COCKER S MANUAL. 4t 



■under two weeks old should be fed as often as every two hours during 

 .the day, and no more should be given at each feed than they can eat 

 up clean. They should be kept at a distance from the house to pre- 

 vent them from drinking muddy or filthy water. Oftimes it will not 

 do to allow several hens with their chickens to run upon the yard at 

 the same time on account of their quarrelsome disposition and liabil- 

 ity to kill each other's chickens, etc.; and when from any cause they 

 are confined in coops they should be plentifully supplied with fresb 

 water and green feed. Green grass chopped fine, lettuce, cabbage, 

 etc., should be mixed with their food. A little meat two or three 

 tiroes a week is also good. Wheat screenings are very good for chicks 

 five or six weeks old. In no case should bread soaked in water be fed 

 as it soon sours in the stomach, and is productive of disease. A little 

 camphor put into the drinking water will be Ibund to assist greatly in 

 keeping the chicks in good health. It is bad policy to allow spring 

 ' chicks to roost before they are three or four months old, as before that 

 time the tendency is to produce crooked breast bones, so frequently 

 seen in young fowls. 



Respecting the care of chickens Mr. Bement says: "We are certain 

 more chickens are destroyed by over feeding than are lost by the want 

 of it. We have remarked also that hens which stole their nests gen- 

 erally hatched all their eggs ; and if suffered to seek the food for her 

 chickens, if the season was somewhat advanced, she would, unless 

 some casualty occurred, raise the whole brood, while with too much 

 kindness or officiousness not half would be raised. All watery food, 

 such as soaked bread or potatoes, should be avoided. If Indian meal 

 is well boiled and fed not too moist, it will answer a very good pur- 

 pose, particularly after they are eight or ten days old. Pure water 

 must be placed near them, either in shallow dishes or bottle fountains, 

 so that the chickens may drink without getting into the water, which 

 by wetting their feathers benumbs and injures them. After having 

 confined them for five or six days in the box, they may be allowed 

 the range of the yard if the weather is fair. They should not be let 

 out of their coops too early in the morning, or while the dew is on 

 the grotmd ; far less be suffered to range over the wet grass, which iA 

 a common and fatal cause of death. Another cause of the utmost 

 consequence to guard them against is sudden unfavorable changes of 

 the weather, more particularly if attended with rain. Really all the 



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