16 



THE CHICK BOOK 



we have found it a convenience to have them wholly de- 

 tachable, and so make them. 



Shelter from rain and sun is of quite as much help as a 

 good coop to sleep in. By experimenting in different ways 

 we learn that it would pay as well to have "shelter boards" 

 always ready, just as are the coops; hence we make them of 

 the half-inch, tongued and grooved pine, taking five strips 

 tiiree feet long by six inches wide for each shelter board. 

 These strips are securely nailed to pieces of inch-square 

 spruce at top and bottom, and then the weather side is well 



painted. We make a 

 light frame of the 

 ' inch square spruce 

 strips and laths to fit 

 up to the "A" coops 

 When we want to put 



the shelter close to 

 The A Coop. ^j^g ^ggp^ ^gjjjg j,^g 



of the 2%x3-foot shelter boards, as shown in the Illustra- 

 tions. As the chicks get a little older we move the frame 

 out a little, seit athwart the front of coop, and put two 

 shelter boards over it side by side, setting it so tha't it fur- 

 nishes shade if the sun is shining, or protects from a driv- 

 ing rain, of course adapting it to the directiton of the wind. 

 When we move the pullets out into the field and into the 

 roosting coops we set upon stakes and a strip of furring, a 

 shelving roof seven and a half feet long by three feet wide, 

 slightly sloping to the south, about eighteen inches high in 

 front and a foot high at the back. By these devices we more 

 than double the available shelter from rain and sun and cor- 

 respondingly increase the comfort of the growing chicks. 

 Obviously, if they have to be crowded into their narrow 

 sleeping quarters on a long rainy day or to get away from 

 the hot sun, they are not making good growth, and by so 

 simple an expedient as we have here outlined we more than 

 doable the protection and by so much promote their com- 

 fort. 



Foods and Feeding. 



As we stated at the beginning of this article, we raise 

 two kinds of chicks, chickens for market and chickens for 

 breeding stock. The food for the first month or six weeks 

 is practically the same for each class, but at the end of six 

 weeks we begin to feed the market chicks a richer and more 

 fattening food, they 



Koosting CoopB for Large Cblcks. 



of coursd being kept 

 separate from the 

 chicks, in'tended far 

 breeding stock. 



Feed often and 

 feed but a little at a 

 time is the rule for 

 young c'hicks. We feed five times a day until they are about 

 six weeks oUl. It is important that no food be left standing 

 tor the chicks to trample dirt into or to get sour in the sun; 

 If they have not eaten it all in twenty minutes to half an 

 hour, remove it. Nothing causes more bowel looseness and 

 dysentery than sour food. Our chief foods for the first six 

 weeks are coarsest oatmeal, slightly moistened with sweet 

 milk if we have it; if not, with water, and waste bread 

 ground to rather coarse crumbs in a bone mill. This also 

 is moistened with sweet milk or water, — slightly moistened 

 60 that it is still crumbly and not "pasty." The oatmeal 

 is just such as is coolted for a breakfast dish on our table; 

 in other words, it is oat meats ground very coarse. This we 

 buy of wholesale grocers, by the barrel, at a cost of about 

 two cents a pound. The waste bread is the broken pieces, 

 part-loaves, rolls, corn cakes, etc., from hotels and restau- 

 rants and costs about a cent and a half a pound. This 



As a Shelter from Sun. 



bread we buy by the hundred weight and spread on the barn 

 loft to dry; when thoroughly dry it is ground into coarse 

 crumbs in a bone mill. The first food early in the morning 

 is the bread crumbs, slightly moistened with sweet milk or 

 water; the second, about nine o'clock in the morning, is 

 oatmeal, slightly moistened a little before noon bread 

 crumbs again, about half past two oatmeal again and about 

 5 o'clock a little cracked wheat or finely cracked corn. Twice 

 a week a little lean meat is boiled, chopped fine and mixed 

 with one of the bread or oatmeal feeds, or the infertile eggs 

 (clear eggs) from the incubators are boiled hard, chopped 

 fine, shells and all, and mixed with the bread crumbs or 

 oatmeal. 



It is very important that the chicks have grit to grind 

 their food, and as baby chicks are hardly to be trusted to 

 supply themselves with good grit, we sprinkle a pinch of 

 fine grit (or coarse sand) upon the small tin plates once a 

 day just before feeding, or, if preferred, it can be mixed 

 into the food. Grit in the gizzard to grind the food is a 

 most important factor in preventing indigestion and loose- 

 ness of the bowels. 



Green food is another important aid to good health. If 

 the chicks are cooped upon fresh grass the problem is easily 

 solved, because they will help themselves. Obviously, the 

 January, February and March hatched chicks cannot have 

 access to fresh 

 grass, neither cam 

 the larger chickens 

 shut up to be fatted 

 for market, hence a 

 supply of green food 

 must be provided. 

 Cabbages, onions, 

 lettuce and onion 



tops all make a good green food supply, and tJhe same can 

 be said of weeds from the garden, which are easily obtained. 

 It is a comparatively easy matter to supply the green food 

 if one has the will. 



We are well aware that many readers cannot get waste 

 bread from hotels and restaurants, and to such we recommend 

 the making of "johnny cake" of mixed meals,, baked very 

 thoroughly, and we will give also the rule for "Excelsior 

 Meal bread" as recommbnded by Mr. I. K. Feloh. "Grind 

 into a fine meal in the following proportions: Twenty 

 pounds corn, fifteen pounds oats, ten pounds barley, ten 

 pounds wheat bran. Make the cakes by taking one quart 

 sour milk (or buttermilk), adding a little salt and molasses, 

 one quart of water in which a large heaping teaspoonful of 

 saleratus has been dissolved. Then thicken all to a little 

 stiffer batter than your wife makes for corn cakes. Bake in 

 shallow pens until thoroughly cooked. We believe a well- 

 appointed kitchen and brick oven pays, for in the baking 

 of this food enough for a week can be cooked at a time." 

 It is very certain that a cooked food of this kind is a decided 

 help to good growth in chicks, and as we on our farm want 

 a good growth, we study to promote it by feeding a good 

 food. 



Not a few farmers and poultrymen think that oatmeal 

 as a food for chicks is a luxury. Wright's "Practical Poul- 

 try Keeper" says: "With reg'ard to feeding, if the question 

 be asked what is the best food for chickens, irrespective of 

 price, the answer must decidedly be, 'oatmeal.' After the 

 first meal of bread crumbs and egg no food is equal to it, 

 if coarsely ground, and only moistened so much as to remain 

 crumbly. The pric-} of oatmeal is, however, so high as to 

 forbid its use in general except for valuable birds; but we 

 should still advise it for the first week in order to lay a 

 good foundation." 



