40 A POULTRY COMPENDIUM. 



brood from the nest where the chicks were hatched to 

 a suitable coop with a lath run in front, when the 

 chicks are about twenty-four hours old. For the first 

 few days the chick's food consists of the yolk of a hard 

 boiled egg, chopped very fins and mixed with bread 

 crumbs. Milk, if we have it, and if not, good, fresh, 

 clean water, is furnished for drink. This diet is contin- 

 ued for three or four days, and five meals a day are 

 furnished. In the course of two or three weeks the 

 number of meals per day can safely be reduced to three. 

 A continued diet of eggs and bread crumbs is not only 

 expensive, but leads to constipation. The egg food, 

 however, may be continued for an indefinite length of 

 time, to the advantage of the chick, if given but once 

 a day. When the chicks are three or four days old, 

 you can feed them with Indian corn meal, mixed with 

 boiling water, which cooks the meal and makes a hasty 

 pudding of it. A still better way to cook the meal is_ 

 to wet it up very thin and watery and then put into a 

 hot oven and allow it to bake. The water swells the 

 meal, and the heat cooks and dries it. Indian meal, 

 however prepared, should only be fed to chicks when in 

 a crumbly state. If you continue the egg-diet, chop the 

 white and yolk and shell together and feed once a day 

 or once in two days. Wheat bran and oat meal, mixed 

 with corn meal, also make a good food. When the egg- 

 diet is discontinued, and we recommend that it be not 

 wholly discontinued until your chicks are six or eight 

 weeks old, if you are striving to raise extra fine ones, 

 animal food in some form should be supplied ; and this 

 is especially necessary if your chicks are closely confined. 



