MXPKKX CHICKEN FEEDING 23 



The breakfast is bread crumbs, continued until 

 they are about ten weeks old, when they are graduated 

 into the morning mash such as we feed to our fowls. 

 About ten o'clock they have a feed of the coarsest 

 oatmeal moistened; about half-past one o'clock a light 

 feed of cracked wheat or cracked barley (the latter is a 

 by-product of a cereal manufactory, and an excellent 

 food), and about five o'clock, whole wheat or cracked 

 corn, one one day, the other the next. Twice a week 

 we have fresh meat (butchers' trimmings), cooked and 

 chopped, which is mixed in with the coarsest oatmeal 

 (about half and half) for the second feed. We have, 

 also, a bone cutter, and twice or three times a week the 

 chicks have a good time wrestling and tumbling over 

 each other in their eagerness to get the fresh cut bone. 



Not having a bone cutter, we should mix some bone 

 meal into the moistened bread crumbs for breakfast, and 

 about three times a week we sprinkle in a little condition 

 powder as a condiment to promote digestion and good 

 health. We intend to vary the food ration continually 

 within the range here described. For instance, one day 

 the food will be bread crumbs, oatmeal, cracked wheat, 

 cracked corn; the next day, bread crumbs, oatmeal and 

 chopped meat, cracked barley, whole wheat; the next 

 day, bread crumbs, cut bone, oatmeal, cracked corn 

 and so on. 



The rule is to feed only what the chicks will eat 

 up clean and quickly ; but we break over the rule so far 

 as the last feed is concerned, and the boy goes around 

 a second time, twenty to thirty minutes after feeding, 

 and if it is all eaten up clean, three or four handfuls 

 more are put down, so that all shall have a chance to 

 "fill up" for the night. If a handful is left uneaten 

 it quickly disappears in the morning, and as it is always 

 dry grain, it does not sour, and there is no danger from 

 leaving a little. Grit, in the shape of screened gravel. 



