PROTECTED RUNS. 



47 



an inch deep with perfectly dry earth, or fine sifted ashes. 

 The ashes are renewed every evening in five minutes, and 

 form a nice warm bed for the chicks, clean and sweet, and 

 much better than straw. 



Cats sometimes make sad inroads on the broods. If this 

 nuisance be great, it is well to confine the coveted prey while 

 young within a wire-covered run. And the best way of 

 forming such a run is to stretch some inch-mesh wire-netting, 

 two feet wide, upon a light wooden frame, so as to form wire 



Fig. 12. 



hurdles two feet wide and about six feet long. These are 

 easily lashed together with string to form a run, and may be 

 covered by similar hurdles (Fig. 12). In such a run all 

 animal depredations may be defied, until the chicks are a fort- 

 night old ; it also saves a world of trouble and anxiety, and 

 prevents the brood wandering and getting over tired. But 

 after that age the chicks suffer, unless the run can be made 

 much more extensive than here shown. 



With regard to feeding, if the question be asked what is 

 the best food for chickens, irrespective of price, the answer 

 must decidedly be oatmeal. After the first meal of bread- 

 crumbs and egg no food is equal to it, if coarsely ground, 

 mixed with a little bread-crumb and finely-cut fresh grass, and 

 only moistened so much as to remain crumbly. The price of oat- 



