f>8 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



mean by this that the attendant must be forever doing something for them. On the contrary I 

 think chicks will stand a p reat deal of judicious letting alone. But the attendant must see that 

 the chicks want nothing, lack for nothing essential to their comfort and development. 



They need alternate shade and sunshine. They need good water, and all they want of it. It 

 should be before them all the time. There should always be food available for every chick to 

 get all it will eat, and while a great variety is not necessary there should be sufficient variety to 

 give the necessary proportions of grain, vegetable and meat foods. If these are supplied 

 freely the chick balances the ration for itself. Too often the meat and vegetable foods are sup- 

 plied spasmodically. This is especially the case when chicks are kept in close quarters and 

 dependent upon the attendant for everything they get. While growing they need good feeding 

 even more than after maturity. A hen of good constitution may go underfed for quite a long 

 time and not suffer permanent harm, but a chick that is underfed fails to grow, and practical 

 poultrymen agree that chicks of this kind are made up of subsequent good care and feeding so 

 rarely that practically such injuries are irreparable. 



Late Hatched Chicks. 



For many years the idea prevailed that chicks hatched late in the season could not make the 

 development of the earlier chicks, and that late chicks were as a rule not profitable. Gradually 

 this notion has broken down as poultrymen find that given breeding stock in as good condition, 

 given the same care the early chicks had, and above all, given fresh ground to start on, and not 

 ground contaminated by the early chicks, late chicks will thrive as well as early ones, and will 

 have ma<le as good growth at corresponding ages. 



The first difficulty is to get the stock in good condition late in the breeding season, and it is 

 quite hard to do this with hens except such as have had a rest during the spring. 



