FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 51 



How Often to Feed. 



In rations I., II., and III., five feedings a day are indicated. This is about right for small 

 chicks, up to the time of weaning, when conditions are such that it is not advisable to feed more 

 at a time than will be eaten up within a comparatively short time. For Ration IV., five feed- 

 ings may be used. For Ration V., the mash may be kept before the chicks all the time, if 

 fed in troughs or hoppers they cannot get into, and the grain feeds given as used. 



Keeping Feed by Chicks all the Time. 



If Ration V. is used as indicated above, one kind of feed is kept before the chicks all the 

 time. 



If chicks have good range, it is entirely practicable to put out at one time all the food for 

 the day, a dry mash in hoppers or troughs, and the grain scattered over the ground they run 

 over. It will be found that they feed themselves quite regularly. 



Mashes and baked cakes cannot be left long before chicks without souring or drying, but 

 under any conditions which admit of scattering the grain for the day over the chicks' range, the 

 grain for Rations I., II., and III. may be put out in the morning when the first mash or cake 

 is fed, and if chicks are watered then, only one more visit is needed for the day, i. e., to give 

 the second soft food, and perhaps renew the water supply. 



Sometimes it is practicable to feed all grain in hoppers, boxes, or troughs, the chicks taking 

 sufficient exercise of their own accord, and as they forage for green food and insects. 



There is, however, the danger that chicks with all grain food so easily acquired, may fail to 

 forage enough, hence, if one adopts this method, he should continue or reject it according as 

 he finds it works well or otherwise with any particular lot of chicks. 



How fluch to Feed. 



Chicks that have opportunity and disposition to exercise may, as a rule, safely be fed all 

 they will eat. Keeping food before them of course means that they can get all they will eat at 

 any time. 



The danger in feeding more than is eaten at the time is not so much due to chicks overeat- 

 ing of sound sweet food, as to their eating the food left over, after it has become sour or 

 fouled. 



In feeding mash and cake, one must learn by experience how much to feed to a brood. At 

 first the hen and chicks will eat so little more than the hen alone that, as the hen generally gets 

 a share of each food given the chicks, and is likely to see that their wants are supplied before 

 satisfying her own appetite, the best rule I can give for first feeds is to feed the hen and brood 

 just as if feeding the hen without a brood. Then as you give the hen five feeds instead of 

 three, this means that you are allowing the brood about two-thirds of what you would give a 

 hen. This is for a brood of a dozen or so. Now the chicks do not eat so much as this, but the 

 hen, after her three weeks on the nest, will take all they leave for awhile. Then by the time 

 the chicks are eating a perceptible quantity, her appetite has moderated. So, while the rule 

 will not always apply exactly, if for the first two or three weeks you give hen and chicks at 

 each feed one hen's allowance, you will be as near right as you can be by any general rule. 

 After that time the chicks begin to eat so much more that you can better gauge the quantity 

 by observation. 



Remember that almost all poultrymen feeding chicks with hens throw out a great deal more 

 food than is necessary while the chicks are small. 



Feed Troughs for Chicks. 



For a brood of chicks a bit of board about 5 or 6 in. wide by 10 or 12 long, with strips of lath 

 nailed around the edges to form the sides of a very shallow box, makes a satisfactory trough 

 for feeding mash, and is large enough for the brood as long as they stay with the hen. Many 

 other simple styles might be described, but to do so here would take more space than is avail- 

 able. 



A trough or box in which a supply of food is to be kept before the chicks must, of course, be 

 deeper, and must be protected from rain. 



