THE CHICK BOOK 



47 



We are obliged to differ from Mr. Wright as to oatmeal 

 being an expensive food for cliiclcs. It may loolc expensive 

 to pay $4 a barrel (two cents a pound) for oatmeal for chick- 

 en food; but it goes so far we have found it a decidedly 

 economical food. We use perhaps fifty dollars' worth of oat- 

 meal a year and it makes about one-fifth' of our chicks' food 

 ration for the first three months of their life. Considered 

 simply as a food ration it is economical, but when we con- 

 sider that is a good foundation for the future usefulness of 

 the birds, and that a good foundation for chicks means eggs 

 in the basket next fall and winter — then we realize that 

 oatmeal is a cheap food in the best sense of the term. 



By the time the chicks are six to eight weeks old the 

 principal dangers of chickenhood are past and the two dif- 

 ferent methods of feeding are inaugurated. The chickens 

 Intended to be raised for breeding stock are put out in the 

 fields, where they have a grass run and a free range. The 

 chickens intended for market are kept confined in the 

 brooder house pens and yards and fed a slightly different 

 grade of food. The principal difference is in increasing the 

 amount of cracked corn and corn meal of the market chicks 

 and cutting off the oatmeal, of course the green food being 

 plentifully supplied and grit being constantly accessible. 

 The chicks in the field intended for laying and breeding 

 stock must have a liberal supply of nourishing, strengthen- 

 ing food, which will build up a strong, healthy and vigorous 

 body, with stores of strength to lean upon when maturity 

 shall come. The breakfast is bread crumbs, continued 

 usually until the chicks are about ten weeks old, 

 when they are graduated into a morning mash of 

 cooked vegetables (which makes about one-third of 

 the whole) and mixed meals, being equal parts by 

 weight of corn meal, ground oats, fancy middlings and 

 bran (or shorts); this is salted about as it would be if it 

 were food for the table. The vegetables are potatoes, beets, 

 turnips, carrots, onions — anything in the vegetable line, 

 thoroughly cooked and mashed fine, the mixed meals being 

 stirred in until it is stiff as a strong arm can make it. The 

 breakfast in the morning is this mash; in the middle of the 

 forenoon a light feed of coarse oatmeal, moistened; just 

 after dinner a light feed of cracked wheat and about five 

 o'clock whole wheat or cracked corn, one one day the other 

 the next. About twice a week we have fresh meat (butch- 

 er's trimmings), which are boiled and then chopped fine. 

 This we mix with the oatmeal (about half and half) for the 

 second feeding. We have also a bone cutter and twice a 

 week the chicks have a good time wrestling and trampling 

 over each other in their eagerness to get the fresh cut bone. 

 Cut bone, if perfectly fresh and sweet, is one of the best 



animal food sup- 

 plies that we have, 

 but, if this is not 

 a v a i 1 a ble, meat 

 meal or beef scraps 

 should be mixed in- 

 to the morning 

 mash, about o-ne- 

 quarter ounce per bird per day, for young birds, increasing 

 to about one-'half ounce per day as they approach nlaturity. 

 We vary the food ration continually within the range 

 here described. For instance, one day the food will be mash, 

 bread crumbs, cracked wheat and cracked corn; next day, 

 mash, oatmeal and chopped meat, cracked corn, and whole 

 wheat; the next day bread crumbs, cut bone, oatmeal, cracked 



As a Shelter fW>iii Bain. 



A Shed-Roof Shelter. 



sometimes going around between 



corn and so on. The intention is to feed only what the chicks- 

 will eat up clean and quickly; but we break the rule so- far as 

 the last feed is concerned and the boy goes around a second 

 time twenty or thirty minutes after feeding, and if the food. 

 is all eaten up clean three or four handfuls more are put 

 down so that all shall have a chance to "fill up" for the 

 night. If a handful is left uneaten it quickly disappears 

 in the morning, and as it is always dry grain it does not. 

 sour and there is no danger from leaving it out. 



Wa have said 

 nothing about fresh 

 ■water because it 

 goes without saying 

 that fresih, clean 

 water must always 

 me accessible to the 

 chickens. We water 

 them three times a 

 day, morning, noon 

 and late afternoon; 

 Whiles if it is hot weather and the chickens are 

 likely to drink a good deal. The waiter distes are care- 

 fully rinsed once a day and water which is fresh and cool 

 is always accessible to them. Grit to grind the food is an- 

 other necessity, a pan of which is placed near each food 

 trough out in the field, or a small box of it in each pen in 

 the brooder house. , We have personally noted that chickens 

 when let out of the coops in the morning would go to the 

 grit dish for two or three bits of grit before going to join, 

 their mates at the food trough. 



Thus far we have been writing about chicks raised for 

 breeding stock. When the market chicks are six to eight 

 weeks old we cut off the oatmeal (or ground oats) from the 

 food ration, double the quantity of corn meal and cracked, 

 corn, feeding also on wheat or barley, feeding them occa- 

 sionally, say once a week, a feed of whole oats for a change. 

 The corn meal and meat meal are gradually increased and a 

 week to ten days before the chickens are to be marketed a 

 very little gluten meal is added to the ration and the meat 

 meal practically doubled in quantity until we are feeding a 

 full ounce per bird per day. With this decidedly fattening 

 ration the birds should go to market in first-class condition 

 and bring top prices for market chicks. 



The chicks intended for breeding stock have free range 

 and can roam over the fields at will in search of insects, 

 worms, etc., the exercise of ranging promoting growth and 

 good health. We study to promote the comfort and well 

 being of the chicks, believing that it pays to do so. The 

 coops are kept scrupulously clean by being moved to fresh, 

 ground every other day, and every reasonable pains is taken 

 to insure steady, continuous growth. It is the full egg bas- 

 ket in November, December and .January, when eggs bring- 

 top prices and pay the creamy profits, that is being planned 

 for and worked for in this good care and good feeding, and 

 we have abundantly proved on our farm that this good care 

 and good feeding pay richly. We cannot get a valuable 

 thing for nothing; the good things in this world come by 

 working for them, and the good profits that are to be gained 

 in poultry raising have got to be worked for. With us the 

 problem is early hatched pullets kept growing so that they 

 shall come to laying maturity in October, and then kept lay- 

 ing. Our pullets are kept growing, and after they reach 

 laying maturity are kept laying, by good care, and good foods., 



A. F. HUNTER. 



