10 POULTKY FEKDING AND FATTENING 



less than four times. Feed a little at a time but often, 

 is a good rule to follow. It is not a bad plan to give 

 three meals of soft feed and three of dry. In order to 

 feed with economy, it is necessary to have slat feeding 

 coops, so made as to admit the chicks and to exclude the 

 mother hens and other fowls. These coops may be 

 quickly and cheaply made by tacking plastering lath 

 on strips of inch stuff. The food may be placed in 

 these coops on long boards or shallow troughs. No 

 more soft food should be given at one time than will 

 be eaten up clean. The habit that some have of throw- 

 ing out a great mass of soft food — sufiBcient to last a 

 day — to become foul and sour, is very wasteful and 

 injurious to the chicks. 



Do not lose sight of the importance of a balanced 

 ration for the young, growing chickens. Bulletin 61 of 

 the Ehode Island experiment station shows the danger 

 that comes from feeding too much grain. The best 

 results were obtained by feeding an abundance of 

 animal protein, of which milk is the best form. 

 Disease and death followed the excessive use of starchy 

 foods. Green food cannot safely be omitted. 



To push young chicks along and keep them in 

 health, there is nothing better than boiled eggs mashed 

 up, shells and all, with two or three times their bulk 

 of stale bread crumbs, or cracker crumbs, thoroughly 

 mixed. Mix not more than enough for one feed of this 

 at a time and give them only what they will eat readily 

 and quickly. Peed stale bread soaked in milk, either 

 whole, skimmed, or buttermilk after the milk has been 

 squeezed out by hand. 



This is not a very expensive method of feeding, as 

 the chicks, being so small, will not consume much of 

 it daily, while the very best results have invariably 

 followed such a sj'stem of feeding and management. 

 But if milk is not obtainable, use the yolks of tested 



