CHAPTER I 

 THRIFTY GROWTH 



CHICK feeding is sometimes a very simple matter. 

 If they are strong stock, hatched in the most 

 favorable season and given wide range, they 

 require but little more care in feeding than 

 mature poultry. The writer has raised thousands under 

 such conditions on a diet largely composed of ground 

 grain mixed raw with skimmilk and fed three times a 

 day from shell to market. Yet no question but care, 

 frequency, variety and adaptation in feeding chicks 

 always pays, and is in fact necessary for cold weather 

 chicks, those of feeble stock and those kept in close 

 quarters. There is no profit in a chicken kept just 

 alive. The faster the growth the greater the profit, 

 whether grown for market or for winter laying. 



One reason why more care should be taken in 

 feeding chickens than the older birds is that the former 

 know less what they want than the latter. They are 

 hungry things, and take whatever is given them, and 

 their digestive organs being weak, they are not as able 

 to dispose of anything objectionable as are older fowls. 



Far too much corn meal is fed to chicks, and it is 

 to that cause, in a great measure, that there are so many 

 young chicks which die early — often before they have 

 fully feathered out. Like very young stock of any kind, 

 they require something nourishing, though not violent 

 or heating, to induce them to make a good and healthy 

 growth. 



To get most rapid growth they should be fed early 

 in the morning, and as late as they can see to eat at 

 night. In the intervening time they should be fed not 



