SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



111 



Diet. — The longer the supply of hard-boiled eggs chop- ■ 

 ped fine is kept up, the better. As the birds get on, every 

 kitchen scrap is invaluable, and the following mixtures may 

 be given for meals in turn as convenient, variety being es- 

 sential for success: First meal, as early as possible— 6 a. m. 

 — egg chopped, mixed bread crumbs; second meal, kitchen 

 scraps, chopped fine in a wooden chopper, given warm, and 

 mixed to a crumbling mass; third meal, rice boiled in milk, 

 and dried" up crumbly with Scotch oatmeal; fourth meal, 

 barley-meal mixed cTumbly with the liquor in which m«at 

 has been boiled; fifth meal, meat chopped fine and bread 

 reduced to crumbs (not necessary daily.) These prepara- 

 tions given in turn and with judgment will, with occasional 

 handfuls of small, dry grain and barley and buckwheat baked 

 with water in the oven, give the chickens all that is neces- 



sary for building up the strong framework which is essential 

 to a fine-developed bird. The use of bone dust must be omit- 

 ted, and a constant supply of green food, together with mor- 

 tar, oyster-shell, gravel and all manner of grit and dust 

 should be insured. Pure water, never left to stagnate or 

 freeze or to get hot in, the sun, and if possible, milk occa- 

 sionally, will render the diet perfect. Chicks so kept, the 

 quantity given being increased with their size and appetite, 

 will be found at four months, or, at a"ny rate, at five, to be 

 fit for table without the unhealthy and unpleasant process 

 of cramming. If destined for the show-pen, they will be 

 ready to "go in " for the further care and preparation need- 

 ed for exhibition. At this age cockerels must be divided 

 from pullets, and the chicken period may be considered over. 



FOOD FOR CHICKENS 



ADVANTAGES OF DRY FOOD. 



WHETHER chickens should be fed water and dry 

 grain or no water and sloppy food, until weaned, 

 is a very far-reaching question. Personally we do 

 not believe in sloppy food at all for chickens. 

 Years ago cows were fed on sloppy food and mashes, but 

 experience has taught us that dry bran and meal are more 

 digestible and produce better results every way. The lattei* 

 is the article of commerce now used more than the old pin- 

 head oatmeal. . It is soft and the little chicks take it readily. 

 This we feed dry, scattering it on the floor for the chicks to 

 pick up. We took a tomato can and filled it about half full 

 with fresh milk, to which its weight of boiling water had 

 been added, and- inverted this can in a tin saucer, just large 

 enough for the chickens to readily reach the milk but not 

 large enough to admit their feet getting in. This can was 

 replenished in the afternoon. We have never seen chickens 

 relish a dish as much as that dish of milk. This lot of cTiiek- 

 ens was fed on oats and milk until a week old, when a bread 

 made of ground oats, bran and Indian meal was fed to them.- 

 A little cracked corn, and wheat was gradually given them, 

 and when three weeks of age the latter was the staple food, 

 but fresh water was substituted for the milk after that. We 

 never saw or raised a healthier lot than the above, barring 

 only on© chicken. The above system enabled us to save 

 time, as the dry food could be given, without danger of 

 spoiling or becoming foul, once or twice daily. 



Another lot of chickens were fed on cracked corn, rolled 

 oats and cracked rice from the first. They had all the water 

 they wanted to drink and did exceedingly well. The great' 

 danger of sloppy food, especially in warm weather, is its 

 becoming sour and producing bowel trouble. This is strik- 

 ingly so when bran and meal are fed, and we prefer to feed 

 both dry and let the moisture come from the water. Water 

 is indispensable, especially to brooder chicks. The latter 

 kept in too warm a temperature are apt to drink too much. 

 This was illustrated recently while on a visit to a friend. 

 Our friend had 120 chickens in a brooder and complained 

 that they would do' nothing but drink, and did not eat as 

 they should. Investigation showed that the chickens were 

 coiifined in a dry, hot brooder. He placed a. pan of water in 

 the brooder, lowered the temperature somewhat and found 

 that the chickens stopped the habit of drinking water almost 

 entirely. This leads us to think that the advocates of "no 

 water" base their experience on chickens raised under hens. 

 If such chickens are fed moist food and great care taken to 

 keep .the food clean and sweet, they can get along without 



a regular supply of water, but foraging in the damp grass 

 certainly gives them a natural supply of moisture not always 

 calculated upon. To watch chickens on a hot day and con- 

 clude they need no water is a thing that few men will be- 

 lieve. We have never seen any ill effects in chickens f rom • 

 water if allowed full liberty, but in confinement, under uad 

 sanitary conditions, water is more apt to satisfy the cravings 

 of a feverish and unhealthy lot of chicks than good food 

 will. We saw a very healthy lot of chickens recently that 

 were fed cracked corn and whole wheat only from the start. 

 They had an unlimited supply of water to drink and were 

 allowed unlimited range. Taking time and labor and general 

 results as a guide we can state that in our experience we 

 prefer the dry grain and water method with free range as 

 the safest and most profitable. 



COOKED MEAi FOR FOAATLS. 



It is too much the practice to feed raw meat to poultry 

 under the mistaken idea that as the worms and insects which 

 they seize with suCh avidity are uncooked, so should be any 

 meat given them by their owners. 



But the early worm which biddy takes in her empty 

 crop, soft, piilpy and crushed by the bill before it descends 

 the gullet, is one thing, and the coarse, dry, stringy, fatless 

 flesh thrown to them "in the rough" and the tough, is 

 quite another, even if the carcass of horse or sheep so be- 

 stowed is not still more objectionable on account of disease. 

 True, these nearly "dry bones" may serve to while away 

 3 weary . hour in the monotonous life of the poultry yard, 

 and happily the fowls may labor under the impression that 

 they are eating something. And so they may serve a certain 

 purpose in the poultry world. But for real aid and comfort 

 to the fowls save all your refuse moat, and buy in addition, 

 "liver, lights and all," as the old story runs, from the 

 shambles, and boil all together for two hours or more. Then 

 chop finely and mix with meal in the water in which they 

 are boiled. This dry, rich mess, showing bits of meat, like 

 raisins in plum pudding, will be a dish fit to set before any 

 "queen of the (poultry) harem," and she and her maids of 

 honor will pay you for it in more than words, as your egg 

 basket, high with pearls, will show on many a succeed- 

 ing day. 



COOKED FOOD. 



It is some trouble to prepare and cook the food for a lot 

 of fowls, but it is amply repaid by their more rapid develop- 

 ment, and the larger price they will bring when ready for 

 sale. The assertion, that they will grow more rapidly on 



