VIGOR 



I never advise beginners to commence by trying to make a 

 new breed, because very few are capable of success, just as there 

 are but few artists who can paint a magnificent picture when they 

 first begin to paint. To beginners I say, choose the breed and the 

 standard that you like best, and keep to that breed. Then go on 

 improving your flock. The way to do this is first of all, look to 

 the vigor of your flock. It is VIGOR, first, last, and always that 

 you want "But," says the beginner, "how am I to get vigor, and 

 how am I to keep it?" 



First to get vigor, you have to begin with the parents- 

 Get your eggs from healthy, vigorous stock, that have been fed 

 the ration for vigor. Then hatch them properly, remembering that 

 if you have a poor hatch (that is to say, if you find a number of 

 chicks dead in the shell, if the hatch has been hurried by too much 

 heat or retarded by too low a temperature), that those chicks which 

 do manage to get out of the shell will not have vigor of constitu- 

 tion, nor size of frame, nor the early development so necessary for 

 success. A great deal depends upon the chick being properly 

 hatched; for that reason I advise beginners to commence hatching 

 with hens, and when they do have an incubator, get a good standard 

 incubator, and set one or two hens at the same time, keep them both 

 running evenly together. Biddy will teach beginners a great deal. 

 Then when the chicks are hatched, feed for vigor. Consult Nature, 

 feed the fluffy little fellows after you have allowed them the neces- 

 sary rest of at least thirty-six hours before feeding them. All a 

 chick needs is rest and warmth to go on growing for about two 

 days or even three ; after that time its digestive organs are ready for 

 work ; then they must have the proper kind of food. 



The Crop 



Nature has given the chick a crop where the food is first re- 

 ceived. In this crop is found a fluid, something like the saliva in 

 human beings ; this saliva acts upon the food, softening it and other- 

 wise preparing it for digestion. The food then moves on to the 

 proventriculus, or stomach, where it is still acted upon by a fluid, 

 and it finally passes to the gizzard. 



The dry chick feed, so universally used, composed of a great 

 many fine grains, is admirably adapted to feeding the chick. There 

 are some grains especially conducive to vigor; the chief of these 

 is oats, in any form, steel-cut, hull-ed, or rolled breakfast oats. 

 There is another thing which Nature in the spring time gives the 

 chicks, plenty of worms, bugs, insects. Often after an April shower 

 I have seen the ground covered with worms, but here in California 

 there are not enough insects to supply the chickens, therefore the 

 chicks must have animal food as well as succulent green food. I 

 used to buy two pounds of hamburger steak three times a week, 

 and nothing suited the chicks better, fed raw once a day. 



