CHAPTEE II 

 EXPERT CHICKEN FEEDING 



BY A. F. IIITNTEB 



THE first rule for getting a good profit from 

 poultr)' is to hatch the chickens early. Equally 

 important is the second — keep them growing so 

 that they will come to laying maturity by 

 November 1. The food and care has much to do with 

 keeijing tlie chicks growing. 



Let them alone until they are twenty-four hours 

 old, or until the morning of tlie twenty-second day. 

 They need no food during this time; nature has pro- 

 vided for that by absorption of the egg yolk into their 

 little abdomens, and it is necessary that this egg yolk 

 be digested and assimilated before any other food goes 

 in. Much damage is done and many chicks killed by 

 not observing this rule. Some people in their feverish 

 haste to get the chicks growing, hurry food into their 

 crops before the system has been toned up to take care 

 of it. The consequence is the bowels are congested, 

 dysentery sets in, and the chick goes over to the 

 majority. 



We alwaj's set the hens in pairs, so the chicks of 

 two hens may be given to one, allowing the other to 

 reset. When a brood is to come off we take a covered 

 basket to the nest, remove all the chicks from one hen 

 and put them in the basket, then take the basket and 

 biddy to a coop previously made ready in a sunny, 

 grassy spot. Putting the hen down in the coop, the 

 basket is tipped upon its side near her and the downy 

 little things run out to her protection. 



An egg has been previously boiled hard, chopped 

 fine, shell and all, and mixed with double the quantity 



