REARING CHICKS NATURALLY AND ARTIFICIALLY. 



The Difficulties and How to Avoid Them— Conditions That Affect the Health and Growth of Young Stock— Hatching 



and Brooding— reeding Chicks With Hens and In Brooders—Son Food 



Best to Produce Early Maturity. 



By H. E. Moss. 



THERE is such a multitude of "Don'ts" associated not 

 only with the poultry, but with every other business 

 that to attempt to enumerate them would be an end- 

 less task. What is often called "horse sense," or 

 good judgment, or brains, must determine between the right 

 and the wrong; but many occasions will arise where ex- 

 perience is necessary upon which to base judgment and 

 where the experience of others can be had and applied. It 

 is equivalent to so much time and money saved, for with- 

 out it we must test the question ourselves and if found to 

 be a failure it is just so much paid for experience or paid 

 up capital. We shall, therefore endeavor to be as clear and 

 explicit as possible, assuming that the large majority who 

 will avail themselves of this advice are amateurs or begin- 

 ners who are willing to profit by the experience of others, 

 and to whom success or failure means much. We shall 

 avoid the don'ts and write from the positive, not the nega- 

 tive viewpoint. 



The rearing of domestic poultry should show a profit 

 and will do so in proportion to the intelligence with which 

 it is conducted precisely as in any other busness; but where 

 the highest order of talent is employed, the profits on the 

 capital invested will far exceed those in any other legiti- 

 mate business. 



We Will Start With the Chick 



As it emerges from the shell. If the eggs begin to pip 

 in the evening they should all be excluded by the next morn- 

 ing. In cool weather compel the hen to keep her nest for 

 twenty-four hours longer; this will permit the chicks to 

 sleep and gain strength, which they will very rapidly, as 

 the absorption of the yolk now begins and the new functions 

 are fully established. Then remove her with the brood to 

 the coop, but before doing so, dust her thoroughly with a 

 good insect powder and apply a little grease or oil on top 

 of the chicks' heads and under the wings. This will pre- 

 vent much future trouble in fighting lice. This should be 

 repeated once a week until they are past danger and can 

 dust themselves in soft moist earth as their instinct teaches 



them. 



Have Your Coops Beady. 



In severe cold weather they should be placed under shel- 

 ter, but where they get as much direct sunshine as possible. 

 An open shed facing south or east is preferable where the 

 chicks can have a dry run when a late snow covers the 

 ground. A gravel or sand floor is very desirable, and if 

 dry, will be found very satisfactory. Your coop will require 

 no bottom, but can be shifted its width every day, thereby 

 insuring a clean floor. Otherwise a wooden floor is indis- 

 pensable and should be covered with chaff, fine litter, ashes 

 or any suitable material and renewed frequently. 

 Food and Warmth 



Are now the two factors upon which success depends. 

 The latter need not be considered here, as the hen is to 



brood them, and she will take care of them; but in cold 

 weather we render it more comfortable for them by placing 

 the coop in a sheltered location, at the same time allowing 

 the chicks liberty to run in the sunshine during the middle 

 of the day. Should the snow be deep, clear a place for them. 

 They thrive better, grow faster and make stronger, hardier 

 fowls than the later hatches that have the extreme heat of 

 summer to contend with before they are half grown. A 

 long protracted hot spell checks their growth in a very 

 marked degree. Cold does less harm than heat, provided 

 they can run under the hen and get warm whenever they are 

 so inclined, and if the hen or the warmth is always to 

 be found when they want it, there is little danger of 

 them becoming chilled. The best results will usually be 

 had where the hen is kept in her coop until the cbickB are 

 weaned, thereby compelling her to hover the chicks when 

 ever they demand it and avoiding the enforced excessive 

 exercise she would often subject them to, tiring them out 

 and making them leg weary. Scatter a shovel of sand in 

 front of the coop, which will serve as their first grit. Have 

 a feeding board or trough ready; also drinking fountain, 

 which wash out daily and keep filled with pure water. After 

 your chicks have been out of the shell thirty-six hours, give 

 them a feed of stale bread crumbs soaked in milk and 

 squeezed almost dry. They will eat sparingly at first, as 

 they should.^ They have been nourished by the yolk which 

 was taken itita the abdominal cavity just before hatching 

 and they would not suffer from the lack of food for three 

 days. The bread and milk does not overtax the delicate 

 digestive organs, which as yet have been unemployed, and it 

 cleanses the trop, gizzard, and intestinal tract and prepares 

 it for its functions. Peed every two hours for the first 

 thrme days, but only what they will eat up clean each time. 

 Little and often is the rule for little chicks up to ten days 

 old, then the capacity of the crop increases and the inter- 

 vals can be lengthened. 



We have seen so much of the hard boiled egg nonsense 

 and the fatality from it that it is surprising that any one 

 should recommend it. Others will advise corn meal, 

 johnny cake, meat stew, hash — anything. Now, it would 

 be just as consistent to feed these things to a new born 

 babe as to a chick. It has been done and no doubt some 

 survived, but only because green food happened to be ac- 

 cessible, and the chick after eating the poison, found the 

 antidote. A dog can eat Rough on Rats and then drink a 

 pan of milk and suffer no injury, but that does not justify 

 me in advising it as a steady diet for dogs. Those who pre- 

 fer the dry grain ration should after the third day use pin- 

 head oat meal and a little millet seed until they can eat 

 cracked wheat, finely chopped corn, and hulled oats, which 

 latter should constitute the main food for a growing chick. 

 Add to this a little millet or chopped sunflower seed with 

 a little (very little) cut green bone or lean meat daily after 

 they are ten days old, the amount depending on the season 



