18 



THE CHICK BOOK 



there is very little of the time when food is not within 

 reach. After the first two or three days they are fed in ad- 

 dition finely sifted cracked corn and rolled oats, chopped 

 oats, cracked wheait or, in fact, any grain or food which 

 they will eat. We conclude it makes very little difference 

 so long as they have a fair proportion of animal food, 

 which, with us, is in the form of ground beef scraps, and it 

 may be just as well or better in the form of milk, either 

 sweet or sour, skimmed or whole. "When milk is fed to very 

 small^chickens it is better to moisten their food with it than 

 that they have it to drink. If they have it as a drink they 

 are quite apt to smear themselves with it, making them 

 sticky and dirty, and both ill-feeling and ill-looking. After 

 the first three or four days the grit is left out of the food, 

 a supply being kept constantly within reach, which they 

 eat as they require it. The warmth in the hover is started 

 at ninety-five degrees, with the chickens all in. From that 

 it is gradually lowered, more attention being paid to the 

 action of the chicken than to the temperature as registered 

 by the mercury. When the chickens are comfortable and 

 settle down contentedly without over-crowding or pushing 

 too much to the outside, it is concluded that the conditions 

 are right and they are doing well. When, on the other 

 hand, they crowd and cry, not enough heat is supplied, and 

 we give them more. It is impossible to give small chick- 

 ens a satisfactory treatment where the brooders are run 

 altogether by the thermometer, regardless of the outside 

 weather conditions, and the indications of comfort, which 

 may be observed from the chickens themselves. The brood- 

 er floors and pens should be scattered with chaff or covered 

 with sand to induce action and exercise through scratching 

 and working for particles of dry food, which may be thrown 

 about in the litter. The one thing essential to the health 

 of the chicken is abundant exercise. Without this they will 

 not tjirive, and success cannot be attained. In order to get 

 the necessary exercise it is imperative that they have an 

 abundant supply of fresh air and an outdoor run at all sea- 

 sons of the year. A few minutes in the open air will do the 

 smallest chicken good, and after they are a week or ten 

 days old they may be trusted to run back and forth in pleas- 

 ant weather almost regardless of how cold the outside tem- 

 perature may be. Fussy coddling and over-heated compart- 

 ments have been responsible for the death of more chickens 



'MmM 





M^ 



An Even Halt Oozen— Just Out. 



An Ideal Place tor Brooder Chicks on the Plant ot Mrs, H. W. Hand. 



than any other causa Whenever trouble appears in a flock 

 of chickens the first question with the average beginner, 

 and sometimes with the more experienced person, is what 

 their food has been. The attention and investigation is 

 generally directed toward the food. The facts are that the 



strong, healthy chickens having abundant exercise and a 

 good supply of fresh air will stand almost any sort of food 

 without taking harm. The main thing is to get the exer- 

 cise. It perhaps might be noted here that this is practically 

 the secret of success in managing breeding stock as well as 

 chickens. 



Clean water should be always within reach of the chick- 

 ens, and it should be kept in some such fountain as will 

 make it Im- 

 Dossible for 

 the little 

 birds to get 

 into it. This 

 will save 

 f r e quent 

 drenchi n g 

 and occa- 

 s i o u a 1 

 deaths b y 

 drown i n g. 



In extremely cold weather it is better that newly 

 hatched chickens should have luke-warm water than that 

 it should be given to them icy cold. Many breeders do not 

 give the little chickens any water until several days old, 

 some even keeping them several weeks without it. We have 

 not thought it the best way, and we give water from the 

 first. From their very evident pleasure in drinking, it must 

 taste good to them, and we doubt any possibility of harm 

 from drinking over much clean, pure water. 



There is a good deal of question what the limit is in. 

 the numbers that may be kept together safely. Many advo- 

 cate fifty as the best limit, while others keep from one hun- 

 dred to two hundred in the same pens and under the same 

 hovers. There is little doubt that for the beginner, at least, 

 flocks of fifty or sixty will do better, and there will be a 

 lower death rate than in flocks of one hundred and upward. 

 We have built our brooder building with the pens three by 

 ten feet, which are designed to accommodate from fifty to 

 seventy-five small chickens. They will easily hold fifty 

 chickens until six weeks of age if the chickens have an out- 

 door run. They are then put in a pen four by ten feet and 

 kept until feathered out, when they are removed to colony 

 houses of one description or another. Of course the early 

 hatched and winter chickens must have 

 heat practically throughout the winter. 

 Late birds do very well without arti- 

 ficial heat after the last of March, and 

 may be safely colonized in suitable 

 coops at a few weeks of age — almost 

 every kind of coop is used for this 

 purpose, and it really matters very lit- 

 tle what the style of the structure be 

 so long as it conserves the essential 

 features, which are dryness and free- 

 dom from direct draught. For some 

 years open front and bottomless roost- 

 ing coops have been strongly advo- 

 cated as being the best fitted for grow- 

 ing chickens colonized in groups of 

 from thirty to fifty. Our experience 

 has led us to do away altogether with 

 open fronts and coops without bot- 

 toms. There is a constant trouble from 

 colds caused either by driving rains or 

 bunching up on the ground, thus drawing up the dampness, 

 which ends in running nostrils, wheezing and general de- 

 bility. 



As the chickens grow older they are fed rather differ- 

 ently. They have their regular morning feed, with one at 



