METHODS OF FEEDING 271 



A house large enough to accommodate this number may be 

 pulled by a team of horses. Keeping them in smaller flocks 

 than fifty will offer no special advantage and the extra 

 amount of labor in caring for them in smaller numbers 

 offsets any possible advantage. The cost of the house will 

 be greater in proportion to number for the smaller house 

 than for the larger. The tendency to be guarded against 

 is crowding too many together in a small house or coop. 

 Great losses are incurred each year from this cause. The 

 size of flock for the two houses mentioned may be 25% 

 greater at the start and in two or three months, as the 

 cockerels are marketed, the number will be reduced to the 

 proper size. 



Rations. The feeding of the chick up to the end of the 

 brooding stage has already been discussed. No sudden 

 change should be made in the ration from small chicks to 

 growing chicks. One of the great secrets in feeding 

 chickens for any purpose is to avoid radical or sudden 

 changes. Free-range chicks may safely be hopper-fed. 

 Where the range is good, hopper feeding or part hopper 

 feeding will give probably as good results as any other. A 

 satisfactory method is to keep before the chickens all the 

 time a hopper of dry ground grains and a supply of animal 

 food. And in the afternoon or evening give a feed of 

 whole grain, wheat or cracked corn, or a mixture of both. 



The following are suggestions for a hopper of dry mash : 



No. 1. Bran 3 pounds. Ground corn 1 pound 



No. 2. Bran 3 " Ground oats 1 pound 



No. 3. Bran 3 " Ground barley 1 pound 



No. 4. Bran 3 " Coarse middlings 



or shorts 1 pound 



If the animal food is beef scrap add 10 pounds of it to 

 100 pounds of the mixture. There should also be a hopper 

 or box of broken or granulated bone and another of grit. 



