1088 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



between eight and nine in the evening. I think it pays, for in 

 raising broilers the object is to get a given weight in the short- 

 est possible time, and every thing that tends to that end should 

 be done. Feed all the chicks will eat up clean each time, but 

 no more. Never leave food around to be wasted, and never feed 

 sour food or sloppy food. All food must be fresh and sweet, 

 and soft food should only be moist enough to stick together. 



The foregoing directions for the care and food of young 

 chicks are intended more especially for those who only desire 

 to hatch and raise a limited number of early chicks with hen 

 mothers, and who have only the convenience of an ordinarily 

 comfortable, well-lighted poultry-house that can be warmed by 

 means of a common, air-tight, wood stove, or by a home-made 

 brick stove ; but they will answer equally well for the manage- 

 ment of the later hatched chicks that are intended for the fall 

 and winter market, and for breeding stock for the next season 

 except that, of course, the later hatched chick should have free 

 range as soon as possible, when they will pick up their own 

 green food and gravel, and obtain their own supply of meat in 

 the shape of insects, etc. When allowed free range chicks will, 

 after they are two or three months old, thrive on three meals a 

 day until the time comes to fatten for the fall market. 



After the chicks have been weaned they should be colonized 

 and taught to roost in sheds like the one illustrated by Fig. 14. 

 If very young when weaned they may be left in the nursing 

 coops a few weeks longer. 



How to Raise Incubator Chicks. When one proposes 

 to hatch and raise any considerable number of early chicks, 

 wholly by artificial means, there will be needed besides the 

 incubator artificial mothers or brooders, and a comfortable, 

 roomy, well-lighted, well-warmed poultry-house. The first ex- 

 pense will necessarily be comparatively large, but after every 

 thing is once in running order the annual outlay will be but 

 trifling, while the business, if properly managed, will pay a large 

 profit above all expenses, including interest on capital invested. 



The best way to heat a poultry-house, where a large number 

 of chicks are to be raised, is by means of a green-house boiler 



