POULTRY SECRETS REVEALED. 33 



Clincli that fact. 



Now let us go into details. 



It is the first of January. Your birds are properly mated, as 

 described in Chapter 14. Very well. Now you are ready to feed 

 your Breeding stock — not for record laying, but for record chicks. 



You are breeding some Mediterranean variety — Leghorns, Anconas, 

 anything you please, of the small, nervous, fast growing, quick matur- 

 ing sort. These birds require no nerve food. On the contrary they 

 need fattening food — plenty of corn, milk, vegetables. Get your Leg- 

 horn hens as fat as you can — they won't take on too much flesh — and 

 note the increased size and vigor of their chicks. And when the 

 chicks come, crowd them to the limit. See to it that they have plenty 

 of granulated bone, chick grit, green stuff, fresh water, sour milk, and 

 exercise. The latter is a mighty important factor. 



Keep the Chicl<s Busy! 



I have grown some immense Leghorns, and the way I did is 

 this: 



After the chicks were "nest ripe" — that is not earlier than 48 hours 

 after the hatch is completed — I begin operations. First, they get some 

 chick grit — ^just a pinch for each one — with some of the medicated 

 charcoal prepared by the Des Moines Incubator Co., of Des Moines, 

 Iowa, and water in a chick fountain. An hour or two later they get 

 their first supply of the Gritless Chick Food prepared by Park & 

 Pollard of Boston, Mass. I would say at the outset that I use the 

 Park & Pollard foods solely because they give better results at less 

 cost than any others — and I have gone far afield in my search for the 

 best. 



I keep the chicks in Buckeye colony houses either with hens or 

 Lullaby brooders in lots of from 15 to 30 — depending on the season. 



