AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 
“balancing”? the ration. These feeds contain 
everything in the way of grain that a chick needs 
to promote vigor and growth, and chicks may be 
raised on this prepared feed alone until they are 
five or six weeks old, providing meat and green 
stuff are supplied. The feed may be purchased in 
any quantity desired, and usually sells for two to 
three dollars per hundred-pound bag. At that 
price it is as cheap as anything that can be fed to 
little chicks with satisfactory results. 
There are very few cases where it is not better 
for one to purchase the prepared feed than it 
would be for him to mix it himself. However, at 
out-of-the-way places, where railroad facilities are 
poor and transportation charges excessive, it some- 
times is cheaper to mix the feed at home. In this 
case, here is a good formula to follow: 
45 lbs. cracked wheat 
20 lbs. cracked corn (with meal sifted out) 
15 lbs. millet seed 
to lbs. hulled oats 
10 Ibs. broken rice. 
If the hulled oats cannot be procured, pinhead 
oatmeal, such as can be purchased at any grocery, 
may be substituted. 
Never feed chicks on a bare surface. Scatter all 
their food in a litter two or three inches deep, as 
this induces the chicks to take healthful exercise 
scratching and hunting for the grains. It also is a 
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