Poultry Keeping 239 



Your chicks have eaten soured food, decayed vegetables or tainted 

 meat. Baby chicks are just like other babies and the same care 

 should be used that their food be always sweet and fresh. Wet food 

 should never be given chicks, nor raw meat nor anything the least 

 bit tainted or stale. Put a teaspoon of coal oil in each pint of drink- 

 ing water and see to it that the latter is kept pure and cool. Mix a 

 teacup of sulphur with enough bran or shorts for each 100 chicks, 

 moisten with sweet milk and feed it on clean boards, what the chicks 

 will eat up clean in some twenty minutes. Give them one feed of 

 this each day for three days if the weather is dry. Clean the brooders 

 and runs daily, then dust white with air-slacked lime and cover the 

 lime with a sprinkling of clean sand. Rake and clean up the yards 

 where they range and never let them eat any of their grain or food 

 out of dirt and filth. You cannot doctor such small chicks and must 

 depend upon the coal oil in the drinking water. Keep the water 

 fresh, but add the coal oil until the chicks are relieved. 



Open-Front Chicken Houses. 



In what direction shall I face open-front poultry houses? 



North or northeast is the proper direction to face the open fronts 

 of poultry houses and coops in the Pacific Coast climate. The pre- 

 vailing winds are from the south and southeast in the winter, and 

 from the west and southwest in the summer. The occasional north 

 winds or "northers," may be called dry winds, in fact, are an indica- 

 tion of dry weather, and so do not harm the fowls even when cold. 

 We like the upper half of the north-end or slide of our poultry houses 

 open with inch-mesh covering the open space and the eaves extend- 

 ing several inches as a protection. In case of an unusual storm from 

 that direction, one thickness of burlap may be tacked to the edge of 

 the extending eaves and to the lower part of the opening. This will 

 admit plenty of fresh air while breaking the force of the wind. We 

 also have a large trap door for the use of the fowls, in the solid 

 lower part of the open end, and the large door, for cleaning and 

 sunning the house, in the west side. 



A Point on Mating. 



/ have Unc roosters a year old this April; would you advise keep- 

 ing them for mating with the same hens next season, or do you advise 

 selling each year and getting fresh stock? 



The young males will be all right to mate with the same hens 

 next season — that is, if they come through the molt with vigor. They 

 will be just two years old and at their best. The molt is the test for 

 both hens and cocks. If they show no signs of ailing or weakness 

 during that period, it is proof of the proper stamina and vigor. 



Age for Mating. 



At zvhat age may a cockerel be mated with hens? 



From nine months to a year is the proper age to mate a Leghorn 

 cockerel. Cockerels of the larger breeds should not be mated before 

 a year old. 



