90 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



for their digestion is more delicate than that of 

 chickens. 



FEEDING BABY CHICKS 



The feeding of baby chicks is not at all the diffi- 

 cult, complicated matter some have supposed it to 

 be. Given mature, healthy parent stock and a 

 chick well hatched and brooded in warm, clean quar- 

 ters, and your chick will grow on any kind of suit- 

 able food. The chick cared for by Mother Biddy 

 on range picks up, what? Little seeds, bits of weed 

 and grass, a bug now and then, and a few grains of 

 sand if it needs them. Imitate Nature in your feed- 

 ing. Give little seeds and grains, suitable to the size 

 of the chick, a little animal food, some green when 

 it is old enough for it, and your chick will grow, if 

 only other conditions are right. 



Principles are always better than rules to go by, 

 and I think we may lay down as the fundamental 

 principles of chick feeding the following: 



1 The chick is not ready to eat for the first day 

 or two of its life. The yolk of the egg which it took 

 into its abdomen the day it was hatched will suffice 

 for forty-eight hours or longer, and that is all the 

 food it needs. 



2. The first feed should be dry and very simple. 



3. Feeding should be progressive. Food which 

 is sufficient for the first week is not enough for the 

 second. Make the ration richer and more varied 

 after the first week. 



4. Chicks must have protein for building tissues 

 and making feathers and ash for bones. The best 

 and cheapest protein for chicks is found in milk 

 skim milk, buttermilk, clabbered milk or dried milk. 

 If they have all the milk they want they need noth- 

 ing else. Bone meal is the best bone maker. See 

 that it is in the mash after the first week. 



