NATURAL LAWS. 65 



Birds and Nature. 



Remember that the wild birds are out in all kinds of 

 weather, cold, ice, snow, and they don't have colds or roup. 

 They roost in trees, and not in a bad smelling- house. They 

 always have fresh air, and the bad air from their droppings 

 never reaches them, They are not tender, like a hot-house 

 plant. They gradually get used to the outdoor life. They 

 never overfeed and are never fed on all kinds of egg food to 

 make them grow and lay. They have to look for every seed 

 they get, and work for it. Flying is exercise for them. 

 Their eggs always hatch. You never saw an unfertile egg 

 in a bird's nest. Nature will do more for fertile eggs and 

 health for poultry than all the truck you can possibly feed 

 them . If a poultryman reads the analysis of foods, and fol- 

 lows the directions of those professors, doctors and would-be 

 experts on these lines, he will get into trouble . A hen at 

 liberty finds a great variety of food and is always healthy. 

 She will lay a lot of eggs, and almost all will be fertile. 



A hen in confinement will worry, and all the food you 

 give will do no good. Half of them will be sick, and a third 

 of the eggs will not be fertile. Those that are fertile are 

 weakly and sickly chicks when hatched. 



A hen that steals her nest will most always hatch every 

 egg and she can care for the chicks without any food from 

 man at all up to three weeks old. This I know to be a fact, 

 and I seldom water or feed the chicks, and they are as 

 healthy as prairie chickens. Wet grass and rains do not 

 bother the hen, she will care for them right out in the open 

 air, the same as other birds. This ought to be a lesson for 

 those who are in trouble with poultry. Follow nature, and 

 follow as closely as you can. Don't heat your hen houses, 

 or don't heat your brooder houses after March. 



If you want to raise chickens in December, January and 

 February, keep the house just above the freezing point, have 

 sand on the floor and give them all the air possible. Have a 

 pen with straw in it to keep them scratching for the grain. 



