154 POULTRY BREEDING 
be allowed to lie uneaten from one meal to another. 
When it is observed that the grain is not all eaten less 
should be fed. The object is to keep the appetite good, 
but not to allow the chicks to become hungry enough to 
stop constant growth. Pure water, plenty of chick grit 
or coarse sand and fine gravel, and a box of charcoal, 
chick size, should always be kept where the chicks can 
help themselves. 
~ At the Maine station the chicks hatched in April are 
moved out on the open range about the middle of June. 
The time for making this change may be regulated by the 
weather. In warmer parts of the country the change 
could be made late in April or some time in May, accord- 
ing as the season was early or late. This is a matter 
where each one must judge for himself. If the weather 
is fine the chicks might be moved any time after they 
were eight weeks old. The change is made by simply 
moving the portable brooder houses and the chickens out 
into the grass fields. The method now followed at that 
station gives the maximum of benefits with the minimum 
of labor. Two acres are allotted for 1,000 growing chicks 
and the same land should not be used two years in suc- 
cession if it is at all convenient to put the chicks on fresh 
land. 
When the chicks are moved to the range the sexes are 
separated. The method of feeding the pullets is very 
simple. Separate protected troughs are kept filled with 
cracked corn, wheat, beef scrap, cracked bone, oyster 
shell and grit, one kind of feed in a trough, where the pul- 
lets can help themselves whenever they desire. Fresh 
water is kept before them. There are no regular hours for 
feeding, but care is taken that the troughs are never 
empty. Since 1905 another trough containing the fol- 
