54 



CHICK BOOK 



sticky; bread crumbs are best for the purpose and if you 

 have only a few chicks it will be well to separate the yolk 

 from the white of egg, using only the former and so avoid 

 mixing too much at a time. This refers, of course, to the 

 first week. After that the chicks will take care of it all. 

 Steel cut or granulated oats make a good food for the second 

 week, also millet seed. 



As the chicks become older — say from two weeks of 

 age, beef scraps, dried blood, animal meal or fine ground 

 green bone may be used with benefit. These foods contain 

 in large proportion the protein we want, and their use en- 

 ables the feeder to make a ration suitable for chicks. Care 

 must be taken that too much of this is not fed at first. Some 

 of these foods are too strong for young chicks, and I use 

 them at this age only when I can't get fresh meat — liver, 

 etc., etc. 



Without the aid of beef scraps or one of the other ani- 

 mal foods mentioned the eastern duck growers would never 

 have been able to place ducklings upon the market in such 

 desirable condition as they do. Their growth would not be 

 so fast, their flesh would be less tender and the ducklings less 

 plump. This means that demand would decrease and prices 

 would be lower. Just so with young chickens. If intended 



A Closed Roosting Coop for Cold Weather. 



for market as broilers they must have animal food to hasten 

 growth and keep them in health. The forcing to which 

 they are subject would run them off their legs in h short 

 time if their food consisted exclusively of grain either whole 

 or ground. A most desirable feature of these animal foods 

 is that their protein contents produce flesh without an ex- 

 cess of fat. The breeder of exhibition stock will appreciate 

 the importance of this fact, especially if the cockerels which 

 he has been forcing for early fall shows give signs of leg 

 weakness. The food they have been getting has produced 

 too much fat and not enough muscle and flesh. A change 

 of food — the addition of animal protein to the ration — goes 

 to the root of the trouble and in a short time the birds are 

 again "on their feet." 



Animal protein works wonders with fowls, and while it 

 is so plentiful in green bone, dried blood, animal meal and 

 beef scrap, etc., and considering that these foods are so 

 easily obtainable, no breeder of fowls can afford to be with- 

 out a supp y. In animal meal and beef scraps there is 

 nearly as much protein as there are carbohydrates and fat. 

 In green bone there is about half as much, and in dried 

 blood there is little else than protein. 



How chickens delight in a little crisp lettuce, grass or 

 clover. Provide it if possible; otherwise cook some carrots, 

 cabbage, turnips, beets or mangles for them, or let them 

 pick away at the raw roots, or a few raw potatoes. Clover 

 is now sold in such convenient forms (both cut and ground) 

 that no breeder should be without it if he has any difficulty 

 in providing green food. Lettuce and clover contain a large 

 proportion of protein. 



Let your chicks have enough food, but do not stuff 

 them. Little chicks will begin to cry for you when they dis- 

 cover that you are their attendant, and if you are at all soft 

 hearted it will be hard to refuse the continued stuffing they 

 cry for. Feed little and often. Chicks are never so happy 

 as when scratching in shallow litter for little crumbs or seeds. 

 Will they do this if overfed? No. Limit the food and keep 

 them singing, but let them have enough to repay them for 

 their work. 



Some breeders keep one variety of food continually be- 

 fore their chicks and a number of them are successful poul- 

 try raisers. This seems contradictory following immedi- 

 ately after the suggestion to feed little and often, but it is 

 not so strange as it appears at first glance. If one kind of 

 food is kept continually before them, the chicks partake of 

 it only occasionally as they need it. If they have, been fed 

 on the plan first suggested — little and often, it is likely 

 they will gorge themselves when first allowed access to 

 large quantities of food, but if they have been used to it, 

 they simply nibble and run, and although their crops are 

 never empty, neither are they overloaded. If such a method 

 be adopted the food to be kept before them must always be 

 of the same variety. Cracked corn is generally used. A 

 change from corn to wheat would be an inducement to over- 

 feed. It would tempt their appetites and induce them to 

 overload their crops. We do not advocate this method of 

 feeding, but if it is adopted, as it sometimes is for a time- 

 saver, the other food supply should be made up largely of 

 protein. 



Balancing the Bations for Chicks 



The reader has now been duly impressed with the value 

 of protein and its use in the ration, and we will give an 

 example of balancing the ration so that anybody with any 

 foods will know how to go about it. 



Following along the lines of our argument the ration 

 shall possess about one part protein to two parts carbohy- 

 drates and fat, and is intended for newly hatched chicks. 



Our first chick food is egg, both white and yolk well 

 beaten. In this the proportion of protein and carbohy- 

 drates is about equal. 



This we mix with bread so as to render it comparatively 

 dry. We will assume that we have a flock of chicks that 

 require about a pound of dry matter each meal. Dry mat- 

 ter is the total bulk of food less water or moisture. In one 

 pound of eggs, that is the edible portion, there is twenty- 

 seven per cent of dry matter that is made up of thirteen 

 per cent protein and twelve per cent fat, in addition to ash, 

 etc. In a pound of bread crumbs we find eighty-eight per 

 cent of dry matter made up of eleven per cent protein, 

 seventy-five per cent fat, etc. If we add the total amount 

 of protein and fat contained in the eggs and bread, we find 

 we have twenty-four parts protein and eighty-seven parts 

 fat; that is, about three and a half times as much fat as 

 protein, the actual figures being 3:6. The nutritive ratio 

 of this mixture would be 1:3.6. To make the ration nar- 

 rower we might reduce the bread crumbs to three-quarters 

 of a pound, but that would make the mixture too "pasty." 

 We will therefore leave it as before and instead of securing 

 the narrower ration by that means we feed in addition a 

 little meat. Take beef scraps for instance. These on an 

 average contain about ninety-three per cent dry matter, of 

 which forty-five per cent is protein and forty-seven per cent 

 is carbohydrates. The protein and carbohydrates being 

 about equal it will need only a little beef scraps to bring 

 the nutritive ratio down to 1:2, the ration we have sug- 

 gested before as being a desirable one for chicks. 



We do not advise the use of beef scraps at this early age, 

 but having the analysis before us, we used it as an examnle'. 



