REARING 179 



on. At the Kansas experiment station the best 

 results were had by letting the chicks go without 

 food for 90 hours after hatching. If the reader is 

 skeptical on this point try it a time or two in a 

 small way. We get back to Nature and make the 

 first feed for the chicks by cutting into fine bits 

 some tender grass. The amount needed is small. 

 The hen that stole her nest and brought off a brood 

 did not provide much for the chicks for the first 

 few days. Many persons make the great mistake 

 of overfeeding while the chicks are young. They 

 usually pay the price in dead chicks later on. 



At first it is best not to use bedding materials 

 that are indigestible or that may be eaten. Little 

 chicks ara very foolish birds. When taken from 

 the incubator and placed in the brooder, they at- 

 tempt to eat anything they can swallow. Too often 

 they succeed and many a flock has been killed by 

 filling up on bran, sawdust or sand. The first 

 choice would be cut clover, next cut straw, barn 

 litter or chaflf, sweet and free from mold and de- 

 cayed particles. After the first week almost any- 

 thing can be used. One of the best materials avail- 

 able is dry earth, especially in warm weather. It 

 absorbs the droppings and is a good disinfectant. 

 Bedding should always cover the brooder floor at 

 least I inch thick, and be short enough to let the 

 chicks scratch in it. Dry chick feeds should always 

 be fed in the litter, and every inducement given the 

 chicks to exercise. 



One thing to bear in mind in feeding young 

 chicks is that the ability to select nourishing foods 

 from injurious or harmful substances does not de- 

 velop so quickly in the brooder chick as in the 

 chick that associates with the hen. This instinct 



