POULTRY FOR PROFIT 69 



fountain of clean water completes the preparation 

 of the coop. 



If the chicks are put into the coop the morning 

 of the second day after hatching, the steel cut oats 

 in the litter will be all they need till night. About 

 five o'clock give a hard-boiled egg chopped, shell and 

 all, with an equal amount of dry bread as an appe- 

 tizer, or, if that is not convenient, scatter more steel- 

 cut oats or rolled oats. There is no special virtue 

 in egg and bread, but the chicks like it and eat it 

 a little more eagerly than they do the dry feed. A 

 little onion chopped in is good for them. (Fig. 32.) 



The second day a dish of dry bran may be set 

 before them, and more steel-cut oats scattered. 

 Cracked wheat may be added to the oats or commer- 

 cial chick feed given instead. It is a good plan to 

 give an occasional meal of egg and bread the first 

 five days. Chicks grow faster when they are coaxed 

 a little. After five days they can settle down to 

 commercial chick feed and the Cornell chick mash, 

 with lettuce once a day. 



The hen should be confined in the coop for a week 

 at least. If she does not brood the chicks as she 

 should, darken the coop, but the confinement is usu- 

 ally sufficient. A hen that does not pay proper 

 attention to her brood should be discarded. Let the 

 chicks go back and forth through the wire door as 

 soon as they are old enough to find their way back, 

 but confine them in the wire run until they are sev- 

 eral weeks old. If the weather is fine, and there 

 are no dogs or cats about, they may be out after ten 

 days. 



Keep the hen in the run at all times. She will 

 be much easier to manage and will not be able to 

 tire the chicks out by dragging them too far or to 

 chill them in the early morning dew, and the chicks 



