THE CHICK BOOK 



29 



great mistake to allow too many ohl'cks to run 

 together in a brood. Scatter them and have 

 brooders enough so that not over forty chicks 

 are brooding together In the same brooder. I 

 think thirty about the right number. Familiar- 

 ity breeds worse than contempt with chick- 

 ens, it breeds lice and disease. 



The care of the brooder is very Important. 

 I exercise great care in keeping the nursery 

 and brooders clean. How the chicks do enjoy 

 clean quarters, and how they always begin 

 scratching and working, with their little song 

 of "weeting" all the while. If that does not re- 

 pay you, you have not that love for the work 

 that is necessary for successful poultry culture. 

 The first week I clean the brooder twice, and 

 after that usually give it some attention every 

 day. I put dry sand in the bottom of the nur- 

 sery and brooders and cover that with chaff or cut straw, and 

 by taking off the top each day the sand need be renewed 

 but once a week. I like the sand in the bottom of the 

 brooders better th'an chaff alone, as the chicks do not sUp 

 in it. I have had chicks lame themselves by slipping on 

 the smooth floor of the brooder. 



I keep the temperature very near 90 degrees for the first 

 three weeks. After that govern the temperature by the num- 

 ber of chicks In the brooder and the outside temperature. 

 Trim the lamp every evening and fill it so as to insure an 

 even blaze all night. Sometimes it is not necessary to keep 

 the lamp lit all day in the outdoor brooder. On warm, sun- 

 shiny days the lamp can be put out and lit towards even- 

 ing. If the brooders are not new or have been used before 

 keep an eye open for lice, for like the poor they are always 

 with us, and it is almost Impossible to keep the brooder 

 chicks from visiting with biddy's chicks. 



After my chicks are six weeks old I remove them from 

 the brooder and put them in a box to sleep. I get a large 

 dry goods box, and put a tarred paper cover on what is to 

 be the top. This prevents dampness, which is the greatest 

 foe of little chicks. Nail a board on the top and bottom of 

 the open side, or what is to be the front, and put on lath 

 close enough so that the chicks cannot get through. At one 

 end make a gate or door, whichever you wish to call it, out 

 of lath and hang it with a piece of old leather or heavy 

 cloth for hinges, with a hook to fasten it. (I use screen 

 door hooks.) Put in sand and litter, and you have a good, 

 substantial brooder coop that will last for years. I face 

 these boxes to the south, and if there Is a south wind I put 

 old pieces of carpet over the opening for the fiyst few nights. 

 My chicks sleep in these coops until they are old enough to 

 go to roost. Sometimes they grow so they fill the 

 original box too full, and then I have to either give 

 them a larger box or set another right beside the first one. 

 These box coops are moved frequently, and each one Is as 



Just Let Oat tor lUoralag Exercise. 



Subjects of Experiment at Rhode Island Experiment Station. 



far from the other as it is convenient to have them. They 

 soon learn which is their very own place to roost, and I am 

 always sure 1 will find each brood in its place. Of course 

 it is work, but not trouble, and in bad weather I forget all 

 aljout the work, in the satisfaction of knowing that my 

 chicks ai'e tucked in cozy and dry at night. 



Keep the drinking fountains clean. Scald them at least 

 twice a week. If you are a close observer you know how 

 foul they become without any one telling you. When it 

 can be had I give all my young chickens sweet milk to 

 drink once a day until matured. I always wash the fountain 

 out after it has had milk in it, before putting water in It, 

 and when the weather is warm enough to sour the milk 

 that is left in the fountain, warm water is used to wash it 

 out. I would just as soon eat my dinner off the same plate 

 that I did my breakfast, without washing it, as to put water 

 in a drinking fountain that had had milk in, without first 

 washing it. I do not think It a good plan to let chicks drlnfc 

 in the morning before they have had their morning meal. I 

 have had the best results by giving milk for their mornlne 

 drink after they have had their morning meal. When It la 

 cold I think it is best to warm the milk, and in a continued^ 

 damp spell, sometimes scald the milk. 



I believe in little things, and it is the little things that 

 count with little chicks. A little draught, a little too much, 

 food, a little neglect, cause all sorts of big evils and play 

 havoc with the chicks. I do not believe there is a particle 

 of excuse in poultry fanciers allowing so many chicks to die. 

 In nearly every hatch there are one or two runts, and they- 

 will make up their minds to live or die in a few days, but 

 after that if I lose a chick I feel thatlhave been slack or care- 

 less in some way. I believe that every year the true fanciers; 

 are raising a greater per cent of chicks hatched than they 

 did a few years ago. Of course there are people who start in 

 the poultry business not knowing or trying to learn any- 

 thing about the habits and nature of chickens. They fail 

 to raise even ten per cent of the chicks they hatch, but they 

 seldom stay in the business long enough to either help or 

 hinder it. But the true fancier of the stick-to-it type every 

 year will raise "better poultry and more of it." 



The care of chicks does not end until they reach the 

 breeding pen. All through the long hot months of July and 

 August they must be under our watchful care. This is the 

 time that is most trying to the beginner, and this is the 

 time that they usually make up their minds to stay or with- 

 draw. Plenty of fresh water constantly before them is very 

 essential for growing chicks. I always want my chicks 

 to have full crops at night, but I want them to be hungry 

 enough through the day to be willing to look out for their 

 dinner themselves. Twice a day is often enough to feed the 

 early hatched chicks through the months of summer. As 

 the cool days and nights come on in the fall, they will let 

 you know when they need an increase of rations. Let the 

 chicks grow lanky and leggy, you can soon put the weight 

 on them when cool weather comes. Care for the little chicks 

 remember it la always the prize winners that die— that is the 

 reason why we get so few. MRS. BERT WHITE 



