FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



45 



chicks at liberty, but unless you are sure that losses from cats, hawks, etc., with the chicks at 

 liberty will be very light, it pays to use safe coops. They have to be used only for a short 

 time, and there is no use hatching chicks unless you take care of them after they are hatched. 



Why Coop Hens and Chicks? 



This is the question which has suggested itself to many readers. They may see the advisa" 

 bility of confining hens and chicks to protect the chicks while small, but do not so readily see 

 the need of confining the hen while the chicks run at large. In a state of nature the ben runs 

 with the chicks. Yes, but in growing chicks we have to average very much better than nature, 

 both as to quality and quantity produced. 



Hens have advantages as mothers. These we need not here consider. They also have their 

 disadvantages. It is in guarding against losses from these that those who succeed well in 

 growing chicks by natural methods excel. AH hens are not alike in their habits with chicks. 

 Some can be allowed full liberty ; others cannot. You cannot know in advance which to trust. 



Cat and Hawk Proof Coop Pens. 



Dimensious of these coop pens are, length 12 ft.; height 2 ft.; width 2 ft. They are made of lath, and cov- 

 ered with 1-inch mesh wire netting. 



Hence you must devise a system of handling them, and impose such restraints on all that you 

 are sure that avoidable losses are reduced to the minimum. 



The faults of some hens as mothers are: 



(1). Too great activity and restlessness, never still themselves, they wear the chicks 

 out. 



I have seen fine broods of a dozen or more chicks reduced to two or three in less than two 

 days, in this way, when, had the hen been restrained, not a chick need have been lost. Confine 

 the hen, and, as a rule, she soon learns to be contented in her coop, if it is a suitable coop, 

 and, if her wants are supplied, gives her chickens a great deal more brooding than if allowed 

 to run with them. 



