BliOILKR ItAlSJNG 31 



Leghorns are not satisfiietor}^ Tliey need to be two 

 weeks older than the Pl^-mouths to give the same weight. 



"The chickens are not fed for the first day after 

 hatching. Their first food consists of broken crackers 

 softened in water, cooked mush and bird seeds. They 

 are fed very often at first, four or five times or oftener, 

 eacli day. As soon as tliey get well started tiieir main 

 soft ration is a mixture of corn meal and middlings, 

 half and half, whicli is made early in the morning and 

 allowed to stand until about nine o'clock and fed warm. 

 The first feed, fed very early in the morning, is hard 

 grain. Cracked corn, cracked wheat or cracked oats 

 are fed at noon and at night. They get one quart of 

 meat scraps in the mush for each 2000 chickens. For 

 green food they have cabbages to peck at and clover 

 hay steamed. Mica, grit, charcoal and water are kept 

 constantly by them. 



''Tliey are kept warm by hot water pipes alwut six 

 inches from the floor of the pen. Sand is filled in 

 under the pipes to varying hights, according to the size 

 of tlie chickens. The ends of the pipes nearest the 

 Ijroiler are warmest and the youngest cliickens are kept 

 there. A great point in raising healthy winter chicks 

 is to keep them scratching. The grain and bird seed 

 is always fed in sand or litter in order to make the 

 chickens work for it. All our chicks are raised l>y 

 incubators and brooders, and by comparison with hens 

 which are used some years we find that we can hatch 

 and raise twenty-five per cent more chicks by using 

 incubators and brooders. 



'Tn finisliing off chickens for market, something 

 depends upon our orders. "When a lot of chickens are 

 needed in a hurry two or three weeks hence, they are 

 put in a fattening pen and fed all they will stand. 

 Giving as great a variety of food as possible in feeding 

 them,"just before they get all they want the dishes are 



