FEEDING CHICKS FROM HATCHING TO WEANING 



53 



house. These may be either permanent yards, or tem- 

 porary enclosures used only for these few days. If the 

 house is to be kept always in the same location it is as well 

 to have permanent yards. If it is to be moved" -every sea- 

 son a temporary yard of movable panels, or simply of 

 inch-mesh poultry netting eighteen to twenty-four inches 

 wide, attached to short stakes driven into the ground, 

 may be used for the purpose. All that is needed is to keep 

 the chicks close to the house, where they can easily be 

 driven in if there is occasion to do so, until they have 

 learned to go to it for warmth when they feel cold, or 

 for safety if anything disturbs them. Once they are 

 broken to this they may be given unlimited freedom of 

 any place that would be safe for chicks with hens. 



^Brooder chicks at liberty will require a little closer 

 watching at first than chicks with hens, for without the 

 note of the mother hen to recall them when they get a 

 few rods away, some chicks may wander so far from the 

 brooder that they will not get back by themselves. For 

 the first few days after chicks are given full liberty the 

 attendant should keep an eye on such stragglers. Usually 

 they wander off in small groups, and when they get more 

 than eight or ten rods from the house he should drive 

 them part way back to it. When driven back a few 

 times they usually will make their own way from any 



Grain 40$ 



Good 



Range 

 Small 

 Flocks 



Range 

 Large 

 Flocks 



Linitea 

 Range 

 Small 

 Flocks 



Limited 

 Range 

 Large 

 Flocks 



Bare 

 Yards. 



Forage :- 



Cracked Cora 2 pte. 

 Wheat 1 pt. 



Mash 20$ Meat 15Jb Vegetables 



| Grass, weej ds, seeds, bugs, worms , 

 grain and vegetable) wastes. 



I Bran 



Cracked corn fine Spts.i 

 Cracked wheat 3 pts. | 

 Granulated oat meal 3 

 pts. After 3d week use 

 whole wheat and hulled 

 oats. 



Bran 3 j. . 

 Corn Meal 5' pts. 

 Meat or Fislh scraps' I 

 { 5 pte. 



Sane as above, but 

 add at first, broken j 

 rice, cracked peas, 

 millet, or a mixture 

 of these, 1 pt. 



| Same as ( above. 



I i I 



Same as above in who jle ration, ol r any goo Id standard 

 commercial mixed gra,ins and dry rmashes ma|y be used. 

 Special care must be given to sup plying gr leen feed and 

 animal feed. 



DIAGRAM SHOWING GRAPHICALLY WHAT PROPORTIONS OF THEIR 



FEED REQUIREMENTS CHICKS MAY GET BY FORAGING UNDER 



DIFFERENT CONDITIONS, AND A STATEMENT OF WHAT 



MUST BE SUPPLIED IN EACH CASE TO MAKE 



A COMPLETE RATION 



Explanation The five equal rectangular figures represent the total feed 

 requirements, which are the same for all cases. The perpendicular dotted 

 lines divide all figures alike, proportionately to the ordinary percentages of 

 the different forms of feed to the whole ration. The black portions indi- 

 cate the proportion of their requirements which the chicks may supply by 

 foraging under the conditions specified. In the appropriate columns in the 

 white portions of the figures are given simple model rations, which with 

 the feed obtained by foraging will make a well-balanced ration. Pt. and Pts. 

 in the diagram mean parts by weight. The diagonals separating the white 

 and black portions of the figure are determined by joining the highest point 

 of supply for a large flock under the same conditions, taken at the 

 bottom of the figure. Thus in the upper figure: a very small flock, on good 

 range, might not need any feed given at all. A large flock would get all 

 the green feed and animal feed it needed (otherwise the range would not be 

 good) but would have to have some grain, and perh'aps a little dry mash. 

 A large flock on limited range, does not get enough In foraging -to make any 

 practical difference in the ration fed. 



distance, but if occasionally one fails to do so, and is 

 lost, that should be accounted only an ordinary risk of 

 giving the chicks freedom and range, and the few losses 

 are more than made up in the better condition and thrift 

 of the whole flock, and in the relief of the attendant from 

 some of the more troublesome details of feeding. Brooder 

 chicks in flocks of two or three hundred could be given 

 good range on many farms without placing the brooder 

 house so far from the residence that attendance would be 

 inconvenient. In many cases several such colonies oc- 

 casionally perhaps five or six of them, could be placed in 

 a circuit at no point far from the dwelling, yet with the 

 chickens ranging mostly on the area beyond their houses, 

 and thus foraging over a large area, while the attendant 

 in feeding- and caring for them had to make a compara- 

 tively small circuit. The principal obstacle to this on the 

 ordinary farm is that the land and range most convenient 

 for young chickens handled this way are commonly monop- 

 olized by the old stock. That indeed is the great obsta- 

 cle to the development of the poultry carrying capacity 

 of most general farms. Whenever a farmer adopts a sys- 

 tem of poultry keeping that puts his old stock on outlying 

 land during the season it can be outdoors, and leaves the 

 inner ranges for the young chickens during the first half 

 of the growing season, transferring most of them also to 

 outlying fields after they are about 

 half grown, the poultry capacity of 

 his farm will be greatly increased, 

 and he will find poultry one of the 

 most profitable branches of farming. 



Special Rations For Brooder Chides 



As stated in the discussion of com- 

 mercial poultry feeds in Chapter II, 

 the standard brands of commercial 

 mixed feeds are increasingly used for 

 young chickens because their quality 

 is more reliable than that of ordinary 

 supplies, and because to a great ex- 

 tent the manufacturers of these feeds 

 forestall others in buying the miscel- 

 laneous seeds most available for giv- 

 ing variety to mixed-grain rations. 

 When these standard goods are fresh 

 and their original quality unimpaired 

 they are usually the safest feeds to 

 use for brooder chicks, and when 

 fiesh supplies of these goods can be 

 obtained, the majority of large grow- 

 ers prefer them at least while the 

 chicks are small and confined to lim- 

 ited areas. 



There are, however, two points in 

 connection with the use of commer- 

 cial feeds which make it advisable 

 for a poultry keeper to be sufficiently 

 familiar with the composition of good 

 homemade rations to be able to pre- 

 pare such from any material that may 

 be at hand should .the occasion arise. 

 Supplies of a good brand sometimes 

 fall short, either from an extraordi- 

 nary demand, or from delays in trans- 

 portation. Then it happens quite often 

 that a local dealer carries a surplus 

 over from one season to the next, 

 and either from long holding or from 

 storage under improper conditions 

 this becomes stale and injurious to 



I Rape, 



, lettuce, cab- 

 1 bage, eprout- 

 | ed cats. 



