226 How THE FARM PAYS. 



mat. A Light Brahma hen, in a roomy coop of this kind, will take 

 twenty chicks and rear all without the loss of one, as the brood is 

 quite safe from accident. The food should be oat meal, cracked corn 

 and finely chopped meat scraps, with plenty of pure water. Light 

 Brahma chicks are exceedingly hardy, and although almost bare of 

 feathers for several weeks will stand severe cold if kept dry. When 

 the chicks are two months old the hen may be taken from them, and 

 they will nestle in their coop quite comfortably alone. At ten or 

 twelve weeks old they will weigh two to three pounds, and will sell 

 for $1.50 a pair in good markets, and nearly as much, when half 

 this weight, as broilers. Later chicks, ready for market when 

 summer boarding is at its height, readily sell for twenty-five cents a 

 pound, and a four-months-old Light Brahma cockerel, at that age, 

 will bring a dollar. Farmers who make a special business of this 

 have often realized $5 from each hen of a well managed flock, includ- 

 ing the eggs sold early in the season at the usually high prices then 

 current. 



MANAGEMENT OF EARLY CHICKENS. 



As in ah 1 special branches of any business, the rearing of poultry 

 requires considerable tact and experience. And the rearing of early 

 chickens is still more exacting in this respect. But when properly 

 managed, either of these specialties may be made a profitable addition 

 to the farm business under some circumstances. Grain farming and 

 poultry keeping will not go together, but dairying and stock feeding 

 will do very well with poultry rearing. Poultry is especially adapted 

 for dairy farms, as fowls will consume the spare milk with equal and 

 perhaps greater profit than pigs will. For satisfactory success, how- 

 ever, there are some requisites that are indispensable. It is all in the 

 management. First a well arranged house and yard are needed; and 

 the necessary arrangement includes the easy securing of perfect 

 cleanliness, dryness, and thorough ventilation. Next there must be 

 such a provision and kind of nests and fittings that vermin can find 

 no harbor; that the hens cannot quarrel and fight and break their 

 eggs, and so learn the bad habit of eating them. Then there must 

 be a separate apartment for brooding hens, where they may not be 

 annoyed by laying hens, and every provision for their feeding and 

 comfort and security; lastly there must be a properly arranged method 

 of protecting the young chicks as soon as they are hatched and until 

 the whole brood is out and strong enough to go into the coop with 

 the hen. 



