SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



73 



two living springs, so our stock gets plenty of good pure 

 water, lots of shade, ample range, with plenty of insects to 

 keep them busy between meals. 



GEAY & STOEOKE, New York. 



Brooder Clucks and Growing Stock— Caie and Food. 



It is a delightfully easy thing to tell how to raise chick- 

 ens. It is not quite so easy to successfully raise them. There 

 is little need for any extended directions for raising chickens 

 by the natural method other than in the points of food and 

 cleanliness with some little attention to the details of hous- 

 ing and shade. With artificial hatching the business takes 

 on a development and calls for much greater care and de- 

 cidedly more attention to food and management. 



Little need be said of the hatching, except that the best 

 incubators should be used, the second ratfe and cheaper ma- 

 chines being generally unworthy of confidence, that is, the 

 problem of hatching is of sufficient importance that only 

 the very best means to this end should be accepted. 



In producing eggs for hatching the very best attention 

 must be given to the breeding stock, and if good results are 

 to be had ,the birds must be the product of several genera- 

 tions of hardy, vigorous stock. 



The strongest emphasis may be placed upon the fact 

 that it is much easier to hatch chickens than it is to raise 

 them after they are hatched, and the first two weeks in the 

 little bird's life is a crucial period, and under some condi- 

 tions the second two weeks is harder to" tide over than the 

 first fortnight, yet with due care and proper attention to 

 the warmth and food they may be and are successfully car-> 

 ried to an age after which death is generally the result of 

 accident rather than ailment or disease. 



What they shall be fed when taken from the machine at 

 th« expiration of tiiventy-four or thirty-six hours is a ques- 

 tion which has exercised the mind of every producer of 

 chickens. Every conceivable sort of food has been sug- 

 gested, recommended and tried in more or less cases. Wo 

 believe that the simpler the ration the better the chicken 

 and the surer th'e success in its raising. All fancy mixtures 

 and fussy feeding notions may be safely eliminated. The 

 old time mixture of boiled eggs and cracker crumbs is now- 

 a-days pretty generally neglected. In some instances breed- 

 ers are using this mixture successfully, but in more cases 

 they are killing their chickens -apparently by its use. We 

 have tried practically every system from the egg and crumb 

 diet to that of dry food alone, including baked cakes, 

 bread crumbs and various oat foods and so on, et cetera, et 

 cetera, and have gradually simmered down to the point 

 where we now feed exclusively for the first two days a mix- 

 ture of two-thirds wheat bran and one-third Indian meal 

 moistened with milk, and to this we add about five per 

 cent of fine gravel or grit. The chickens are fed all they 

 can eat, in fact it is before them practically all the time 

 for the first forty-eight hours, and from then until a week 

 or two of age there is very little of the time when food is 

 not within their reach. After the first two or three days 

 they are fed in addition finely sifted cracked corn and 

 rolled oats, chopped oats, cracked wheat, or in fact any 

 grain or food which they will eat. We conclude it makes 

 very little difference so long as they have a fair proportion 

 of animal food which, with us, is in the form of ground 

 beef scraps, and it may be just as well or better in the 

 form of milk, either sweet or sour, skimmed or whole. When 

 milk is fed to very small chickens it is better to moisten 

 their food with it than that they have it to drink. If they 

 have it as a drink they are quite apt to smear themselves 



with it making them sticky and dirty and both ill-feeling 

 and ill-looking.' After the first three or four days the grit is 

 left out of the food, a supply being kept canstantly within 

 reach, which they eat as they require it. The warmth in tne 

 hover is started at ninety-five degrees, with the chickens all 

 in. From that it is gradually lowered, more attention being 

 paid to the action of the chicken than to the temperature as 

 registered by the mercury. When the chickens are comiort- 

 able and settle down contentedly without overcrowding 

 or pushing too much to the outside it is concluded that the 

 conditions are right and they are doing well. When, on the 

 other hand, they crowd and cry, not enough heat is supplied, 

 and we give them .more. It is impossible to give small 

 chickens a satisfactory treatment where the brooders are 

 run altogether by the thermometer, regardless of the out- 

 side weather conditions, and the indications of comfort, 

 which may be observed from the chickens themselves. The 

 brooder floors and pens should be scattered with chaff or 

 covered with sand to induce action and exercise through 

 scratching and working for partitles of dry food, which may 

 be thrown about in the litter. The one thing essential to 

 the health of the chicken is abundant exercise. Without this 

 they will not thrive, and success cannot be attained. In or- 

 der to get the necessary exercise it is imperative that they 

 have an abundant supply of fresh air and an outdoor run at 

 all seasons of the year. A few minutes in the open air will 

 do the smallest chicken good, and after they are a week or 

 ten days old they may be trusted to run back and forth in 

 pleasant weather almost regardless of how cold the outside 

 temperature may be. Fussy coddling and over-heated com- 

 partments have been responsible for the death of more 

 chickens than any other cause. Whenever trouble appears 

 in a flock of chickens the first question with the average be- 

 ginner, and sometimes with the more experienced person, 

 is what j;heir food has been. The attention and investigation 

 is generally directed toward the . food. The facts are that 

 the strong, healthy chickens having abundajit exercise and 

 a good supply of fresh air will stand almost any sort of food 

 without taking harm. The main thing is to get the exercise. 

 It perhaps might be noted here that this is practically the 

 secret of success in managing breeding stock as well as 

 chickens. 



Clean water should be always within reach of chick- 

 ens and it thould be kept in some such fountain as will mak"* 

 it impossible for the little birds to get into it. This will 

 save frequent drenching and occasional deaths by drowning. 

 In extremely cold weather it is better that newly hatched 

 chickens should have luke-warm water than that it should 

 be given to them icy cold. Many breeders do not give the 

 little chickens any water until several days old, some even 

 keeping them several weeks without it. We have not 

 thought it the best way, and we give water from the first. 

 From their very evident pleasure in drinking, it must taste 

 good to them and we doubt any possibility of harm from 

 drinking overmuch clean, pure water. 



There is a good deal of question what the limit is in the 

 numbers that may be kept together safely. Many advocate 

 fifty as the best limit, while others keep from one hundred 

 to two hundred in the same pens and under the same hovers. 

 There is little ^oubt that for the beginner, at least, flocks of 

 fifty or sixty will do better,, and there will be a lower death 

 rate than in flocks of one hundred and upward. We have 

 built our brooder building with the pens three by ten feet, 

 which are designed to accommodate from fifty to seventy- 

 five small chickens. They will easily hold fifty chickens un- 

 til six weeks of age if tne chickens have an outdoor run. 



