POULTRY RAISING 43 



trouble in raising fully ninety-five out of every hun- 

 dred you hatch providing the eggs are from yearling 

 hens, or fully matured pullets. 



Bear in mind, the most critical time of your 

 chicks's life is between twenty and forty days old. 

 This is the period they must not be neglected, as they 

 begin to grow rapidly at this age. 



You must sow more liberal of your oats at this 

 time, and do not neglect your harrowing, for it takes 

 but a short time each day. 



You must also give your chicks all the processed 

 oats they will take at this time. 



In order to economize and save labor as soon as 

 the chicks are large enough to leave the brooder, you 

 can move your pullets to your laying houses, that is, 

 the pullets which you want to keep for your own 

 breeding stock to take the place of your yearlings. 



When you want to replace a flock of old hens 

 with pullets, just put a lean to on back end of your 

 laying house, say 6x6 ft. square would answer every 

 purpose. You can put this up with a single pitch 

 roof and a wire netting front, and put some low roosts 

 in here and shut in sixty of your finest, largest pullets 

 for three days, when you can let them run with the 

 hens. 



Feed chicks in their own department in an open 

 trough, keeping it full of wheat screenings ; also beef 

 scraps before them all the time, also grit and charcoal. 

 They will grow fine here and mature very rapidly. 



When you sell your old hens, just shut chicks 

 out of their department and they will go right in the 

 main house and never have to be, changed. When 

 they start to laying, they will keep right at it and you 

 will gain a full month's eggs under this system. 



This lean-too is also very handy for shutting up 

 sitting hens and various other purposes. 



For earlier hatches, if you find you want to hatch 

 very early and also to have some houses to carry over 

 some surplus birds in case you go in the fancy stock, 

 you can build one row of houses same style as your 

 laying houses only one-fifth smaller. Use sixteen 



