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THF CHICK BOOK 



after which I let them run out on all fine days, but always 

 keep them in until the dew is off the grass, at least until 

 they are well feathered. If this is done you will not have 

 much trouble with gapes. Begin feeding when chicks are 

 about twenty-four hours old. For the first few feeds I find 

 nothing better than bread crumbs. Feed the first week 

 about four times a day with bread crumbs and oatmeal. 

 After the first week, when I let them run out, I feed three 

 times a day, soft food in the morning and either oatmeal, 

 cracked wheat, cracked corn or millet at noon and evening. 

 Change about from one kind to the other and then the 

 chicks will always have an appetite. When chicks are four 

 or five weeks old I feed only twice a day. Feed whole wheat 

 and corn just as soon as they can eat it. Always have plenty 

 of grit standing around for them, and give them fresh drink- 

 ing water. Iveep the brooders and brooder houses clean and 

 look for mites each time you clean brooders. Saturate the 

 sides and bottom of the brooders with coal oil once in two 

 weeks, and then the mites will not trouble you. 



The foregoing is for chicks raised on a farm where there 

 is plenty of range. I also find that farm raised chicks, as 

 a rule, make stronger and healthier chicks at maturity and 

 ouglit to be sold at better prices than those raised on small 

 city or town lots, but they seldom are. You find that city 

 breeders always ask double the price for their inferior stock, 

 although it is no better than that raised on the farm. The 

 best chickens for either the show room or for business are 

 those that are raised on the farm which have unlimited 

 range. EMANUEL SCHEIBBR. 



BROODING AND rEBDING CHICKS. 



In raising chicks in brooders the first thing to be con- 

 sidered is the brooder. A brooder should be used that will 

 give the chicks plenty of warm fresh air. Some people have 

 the erroneous idea that air must be cold in order to be fresh, 

 which of course is false. A brooder may be so ventilated 

 that the outside air is sufficiently warmed before reaching 

 the chicks. Due attention should be given to see that it is 

 kept at the right temperature, for if the, temperature be 

 kept too low or too high for a considerable length of time 

 the result will be an unnatural growth of wings, and weak 

 and sickly chicks. The chicks should be kept so that they 

 will lie down and go to sleep and not be obliged, to huddle 

 together to keep warm, neither be forced to the coldest cor- 

 ner of the brooder to cool off. 



Another thing to be considered is the number to be 

 placed in one brooder. The brooders that I use are two and 

 one-half by three feet, placed in one end of coops, which are 

 three by six feet. Such a brooder will accommodate seventy- 

 five chicks nicely; we have raised more than that, but that 

 number or less is better. 



After the right brooder, with the riglit temperature and 

 the right number of chicks, is obtained, the next thing to 

 be thought of is the food and drink. 



There are many different methods of feeding, many of 

 which we have tried with good results, but perhaps as good, 

 it not the best method of feeding, for the first four or five 

 days is oat flake and millet, with a few bread crumbs fed 

 four times a day. After that gradually work them on to a 

 mixture of cornmeal, wheat middlings, and wheat bran, with 

 a few beef scraps for their mixed food, and cracked corn and 

 wheat, which should be given after they have eaten their 

 mixed food. Close attention should be given to the drop- 

 pings, and if they do not become hard in two or three days 

 a little black pepper may be mixed with bread crumbs mois- 

 tened. Care must be taken that none of their mixed food be 

 Btlcky or gummy. 



Another and perhaps one of the most important things 



to be looked after in raising chicks is their drink. They 

 should have fresh water placed in clean drinking fountains 

 A fountain that cannot be opened and cleaned never should 

 be used, for a slimy substance will form on the inside of the 

 fountain and unless removed will surely cause bowel trouble. 

 Many persons have lost nearly all their chickens from this 

 cause and then wondered why they are not successful, 

 by reading these suggestions some of your readers are 

 helped in their struggle to make poultry pay I shall feel 

 repaid for my effort. A. A. HARTSHORN. 



BETTEK TOO MUCH HEAT THAN TOO LITTLE. 



How easy to rear young chicks if we only knew what to 

 feed, how to feed, when to feed, and how much to feed, and 

 a thousand other hows, ifs and ands. 



In our years of experience in rearing chicks in brooders 

 and by mother hens we find the results about the same in 

 regard to the number raised and cost of food. But chicks 

 reared in brooders are more peaceable and quiet and much 

 more easily handled, hence make better show birds. We also 

 find that we are not troubled so much with lice and disease, 

 for the simple reason that remedies are more easily applied. 

 Again, we have the use of the hen in the breeding yaxd, and 

 save the food which she would eat if left with the chicks. 

 This is a large gain in rearing thousands of chicks per year,- 

 as the food for young chicks is quite costly. 



Our method of raising chicks in brooders is as follows: 

 After leaving chicks in the incubator or under the hen until 

 twelve or thirty hours old, we place them in the heated 

 brooder, with the thermometer registering ninety degrees, 

 allowing the temperature to fall until the chicks are three 

 weeks old, after which we use no artificial heat. 



In regard to pen room, I have raised as high as two 

 hundred chicks in brooders four by eight feet, and one hun- 

 dred and sixty-five chicks in brooder three and a half by 

 six feet, and lost only one chick (and that one in the small 

 brooder) this season. We never have had as good results 

 with small brooders. We leave our chicks in brooders the 

 first two or three weeks according to the weather, and give 

 them a run in the yard ten by twenty feet, until six to eight 

 weeks old, after which we place them on the farm. After 

 trying many experiences with good as well as poor results, 

 we find this the most successful of a,ll, with no extra trouble 

 or expense. Any one can rear a brood of chicks in this way. 



We offer a few suggestions in regard to feed and heat 

 while (ihlcks are in brooders and small yards. If you wish 

 to avoid bowel trouble, give clabber milk once a day. We 

 have learned this rule: Better have chicks two degrees too 

 warm than one too cold. When chicks are too warm they 

 will scatter over brooder and when too cold will crowd over 

 one another, smothering weaker chicks. 



We always feed one teaspoonful of sulphur in food to 

 fifty chicks, twice per week during dry weather. This we 

 think aids the feathering. iRA T. MATTESON. 



HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY RAISE BROODER CHICKS. 



One of the first things to be considered In raising brood- 

 er chicks successfully is the parent stock, which must be 

 in perfect health, properly fed and given abundant exercise 

 to insure fertile eggs and strong chicks. A first-class incu- 

 bator must be selected, one that will hatch from 75 to 90 

 per cent of fertile eggs, and when you get such hatches you 

 will get strong chicks that will live if properly cared for. 

 The next thing to be selected is a brooder, and this Is equal- 

 ly if not more important than the incubator. You must get 

 a brooder that imitates a hen as closely as possible; one 

 that will let in any amount of fresh air; one that has a round 

 cylinder with no corners for chicks to crowd in, and one 



