48 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



When the hens are confined while the chicks go at will, the coops may be placed two or 

 three rods apart each way, and the coops shifted as often as necessary to prevent the grass 

 being ruined under them. 



When the chicks are confined while small to wire covered coops, these may be placed as 

 close together as desired, or as the lay of the land admits, and moved the length of a coop to 

 new ground in a block; or, if one prefers, he can place his coops separately, and shift them 

 independently. A little study to locate coops at first with reference to the shiftings necessary, 

 will often save some inconvenience later. 



What To Do Where There is No Natural Shade. 



Both shade and sun the chicks must have, and if there is no natural shade, shades must be 

 made to cover either the whole or a part of the top of a coop. With such shade provided, 

 the coops may be put right out in the open where they get the full strength of the sun, and 

 will do well, though I think never on the whole as well as with natural shade, and the moist 

 earth under it. 



Transferring Hens and Chicks to the Coops. 



Always, if possible, move the hens and chicks to the coops when the weather is bright and 

 warm. Avoid moving hens with small chicks to new coops late in the afternoon. If you 

 cannot get them out in time to give them several hours in the sun before they have to settle 

 down for the night, better let them wait until next morning. Older chicks are easier to move 

 after dark, but if the small ones are moved about, then one must be very careful or the hens 

 trample some of them before they settle down. 



Let them get wonted to their new quarters before bedtime. Then, as a rule, if she has not 

 done so several times during the day, the hen will go into the coop of her own accord, and 

 make her nest in one corner, (the coop should have a good big handful of chaff or cut hay or 

 straw thrown in for this purpose), and the chicks will follow her. 



If, as sometimes happens, the hen insists on staying out in one corner of the pen at night, try 

 to drive her gently into the coop. If she will not go in and stay, wait until it is almost dark, 

 catch her and put her in the coop, closing the door so that she cannot get out, but the chickens 

 can get in. In view of possible cases like this it is well to have coops so constructed that you 

 can get at the hens easily when they stay out. I have to confess that mine have not always 

 been so built, and, in consequence, I have sometimes had to fool away more time than I should 

 with such cases. After being compelled to go to the coop for the night once or twice the hen 

 seldom gives further trouble on that score. 



Feeding the Young Chickens. 



The feeding of young chickens need not differ much from the feeding of adult fowls. The 

 young chick needs food oftener, and needs it in form appropriate to its size, but except for 

 these two particulars the systems and methods of feeding can be the same for both small chicks 



and fowls, provided the method of feeding the fowls is good. If the method of feeding 



the fowls is bad, the effects on the young chicks will be very much worse than on the fowls, 

 and their digestive systems are easily ruined. 



In this we have the explanation of the fact that so many people do really find it necessary to 

 use a ration for their chicks different from that given their fowls, and when they do the general 

 tendency is to go much further than necessary in fussing with foods for the chicks. In thi, 

 too, we have an explanation for the fact that the dry feed system began to be applied exten- 

 sively with young chicks some time before much attention was given it in connection with the 

 feeding of old fowls, and while I personally do not use the dry feed system for young chicks I 

 can easily see that a great many get better results by it than by their application of a mash 

 system. 



What was said in Lesson I. of poultry foods and feeding systems for winter egg production 

 applies generally to foods and feeding systems for young chicks, with the difference as indicated 

 above, and with the additional difference that disadvantages in either system need to be more 

 carefully watched with chicks than with fowls. 



