178 COMMON SENSE 
food and drink, and dusted themselves in the dry earth and ashes. 
provided for them. 
Our first little chicks found themselves in a “cold, cold world” 
when they burst their shells. But the old hens kept them warm, 
and during the first thirty-six hours they were kept shut up under 
their mothers, the only attention.that the hens got being the re- 
moval of the empty shells. At this time of the year one of the 
greatest mistakes that can be made is to get the chicks out of the 
nest too soon. They need warmth and rest, rather than food and 
exercise, for when they leave the shell they have just had a full feed 
_ of the richest food, and, as any one can see, nature did not intend 
that they should run about immediately after leaving the shell. 
Partridges and some other birds do this, but chickens never. We 
have lost many chickens by meddling with them too soon; never 
a one by letting it alone. On the second day, however, we took 
the hens off the nest, placed the chicks on the floor, and offered 
them cracked wheat and warm milk. The latter they drank quite 
greedily, and the wheat they soon learned to pick up. After they 
had been fed they were returned to the old nest for the present. 
The weather at this time was very cold—occasionally down to 
zero—and it was hard work to keep the little things warm. We 
had 88 hens sitting; these would probably produce 600 chickens, 
and I intended to give each hen 10 chickens, so that 60 brooding 
coops would be needed. I found that the coops we had used dur- 
ing the fall would take up too much room, and, as they would re- 
quire a house to cover them, I might as well divide the house itself 
up into coops. Having all this in view, I had put up a rough 
board shed, 40 feet long and to feet wide. It was just high 
enough to allow one to pass easily up the middle. The roof was 
of matched boards, except where six greenhouse sash were inserted 
to admit light. The floor was divided off as follows: A walk 16 
inches wide was left through the middle, and the spaces on each 
side were divided into 30 compartments each, making 60 in . 
all. The divisions were simply boards 14 inches high, and the 
compartments were covered with wire netting of 1-inch mesh. 
Four stout stakes were driven into the floor at the end of each di- 
