"The first food should be bread crumbs and hard boiled egg. 

 or johnnycake. To each pint of food add a sprinkling of 

 chicken grit. The food for the first few weeks should be 

 johnnycake, rolled oats, coarse oatmeal and bread or cracker 

 crumbs. A little well cooked meat finely minced three times a 

 week, and a liberal supply of fresh green food, grit, charcoal 

 and pure water are essential to health. When the chicks get 

 to be six weeks old they should have a cooked mash for supper 

 six nights in the week. For other food they should have hulled 

 oats, wheat and a little cracked corn fresh green food alwa\ s 



"From the first have a litter of chaff or cut clover and sand 

 for the chicks to scratch in ; exercise is essential to good diges- 

 tion. Give them sunny quarters, and provide a shelter in case 

 the sun is too hot, and for protection in stormy weather. When 

 warm weather comes be sure that they can have plenty of 

 freedom and exercise on the green bosom of 'Old Mother 

 Earth.' Keep them busy, happy and hungry. Be careful not 

 to overfeed. If you must coop them up, make the coops large 

 enough to give them plenty of room to exercise and grow. 

 Change the location of such coops often, to give them fresh 

 ground to run on." 



WHEN TO HATCH CHICKS. 



Chicks of the Asiatic breeds should be hatched in March, 

 chicks of the American breeds in April, and chicks of the Med- 

 iterranean breeds in May for winter egg production. Poultry- 

 men who want eggs all the year round will do well to keep 

 getting out chicks from March to June and then start in again 

 in September. Josh Billings quaintly says that "the best time 

 tew set a hen iz when she wants tew set," and the man who 

 has the facilities for taking care of them will find that chicks 

 hatched at almost any season of the year will not come, in 

 amiss. I have known White Wyandotte pullets of my strain, 

 hatched in August, to begin laying in January, when in the 

 same pen were pullets of other breeds hatched months before 

 that had not begun to lay. 



