l60 MAKING POULTRY PAY 



better results when I have added shorts to the mix- 

 ture. 



No set rule of feeding can be laid down, so much 

 depends upon the feeds at hand, the breed of chicks, 

 and the season of the year. In early spring when 

 chicks must be confined to sheds or buildings they will 

 want different feeding from later in the season when 

 they may have free run. Feed the first day or two 

 upon a mixture of bread crumbs grated and finely 

 chopped hard-boiled eggs. In a few days rolled oats 

 may be added to this. If possible, use a little hard- 

 boiled egg the first week. In a few days begin to add 

 a little beef scrap or animal meal to their feed. 



A most excellent plan of feeding and one which 

 invariably gives good results is to mix together equal 

 parts of corn meal finely ground, wheat bran or coarse 

 middlings and ground oats or barley from which the 

 hull has been sifted out. To one quart of this mixture 

 add a tablespoonful of animal meal or fine beef scraps, 

 a'teaspoonful of bone flour and a teaspoonful of bak- 

 ing soda and mix up with skimmilk. Put in a baking 

 pan and bake hard. Then crumble it fine and feed the 

 chicks upon this five times a day all they will eat clean 

 in fifteen minutes. This system of feeding can be 

 followed with profit and advantage until the chicks arc 

 six weeks old, when they can subsist entirely upon dry 

 grains and one or two feeds a day of the mash which 

 the other fowls receive. After the chicks are three or 

 four weeks old two feeds a day can be given of small 

 grain seeds and cracked corn. 



The dry system of feeding, which is advocated by 

 'many and practiced with success, consists in feeding 

 the chicks entirely upon dry grains either whole or 

 ground. These may be placed in self-feeders and the 

 chicks allowed free access at all times, or they may be 

 fed five times a day as much as they will eat clean in 



