 vary somewhat with different feeders. The list of rations 

 to be given farther on will show the different practices. 



When homemade mixtures are fed, the variety in the 

 grains is usually more limited, and the poultry keeper 

 needs to give more care to the supplying of extras that 

 give more variety to the ration. The advantages of giving 

 some soft feed will usually be more marked when there is 

 little variety in the mixture of broken grain fed. Dry 



