84 POULTRY PEEDING AND FATTENING 



"The first three or four hours after taking from 

 the incubator, put them in a clean brooder that has 

 been heated to ninety degrees with top heat. The floor 

 is covered one-half inch deep with sharp sand and 

 sprinkled over the sand is a little chicken grit. 



"Their first feed is a very little rolled oats; feed 

 sparingly the first day, and also for a week. After 

 being in the brooder twenty-four hours, they are fed 

 every two hours for three weeks, chiefly on rolled oats, 

 fine cracked corn and millet seed. From the first hour 

 in the brooder, they are allowed all the fresh cold 

 water they want. I have constantly before them in self- 

 feeding boxes dry wheat bran, grit, charcoal and bone 

 meal. I am often surprised to see how much dry bran 

 they eat. At three weeks I give one feed a day of warm 

 mash until nine weeks old, when they have all hard 

 grain. 



"Chicks like a variety, and I have to keep them 

 guessing what they are going to get next. It is fun to 

 steal in on them' on the quiet and see them all rubber- 

 necking in their curious way to see what is to come 

 next. I always find pleasure in feeding almost any 

 kind of green food, as well as profit ; then when the time 

 Comes to feed fresh meat and bone, to see the little 

 anxious^ hungry things go over and over each other in 

 their eager way to get the first mouthful of that favor- 

 ite meal. 



"If you use a brooder house in the second stor}', 

 you must look out for leg weakness, as the sand and 

 litter become very dry, and I find it necessary to sprin- 

 kle the runs at night after they have gone to bed. I had 

 great difiiculty in getting eggs with good, strong germs, 

 which are most essential in raising chickens. I do not 

 believe it is possible to produce good, strong-germed 

 eggs from fowls that are closely confined; give them 

 lots of range." 



