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CHICK RATIONS. 



(Prof. J. E. Rice, Cornell University.) 



We have been spending two summers in chick feeding experi- 

 ments. In that time we have run a good many tests to compare rations 

 side by side with one hundred chickens in a flock, and have fed them 

 by seven different methods for eight weeks and let them take the 

 consequences. Some of the rations were good, some were poor, but 

 all of them undoubtedly had been fed in essentially the same form 

 by poultrymen. Some of these rations gave us chickens that were 

 not more than half developed, while others gave us chickens that were 

 perfect pictures of health. Out of these experiments and other ex- 

 periments we have arrived at a certain system of feeding which is 

 giving us excellent satisfaction. Briefly, the method of feeding chick- 

 ens is as follows: The first feeding is given when the chicks are 

 thirty-six to forty-eight hours old. For the first four days they are 

 fed a mixture of bread and rolled oats mixed with sour skim milk to 

 just moisten nicely but not sloppy. The chickens take to that food 

 as naturally as a baby takes to milk. The lactic acid of sour milk aids 

 digestion, is said to kill bacteria and has an appetizing effect. Oat 

 meal is the finest food known to grow young animals and bread bal- 

 ances up very nicely with it. We buy bread by the barrel that is a day 

 or two old from the bakeries. You may say this is expensive at two 

 and one-half cents per loaf. 

 If by any kind of feeding you 

 can get something that will 

 make your chickens live and 

 keep strong and well for the 

 first two or three weeks of 

 their life you can afford to 

 feed it. The small amount of 

 anything, no matter what it 

 costs for the first few weeks of 

 a chicken's life ought to be 

 used if it produces the desired 

 result. This ration is safe. We 

 simply run the bread through 

 a chopper, mix it with rolled 

 oats, moistening with sour milk 

 and feed it three times a day. 

 While they are getting these 

 three feeds a day on this ration, 

 which makes a nice soft mix- 

 ture, they can go to a tray and 

 eat any time they want it, a mixture of three pounds of cracked wheat, 

 two pounds of cracked corn, one pound of hulled oats or pinhead 

 oatmeal and one-half pound wheat bran. Wheat bran is wonder- 

 fully rich in mineral matter, and it provides bulk. The mixture of 

 grain and bran is left in front of them all the while for the first few 

 clays. This is very important and must not be overlooked. The baby 



Partridge Wyandotte. 



