POULTRY ON THE GENERAL FARM 
they remain long in one spot, but should be shifted a few 
feet each day. At first water should be provided at each coop, 
but as the chickens grow older they may be required to come 
to a few central water pans. 
As before suggested, rearing chicks with hens is the only 
suitable method for general farm practice. The brooder on 
the farm is an expensive nuisance. 
For brooder raised chicks it is necessary to provide means 
for the little chick to exercise. But in the season when the 
great majority of farm chicks are raised they may be placed 
out of doors from the start and the trouble will now be to keep 
them from getting too much exercise, i. e.: to keep the hens 
from chasing around with them especially in the wet grass. 
This is properly prevented by keeping the brood coops in 
plowed ground, and keeping the hens confined by a slatted 
door, until the chicks are strong enough to follow her readily. 
The chick should not be fed until 48 to 72 hours old. It 
may then be started on the same kind of food as is to form 
its diet in after life. The hard boiled egg and bread and milk 
diets are wholly unnecessary and are only a waste of time. 
I recommend the same system of chick feeding for the gen- 
eral farm as is used on commercial plants, and I especially 
insist that it will pay the farmer to provide meat food of some 
sort for his growing chicks. The amount eaten will not be 
large, nor need the farmer fear that supplying the chicks with 
meat food will prevent their consuming all the bugs and 
worms that come their way. 
Besides comfortable quarters, the chick to thrive, must 
have: Exercise, water, grit, a variety of grain food, green or 
succulent food, and meat food. 
Water should be provided in shallow dishes. This can best 
be arranged by having a dish with an inverted can or bottle 
which allows only a little water to stand in the drinking basin. 
Chicks running at large on gravelly ground need no pro- 
vision for grit. Chicks on board floors or clay soils must be 
provided with either coarse sand or chick grit, such as is 
sold for the purpose. 
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