CHAPTER III 



Care of Chicks 



PART from the coarse sand on the floor, they 

 require no food for the first two days, except 

 water with the chill taken off, when they are put 

 into the brooder, as Nature has provided for their 

 wants by the absorption of the yolk of the egg in 

 their bodies. I was amused to have a young man 

 write me "that he had a good hatch but had lost 

 a little chick. On examination he found it had 

 swallowed the yolk of an egg, which had killed it." If the chicks are 

 fed too soon the yolk of the egg does not become absorbed in time, 

 and the natural result is that the chicks become droopy and die. 

 After the chicks had picked at the sand for a few hours I placed 

 clover chaff or chopped clover hay under the hover for bedding. 

 I use this because if they eat any of it it will not injure them. If you 

 use sawdust or something similar the chicks are apt to eat more or 

 less of it before they distinguish the difference between that and 

 what they should eat, and it is liable to harm them. 



Don't Chill the Young Chicks 



If the weather permits, I allow the chicks on the ground for an 

 hour or two for the first time about the fifth day, or when they are 

 six days old. If the weather is mild they can remain out longer. 

 In cold weather care should be taken to see that they can find their 

 way back into the brooder, and not allow them to stand on the cold 

 ground and get chilled through, which is likely to prove fatal or stunt 

 their growth later. After they learn the way Into the warm hover 

 of the brooder they will run in whenever they get cold. If the weather 

 is cold they should be tempered to the cold ground by degrees by 

 allowing them to stay out longer each succeeding day for three or 

 four days. 



Right Temperature the Third and Fourth Weeks 



It is a good plan to keep the chicks in the brooder in the morning 

 until the grass becomes dry. They should be given green food of 

 some kind from the start. In case that green clover cannot be 

 secured for them from the lawn, some sprouted oats will make a 

 good substitute. On a subsequent page you will find directions for 



