SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



dish or trough filled with chick food. Visit them every two or 

 three hours and scatter a Uttle chick food in the litter of the 

 brooding chamber, removing the hover for a few minutes at 

 each visit to give all a chance to feed. Aim to keep the chiclm 

 comfortable and busy and see that they are well fed. 



Beginning on the third day give a httle thoroughly boiled 

 rice and some stale bread crumbs moistened with scalded sweet 

 milk. Give this food in addition to the regular chick food and 

 feed it occasionally, say once a day or every other day, until 

 they are two weeks old. Also supply them with raw apple 

 parings, potato parings or a spUt raw beet. 



Beginning on the third day let them down for a Uttle run 

 in the exercise apartment which has been well Uttered with out 

 clover, chaff or mow sweepings. After they have been down a 

 few minutes drive them back and shut them in. Repeat this 

 at each feeding time, (every two or three hours) until the after- 

 noon of the fourth day, when they may be let down late in the 



YOUNG CHICKS, ENJOYING THE SUNSHINE AND EXERCISE AROUND BROODER 



afternoon and allowed to run back and forth until bedtime. 

 Be careful to teach them to run back into the brooding chamber 

 and get underneath the hover to get warm. Remember that 

 the chicks only know what they are taught. Thereafter feed 

 the chicks only in the exercise apartment and keep their water 

 fount there. 



By the time the chicks have been in the brooder five or six 

 days the runway into the exercise apartment can safely be left 

 open at aU times. As a rule it is a good plan at first if there is 

 a partition of felt tabs between the brooding apartment and the 

 exercise apartment to pin up one of the tabs to make a Uttle 

 open doorway until the chicks get used to running back and 

 forth. After the chicks become accustomed to their new home 

 these tabs can be allowed to hang down, as the chicks will 

 readily find their way beneath them. 



When the chicks are a week old in warm weather and when 

 they are from ten days to two weeks old in colder weather they 

 should be given a Uttle run outside the brooder. Do not permit 

 them to stay out long the first few times. Let them out for a 

 little run then drive them back. Gradually increase the size 

 of the run daily as they grow accustomed to it. Never pfcrmit 



them to huddle or crowd in sunny spots, as if they once form the 

 habit they are sure to become chilled. Keep the chicks on the 

 move. It is of the utmost importance not to let them huddle and 

 to keep them moving. Remember that you have to teach them 

 all that they need to learn just as a mother hen would teach 

 them how to take care of themselves. Put a Uttle pile of sifted 

 hard coal ashes in their run occasionally for them to pick over. 

 Usually it is a good plan after the first week to begin feed- 

 ing a Uttle small red wheat sifted, clean fine-cracked com to 

 take the place of a part of the chick food, gradually weaning from 

 the chick food until they have only wheat and cracked com as the 

 grain ration. The chicks will remain in the brooder until they are 

 fairly weU fledged. The length of the time depends somewhat 

 upon the chicks themselves and the season of the year. They are 

 ready to be weaned when six weeks old and even in very usually 

 cold weather are seldom ever kept in the brooder beyond the 

 age of eight weeks. 



If there is any tendency 

 to looseness of the bowels 

 among Uttle. chicks see that 

 they eat charcoal and are 

 given a Uttle scalded milk 

 containing a smaU amount 

 of grated nutmeg, aUowing 

 them to drink all that they 

 wiU several times daily. This 

 will usuaUy bring them 

 around all right. Boiled rice 

 over which a Uttle finely gran- 

 • ulated charcoal has been 

 sprinkled is excellent. 



When the chicks are a 

 week old accustom them to 

 a very gradual temperature. 

 Run the lamp a Uttle lower 

 every few days until you 

 have them Comfortable at 

 a temperature of about 75 

 to 80 degrees by the time the 

 chicks are a month old. Do 

 not be in too great a hurry 

 to reduce the temperature, 

 and do not try to reduce it 

 too rapidly. Be guided in 

 this by the comfort of the 

 chicks. Usually by the time 

 they are a month old you 

 wiU find them on top of the hover at night, and as soon as 

 they begin this it wiU be weU to remove the hover altogether 

 to give them more room in the brooder. 



When the chicks are removed from the brooder place them 

 in comfortable colony coops, twenty-five to fifty in a flock, and 

 keep them confined near the coop for the first three or four days, 

 enclosing them in a wire run so that they cannot stray away. 

 Have the brood coop comfortably bedded with chaff, cut straw 

 or a similar substance, keep beef scrap, cracked com, cliarcoal, 

 grit and pure water always by them, and as soon as they have 

 become accustomed to their new quarters give them a Uberal 

 range. Clean all brooders, brood-coops and colony coops once 

 a week. If the chicks are not allowed Uberal range they must 

 be suppUed with plenty of green food, and should be given an 

 occasional feeding of stale bread crumbs moistened with milk, 

 or after they are weaned from the brooder table scraps or a mash 

 containing table scraps, some meat food and Ughtly seasoned 

 with salt. Poultry of aU ages need food containing a Uttle 

 salt occasionally in order to keep them in good condition. Where 

 the birds cannot have range to pick up what they need for them- 

 selves you must endeavor to supply it. 



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