Success with poultry 



. 61 



eyes would swell and close, and in a short time they died. 

 John Skinner, of Nebraska, met with a like misfortune 

 later in the Sanson. Comparing notes we learned that each 

 had applied the grease during damp, chilly weather, and we 

 concluded that grease is all right as a lice destroyer if the 

 weather is warm and dry, but all wrong if the season is wet. 

 In both eases lard was used. My method of aplieation was 

 to dip my finger into the lard and aply the grease to the 

 head and vent. This year I am dusting my sitters thor- 

 oughly three times during incubation and hope to take the 

 chicks off free from lice. P. H. GOSSAED, Iowa. 



Grive Them a Good Start— No Hard and Fast Rule for 



Feeding— Follow Nature, and Do Not Forget the 



Grit and Green Food. 



For the successful raising of chicks it is most essential 

 that they haye the right kind of a start. My experience 

 has been that if they have proper attention the first week 

 or ten days from the shell, we may hope they will develop 

 into the finest stock, either for market or the breeding yards. 

 "We must look well to the flocks from which we select our 

 eggs, if we would have vigorous chicks, those that come 

 from the shell sturdy and full of life. I shall assume we 

 have such chicks, for anybody by proper care can have them, 

 and a puny chick, exhausted by its effort tt) free itself from 

 it's prison shell, does not seem to me to be worth feeding or 

 bothering with. When the hatch is over I remove the hen 

 with her brood to the brood coop, or place the- chicks in the 

 brooder, and as some of them will be a day old or more, they 

 will be looking around lor something to eat. 



The feeding of chicks! What a question this involves, 

 and as many succeed by quite different methods, I am sure 

 there can be no hard and fast rule to go by. I have no rules, 

 as so much depends on the season and other conditions. I 

 breed for eggs and to develop the chicks into the most use- 

 ful breeding stocck, rather than for broilers and therefore 

 strive more for stamina and a well-made frame-work of 

 Jbone and muscle, rather than a forced amout of flesh at the 

 earliest age. I can hardly more than suggest my method. 

 In its very simplicity I believe lies much of my success. 

 Keep close to nature. Warmth and cleanliness the chicks 

 must have. For the first food I find nothing better than 

 cornbread (johnny cake), just such as you use on the family 

 table, crumbled fine (it should be quite dry) and the old 

 fashioned pin-head oatmeal. This is vastly superior to the 

 various prepared oats on the market of late years. It is un- 

 derstood both are fed dry. My chicks seem to relish it from 

 the start. From the first I keep water convenient to them 

 in shallow pans and milk is splendid after the second week. 



For the first few days the food is sprinkled on an inch 

 or two of cut hay or chaff, allowing the chicks to pick at it 

 and eat as much as they require. As there is no mush or 

 soft food about this it will not sour in hot weather and is al- 

 ways wholesome. If the season is early and the chicks are 

 confined indoors throw a shovelful of earth and fine gravel, 

 or chick grit before the coop or brooder. If the chicks are 

 outside they will usually find enough grit if the ground con- 

 tains gravel. After the first week I feed four or five times 

 a day. If they are not on a green range, green food in some 

 form must be supplied (any vegetables they will eat are 

 good). Early in the season once a day I give the chicks a 

 feed of Pioneer Clover Meal, bran and cornmeal, one-third 

 each by measure, scalded and fed warm. If rightly prepared 

 this mash will crumble readily. Boiled potatoes are relished 

 by the chicks and make a fine change "occasionally through- 

 out the season. Do not pare them or mash them, break them 

 open and tne chicks will see to it that none is wasted. 



After the first week or ten days, make .the chicks work 

 for all their food except the mash. While the season is so 

 early that they are partly confined indors throw wheat, 

 cracked corn and buckwheat into three or four inches of cut 

 straw or any litter not too coarse. The chicks will find it 

 all and nothing will keep these early chicks in such fine con- 

 dition as exercise. Wihen the season advances if they 

 have a free range this method is not so essential. I raise 

 my chicks almost entirely on dry grains and think this 

 much beter than to use soft food freely; they certainly 

 thrive on it. I seldom loose one save from accident. 



Of course animal food in some form must be supplied. 

 Chopped raw beef is fine and a little of it will supply quite a 

 colony till they get to be a month or more old, when fresh 

 cut bone can be substituted. Feed this alone, not in the 

 mash. If fresh meat in some form cannot be obtained, 

 any of the good prepared animal meals may be used to 

 advantage. When the chicks are on a free range with 

 natural green foods I would omit- the clover from th« mash, 

 which now needh to be fed only on alternate days, ' but 

 throughout the summer if any large number is kept it is an 

 advantage to continue the animal food, as but few ranges 

 will supply enough in the form of worms, insects, etc., to 

 meet the demands of large growing flocks. I trust there 

 may be some helpful suggestion in these lines. I could give 

 no rules, nor do I believe chicks could be raised by rule and 

 develop all the good there is in them. Stpdy young chicks. 

 Watch out for their needs. If you are a true poultryman 

 on poultry woman you will learn of them lessons in nature's 

 ways that will lead to success. 



G. M. DIVEN, New York. 



The Crop as an Indicator — Animal Food and Charcoal — 

 Oats are Satisfactory — Overfeeding a Danger. 



"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you 

 are," might in a, measure be as well applied to poultry as 

 to people. We have seen this exemplified from placing eggs 

 with different people to have chicks hatched and raised for 

 us. From one, the birds would come home in the fall round- 

 up, nice, large-f railed, full-feathered, thrifty fellows; from 

 another they would be little, crooked, rough-plumed scrubs, 

 although the eggs came from the same pens and were equal- 

 ly good. The food and care made the difference. We lay 

 no claim to being experts in this matter, as we are learning 

 something every season. Our range is limited and we speak 

 only of feeding under such conditions. We have raised our 

 stock both with hens and in brooders, and with about equal 

 success. When the chicks hatch they are let alone for about 

 twenty-four hours, then they are fed a very few dry bread 

 crumbs and dry oat meal. A small amount of dry egg shell 

 is sprinkled where they will pick at it, and after three or 

 four days fine grit is used. The oatmeal and dry crumbs are 

 continued for two or three weeks. At the beginning of the 

 second week a cake is added, made of sifted chop food (corn 

 and oats) ten parts, poultry food one part, a little salt and 

 baking powder, mixed with milk until moderately stiff and 

 baked until it will crumble nicely. This we try to feed 

 in such quantity as will satisfy and not over feed them. Our 

 indicator is the crop. If it -seems to be all right, all is well, 

 but when it shows signs of being too full we shut down on 

 the rations a little until they seem to be digesting the 

 food thoroughly. 



Millet seed is used after the first week and until they 

 are turned out. It is. scattered in the straw litter and they 

 dig it out. A chicken loves to scratch if there is anything 

 in it, and it pays to indulge this liking. At about four 



