72 



SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



of meat, but it must be used with judgment and be of 

 good quality. 



At six weeks old we make the mixture of whole grains 

 instead of cracked, still feeding it twice a day, but at this 

 age the bread is replaced by a mash fed morning and night, 

 composed as follows: Wheat, 50 pounds; shelled oats, 25 

 pounds; pearled barley, 15 pounds; corn, 10 pounds. We 

 buy the grains whole and have them ground up together into 

 a meal. To every 100 pounds of this meal we add XO pounds 

 of the finest quality meat scraps. We continue to feed our 

 chicks four times a day until three months old, then we drop 

 one meal, and feed only three times a day, mixed grains in 

 the morning and noon, and mash at night. We aim to feed 

 all they will «at at each meal, without overfeeding. Now 

 and again when they do not appear hungry we drop a meal, 

 and they are benefited by it. 



At thr€e monthj old we separate the sexes, giving the 

 cockerels one part of the farm, the pullets the other. 



We hav6 said nothing about charcoal, dry bran, tonics 

 ' and conditiogi powders, simply because they are unnecessary. 

 Grit of course we use and find we cannot get along, with- 

 out it. 



While we are painfully aware that our method is not 

 perfect, we cannot overlook the fact that by following it, as 

 her« described, we have succeeded in bringing to maturity 

 over ninety per cent of all chicks put in the brooders. Our 

 chicks grow steadily from the shell up, our pullets begin lay- 

 ing at six months old always. They have produced two hun- 

 dred eggs in one year. A good deal of this large egg yield 

 was due to the oare given the pullets while growing and after 

 they began to lay, but had they not been bred from layers 

 wo could not have reached these results. If only those who 

 decry the practice of breeding layers by the individual rec- 

 ord system would try it, they would soon become converts 

 to it. However, the proof of the pudding is the eating of it; 

 give our way a trial before you condemn it; you will be 

 pleased with the results. 



C. BBICAULT, Massachusetts. 



?eed and Care Given Flocks of Brooder Chicks, 



As our present plan of feeding is giving such good re- 

 sults we will here give you a description of the care and feed 

 given our chicks. We leave the chicks in the machines until 



The morning of the twenty-third day the chicks are 

 taken out and put into out-door brooders and given a break- 

 fast of dry rolled oats, which we feed for a week or ten days. 

 A little ahopped lettuce is much relished by the chicks also. 

 From rolled oats we go to a mixed food consisting of the 

 H. O. Co. poultry food with a little more rolled oats and 

 meat meal added to it. This we mix up with curdled milk 

 until it will crumble in the hand. This we feed until it is 



Feeding Time. 



the morning' of the twenty-second day, taking out the traya 

 the night of the twenty-first day, thus giving the chicks 

 more room and light. 



An Interesting Study. 



time for whole grain and cracked corn, and we find it is giv- 

 ing grand results, We neglected to state at the beginning 

 that first and foremost the chicks are given plenty of fresh 

 water as well as good food, all of which make chicks grow 

 and keep them growing. Charcoal and fine grit are also 

 among the necessities of proper feeding. 



Great care should be taken to keep the brooders cleaned 

 at least once- a week, and aired every day. 



Mr. Wyckoff has always used indoor brooders, but he 

 always had a great deal of trouble in keeping the chicks 

 warm early in the season and cool as the season advanced, 

 and the result was the loss of chicks. There is one point in ■ 

 favor of indoor brooaers, and that is in rainy weather the 

 chicks have more room, but with the style of brooders we 

 have now in use we have had no trouble on this score, as 

 we only put seventy-five into each brooder, which is but 

 half their capacity, thus giving the chicks plenty of room for 

 different kinds of weather. 



Attached to each brooder is a small wire run, where the 

 chicks are let out for a week or ten days, until they" get used 

 to going in and out of the brooder, then the fence is removed 

 and the chicks have free range every pleasant day until they 

 are separated and put in the brooder house and taught to go 

 onto the roost. 



We think we have the best plan for young chick roosts 

 we have seen. We use four saw-horses placed at even dis- 

 tances apart. On these we have eleven roosts, four inches 

 wide by twenty feet long, placed about two inches apart. 

 These are fastened to the end horses by boring holes 

 through the slats and horses and putting spikes through 

 both, thus holding them all in position. We find them easy 

 to build, easy to clean and easy to take down and store. 

 These eleven roosts will accommodate from three to four 

 hundred half-grown chicks. Our brooder hoilse is situated 

 in a large pear orchard covering about eight acres; the soil 

 is gravel and sand and is seeded to clover. We also have 



