34 



THE CHICK BOOK 



feed of crumbled stale bread, johnny cake, or prepared chick 

 feed. I Incline toward the prepared food, because it can be 

 bought ready to feed at a reasonable price and gives excel- 

 lent satisfaction. 



The second day the little ones may have two light feeds 

 and on the third day three. After that three, four or five 

 feeds may be offered each day according to the time and in- 

 clination of the feeder, but no more should be given at any 

 time than will be eaten within a few minutes. During the 

 first few days the hen may be fed any large grain and the 

 brood won't make much effort to eat it, but after a few 

 days the young ones will try to eat any and everything that 

 the hen does. Cracked corn and whole wheat may safely 

 be fed with the chick feed, the latter being gradually elimi- 

 nated after the second week and its place taken by the 

 cracked corn and wheat, with an occasional feed of mash 

 at the feeder's option. Clean water should be provided 

 from the start and fine grit for the chicks and coarse grit 

 for the hen should be given with the first feed and be al- 

 ways accessible. 



A small proportion of animal food is desirable after the 

 first week. Most of the prepared foods contain this in the 

 proper proportion, but if it is supplied by the feeder, sifted 



beef scraps to make five per cent of each day's rations will 

 be found very satisfactory for the first two weeks or tor 

 four weeks if the chicks have a chance to hunt insects ana 



^"'"when the weather is warm and the birds are safe from 

 birds and beasts of prey the hen may be given her freedom 

 and permitted to run with the chicks after the first week. 

 This is of great value to the chicks, giving them wider range 

 and providing all sorts of little seeds, bugs, worms and in- 

 sects, which nature intended they should have. It mates 

 the chicks self-reliant, too, and better able to take care of 

 themselves, while making the most of their opportunities, 

 when the hen leaves them to shift for themselves. 



A cropful of food collected by the chick from nature's 

 resources is worth two of that fed by an attendant and con- 

 sumed by a chick confined within a narrow enclosure. It 

 is gathered a little here and a bit there, some vegetable and 

 some animal, by vigorous exercise taken under conditions 

 which cannot fail to promote a healthy action of the diges- 

 tive organs. Thus the nourishment is_ absorbed and the 

 body strengthened and properly developed. Nature's meth- 

 ods are always best when the work is done in nature's 

 season. H. A. NOURSE. 



THE NATURAL METHOD IS SATISFACTORY, 



How an Expert Hatches and Rears Winners for the Largest Shows— Making the Nests— Sitting the Hens- 

 Cooping and Feeding the Chicks. 



By M, S. Gardner. 



O MANY writers of late have told us how to hatch 

 chickens in incubators, and raise them in brooders, 

 that little remains to be said upon that subject. 

 Very little has been written, however, In regard to 

 the other and older method of letting the hen rear her own 

 brood. While I use incubators for hatching my earlier 

 chickens, I still hatch the greater part of the May and June 

 chicks under hens, and for two reasons: First, because I 

 believe it gives the hen a rest from laying that is beneficial 

 to her, and second, because I find that chickens hatched and 

 reared by hens prove better foragers and grow faster for me 

 than those grown in brooders. 



To successfully raise chickens with hens, several things 

 are absolutely necessary. First, strongly fertilized eggs 

 from perfectly healthy and vigorous breeding stock. Second, 

 quiet, medium sized hens, and properly constructed nests. 

 Third, a man to care for the hens who will exercise eternal 

 vigilance, and who can control his temper under most try- 

 ing circumstances. Doubtless every man who raises chick- 

 ens has a way of his own. I do not claim that my way is the 

 only one, or even that it is the best, but simply this, that 

 I have been raising t'noroughbred chickens for more than 

 twenty-five years, and with success, by the method I shall 

 describe. During the season of 1902 I raised more than five 

 hundred chickens under hens. Although May and June 

 were the wettest months ever known in this state, my loss 

 from all causes did not exceed five per cent of the chickens 

 hatched. 



Setting the Hens. 



As March is a cold month in northern New York, we do 

 not attempt to set any hens until April. When the weather 

 moderates so that we feel sure the eggs will not chill, we 



prepare to set our first hens. Several pens are reserved for 

 our sitters, from four to ten hens being placed in each pen, 

 (iepenrling upon the size of pen and also upon how much 

 room we can spare for this purpose. The nests are made on 

 the floor of straw or swale hay which is held in place by two 

 by fours placed upon the floor or else by narrow strips of 

 board nailed to the floor and not more than four inches 

 high. It is desirable that the hens be able to walk onto the 

 nests, and not be compelled or allowed to fly into them. 

 Sometimes if crowded for room these nests are not more 

 than three feet apart. We usually set several hens at one 

 time. When we have the required number of broody hens 

 we take them carefully from their nests after dark at night 

 and place them in their new quarters, having previously 

 prepared the nests in the manner I have described. In each 

 of these nests we have placed one or two glass eggs or possi- 

 bly cheap hens' eggs. By the side of each nest is a potato 

 crate or a frame covered with wire netting. Each hen is care- 

 fully set on the glass eggs and a potaito crate placed over 

 her. A hen that has been broody for several days and is of 

 the proper disposition to make a good mother will at once 

 settlt' down upon her new nest and go to sleep. Occasionally 

 one will resent such treatment and proceed to kick up a 

 rumpus. Such hens shoiild be removed at once, as they 

 disturb the quieter ones and seldom prove successful mothers. 

 I do not find more than one in ten that will refuse to sit 

 in a nest of this kind. The first day we keep the room dark- 

 ened and do not let the hens come off to eat. The morning 

 of the second day the crates are removed and sufficient light 

 let in to enable the hens to see the corn, grit and water 

 that have been previously placed there. A large dust box 

 is also provided for them. Sometimes two hens will fight 



