CARE AND FOOD 



43 



scratch it about and waste it. Where chick food costs 

 $2.50 per hundred pounds and over, it is much wiser to 

 pursue this course and let the mother hen live on less ex- 

 pensive food. Keep the little chicks supplied with chick 

 food, chick-size grit, granulated bone, charcoal, and pure, 

 wholesome beef scrap always before them in a wooden <)r gal- 

 vanized iron fefed box or hopper. Protect this food from the 

 weather by a single board roof or shelter sufficiently large to 

 cover it and raised about one foot off the ground. We much 

 prefer keeping food before the chicks all the time but same 

 must be protected and kept dry, as otherwise in wet, stormy 

 weather it will become sour or moldy and unfit to eat. 



Some poultrymen use lemon, orange and cracker boxes 

 for brood coops for confining the mother hen. These make 

 much smaller quarters than we have recommended in a , pre- 

 ceding paragraph, but proved very satisfactory, especially 

 when used under shelter. Where an orange or lemon box 

 is used one front is slatted perpendicularly with the slats 

 just far enough for the hen to get her head out, and for the 

 chicks to freely run in and out. The rear portion of the box 

 retains the thin horizontal boarding with the exception of 

 about one inch from the floor, which space is left open. The 

 top of the box is slatted so that the hen can get her head up 

 through to stretch herself. In such boxes the hen mothers 

 scratch and cluck vigorously, and by their activity keep the 

 litter and dirt moving from front to back and out of the 

 opening in the rear, so that these brood boxes may really be 

 termed self-cleaning. 



With two mother hens confined thus close together it 

 is necessary to keep the broods separate for several days 

 until they become accustomed to their respective mothers, 

 and it is advisable to have the chicks in both broods all the 

 same color, otherwise some of the little fellows may be in- 

 jured by getting into the compartment with the wrong mother 

 hen. There is a great difference in hen mothers in this re- 

 gard, some of them being always willing to add a new chick 

 to the flock, while others are intolerant of strangers and seem 

 bound to kill them if they can possibly do so. 



The chicks are kept in these brooding quarters until they 

 are ready to be weaned. Where convenient to do so, the 

 hen is given a little run with the chicks once a day, but 

 frequently hens which are so kept in confinement for five 

 weeks or longer, often begin to lay in the brooding boxes, so 

 that they apparently experience no discomfort from this 

 close confinement while mothering a brood. After the first 

 week or ten days the chicks will begin to eat a considerable 

 proportion of fine cracked corn and wheat, which maybe 

 gradually substituted for the more expensive chick food. 

 Always give them if possible a grass run, and where this can- 

 not be had, feed cut clover or fresh green stuff daily. If cut 

 clover is used it may be fed either dry or barely moist after 

 scalding. 



Brooder Chicks 



In artificial brooding the chief requisites are to keep 

 the chicks comfortably, warm, provide them with an abund- 

 ance of pure, fresh air and give them an opportunity to 

 exercise in quarters that are not too cramped or crowded. 

 Not more than fifty chicks should be placed in one flock in 

 any brooder. This we consider the maximum limit of safety. 

 Care must be taken to keep the chicks warm and comfortable 

 at all times. The operator should be guided more by the 

 apparent comfort of his chicks than by the temperature as 

 indicated by the thermometer. Run the brooder not by 

 the thermometer but by the chicks. Keep them warm, 

 happy and contented at all times, and see that they are al- 

 ways supplied with an abundance of pure, fresh air to breathe. 

 Sun and air the brooders daily. Teach the chicks to use the 

 space underneath the hover for the purpose of keeping warm. 



and train them so that they will know the way in and out 

 of the machine. Do not give up your efforts in this direc- 

 tion until you. are sure that the chicks have learned what is 

 required of them in taking care of themselves in the brooder. 

 Their first food should preferably be given by placing 

 little piles of chick food and beef scrap where they can have 

 free access to them. Afterwards keep the food before them 

 all the time in a food box or hopper. Dry grain chick food, 

 ^eef scrap, charcoal granulated bone, grit and pure water are 

 necessary at all times. Give them chaff or cut clover to scratch 

 in. As the chicks grow older gradually accustom them to 

 a larger range or run, and have same on grass land if possible. 

 At the end of the first week or ten days begin substituting 

 fine, sifted cracked corn or corn grits and small kernels of 

 hard, sound wheat for a portion of the dry grain chick food. 

 Gradually increase the quantity of this grain and reduce 

 the amount of chick food fed. If the beef scrap which you 

 obtain is coarse, sift out the finer particles and feed these 

 at first and feed the coarser particles of the scrap after the 

 chicks have become large enough to eat them readily. 



A Feeding Coop for Chicks 



A Home-Made Chick Food 



A number of years ago when commercial chick food was 

 not as easily obtainable as it is now, we began the dry method 

 of feeding small chicks. By good luck we were able to buy 

 at a small cost of a junk dealer a second-hand, large-sized 

 coffee mill such as are used in grocery stores. This mill we 

 fitted up in our barn so that the balance wheel was at con- 

 venient height for running the mill. From the spout or out- 

 let of the mill we ran at a sharp angle a long piece of wire 

 mosquito netting bent into broad, shallow trough shape and 

 tacked on a wooden frame. At the bottom of this screen 

 we placed an ordinary wooden bushel box, and beneath the 

 screen put an old piece of sail cloth. By adjusting the mill 

 we were able to crush grain to a size acceptable by newly 

 hatched chicks. The hopper not being large enough to suit 

 our convenience, we built a box-like arrangement above 

 the hopper and fitted into same a box-like addition that 

 would hold about half a bushel of grain. Into this we fed 

 a mixture of one-half (by measure) whole corn; one-fourth 

 whole wheat; one-eighth hulled oats; one-eighth barley with 

 the hulls on. These whole grains were, thoroughly mixed 

 tog^her before feeding into the hopper. By the exercise of 

 a little muscle or "elbow grease" we were able to get a very 

 acceptable chick food by grinding this grain mixture. The 

 meal sifted through the mosquito netting . screen into the 

 sailcloth and all the coarser particles of the cracked grain 

 ran down the screen into the bushel' box at the bottom. 

 The flour or meal was used in soft mashes fed to the b^-eeding 



