36 



CHICK BOOK 



to put the shelter close to the coop, using one of the 2^x3- 

 foot shelter boards, as shown in the illustrations. As the 

 chicks get a little older we move the frame out a little, set 

 athwart the front of coop, and put two shelter boards over 

 it side by side, setting it so that it furnishes shade if the sun 

 is shiniitg, or protects from a driving rain, of course adapt- 

 ing it to "the (^irection of the wind. 



When we move the pullets out into the field and into the 

 roostm^ cqops we set upon stakes arid a strip of furring, a 



, shelving' r66f, seven and a half feet long by three feet wide, 



'sligh^y sloping to the south about eighteen inches high in 

 ftont and a foot high at the back. By these devices we more 

 than double the av;3.ilable shelter fronl rain and sun and cor- 

 respondingly increase' thie comfort of fiie growing chicks.- 

 Obviously, if ifehey have.»to bf, crowded itito their narrow 



■ sleeping quarters oil" a long rainy day or to get away from 



ifthe hot suia, (they are not makipg^good growth, and by so 

 simple ail expedient as we have here..6UtHj|ed we more than 



, double the-prot,ection and.ty so' mucti' promote their com- 



f fort., '■ '^' ' ,^ , ,-^" 



; ■■! ';,\-.-.' \.; / i 



'' , '< ■ ' - iFpods, atifl Feeding 



' ' *A^_ we state4 at the' beginping of this article, we raise 

 two kii^ds' of chicks, chickens for market and chickens for 

 breeding stock.* The food for the first month or six weeks 

 is practically the same for' 

 each class, but at the end 

 of six weeks we begin to 

 feed the market chicks a 

 richer and more fattening 

 food, they of course being 

 kept separate from the 

 chicks intended for breed- 

 ing stock. 



Feed often and feed 

 but a little at a time is the 

 .rule for young chicks. We 

 feed five times a day until 

 they are about six weeks 

 old. It is important that 

 no food be left standing 

 for the chicks to trample 

 dirt into or to get sour in 

 the sun; if they have not 

 eaten it all in tweilty min- 

 utes to half an hour, remove it 

 bowel looseness and dysentary 

 chief foods for the first 

 meal, slightly moistened 

 it; if not, w'ith water, 

 rather coarse crumbs in a 

 ened with sweet milk or 



Brood coop ■with runway for hen and chicks 



Nothing 

 than 



causes 

 sour food. 



more 

 Our 

 six weeks are coarsest oat- 

 with sweet milk if we have 

 and waste bread ground to 

 bone mill. This also is moist- 

 water, — slightly moistened so 



that it is still crumbly and not "pasty." The oatmeal 

 is just such as is cooked for a breakfast dish on our table; 

 in other words, it is oat meats ground very coarse. This we 

 buy of wholesale grocers, by the barrel, at a cost of about 

 two cents a pound. The waste bread is the broken pieces, 

 part-loaves, rolls, corn cakes, etc., from hotels and restau- 

 rants and costs about a cent and a half a pound. This 

 bread we buy by the hundred weight and spread on the barn 

 loft to dry; when thoroughly dry it is ground into coarse 

 crumbs in a bone mill. The first food early in the morning 

 is the bread crumbs, slightly moistened with sweet milk or 

 water; the second, about nine o'clock in the morning, is 

 oatmeal, slightly moistened a little before noon, bread 

 crumbs again, about half past two oatmeal again and about 

 5 o'clock a little cracked wheat or finely cracked corn. Twice 

 a week a little lean meat is boiled, chopped fine and mixed 

 with one of the bread or oatmeal feeds, or the infertile eggs 



(clear eggs) from the incubators are boiled hard, chopped 

 fine, shells and all,, and mixed with the bread crumbs or 

 oatmeal. 



It is very important that the chicks have grit to grind 

 their food, and as baby chicks are hardly to be trusted to 

 supply themselves with good grit, we sprinkle a pinch of 

 fine grit (or coarse sand) upon the small tin plates once a 

 day just before feeding, or, if preferred, it can be mixed 

 into the food. Grit in the gizzard to grind the food is a 

 most, important factor in preventing indigestion and loose- 

 ness of the bowels. 



Green food is another important aid to good health. If 

 the chicks are cooped upon fresh grass the problem is easily 

 sblved, because they will help themselves. Obviously, the 

 January, February and March hatched chicks cannot have 

 access to fresh grass, neither can the larger chickens shut up 

 to be fatted for market, hence a supply of green food must 

 be provided. Cabbages, onions, lettuce and onion tops all 

 make a good green food supply, and the same can be said 

 of weeds from the garden, which are easily obtained. It 

 is a comparatively easy matter to supply the green food if 

 one has the will. 



We are well aware that many readers cannot get waste 

 bread from hotels and restaurants, and to such we recommend 

 the making of "johnny cake" of mixed meals, baked very 



thoroughly, and we will 

 give also the rule for "Ex- 

 celsior Meal bread" as rec- 

 ommended by Mr. I. K. 

 Felch. "Grind into a fine 

 meal in the following pro- 

 portions: Twenty pounds 

 corn, fifteen pounds oats, 

 ten pounds barley, ten 

 pounds wheat bran. Make 

 the cakes by taking one 

 quart sour milk (or butter- 

 milk), adding a little salt 

 and molasses, one quart of 

 water in which a large 

 heaping teaspoonful of sal- 

 eratus has been dissolved. 

 Then thicken all to a lit- 

 tle stiffer batter than your 

 wife makes for corn cakes. 

 Bake in shallow pens until thoroughly cooked. We believe 

 a well appointed kitchen and brick oven pays, for in the 

 baking of this food enough for a week can be cooked at 

 a time." It is very certain that a cooked food of this kind 

 is a decided help to good growth in chicks, and as we on 

 our farm want a good growth, we study to promote it by 

 feeding a good food. 



Not a few farmers and poultrymen think that oatmeal 

 as a food for chicks is a luxury. Wright's "Practical Poul- 

 try Keeper" says: "With regard to feeding, if the question 

 be asked what is the best food for chickens, irrespective of 

 price, the answer must decidedly be, 'oatmeal.' After the 

 first meal of bread crumbs and egg no food is equal to it, 

 if coarsely ground, and only moistened so much as to remain 

 crumbly. The price of oatmeal is, however, so high as to 

 forbid its use in general except for valuable birds; but we 

 should still advise it for the first week in order to lay a good 

 foundation." 



We are obliged to differ from Mr. Wright as to oatmeal 

 being an expensive food for chicks. It may look expensive 

 to pay S4 a barrel (two cents a pound) for oatmeal for chick- 

 en food; but it goes so far we have found it a decidedly 

 economical food. We use perhaps fifty dollars' worth of oat- 

 meal a year and it makes about one-fifth of our chicks' food " 



