THE CHICK BOOK 



51 



July chicks, if well cared for, are ready to show in January 

 and February. I have had July pullets lay in January. 

 Many breeders calculate to get out their January and Feb- 

 ruary show birds in June so the birds will be "on edge" or 

 in the pink of condition at show time and not be past their 

 beauty period. 



I care for June hatched chickens just the same as those 

 of any of the spring and summer months. My chicks have 

 all the shade they want as well as sunshine, and sunshine is 

 as necessary as shade. 



While 1 do not say June is the best month to hatch in, I 

 know that it is one of the best and I get but several hun- 

 dred "Ringlets" every June and have done so for years. 



I feed chicks the same in June and July as in April and 

 May. E. B. THOMPSON. 



The greatest objections to raising late hatched chicks are 

 lack of shade, improper attention to drinking vessels and 

 crowding one hundred chicks where only fifty should be 

 quartered, but these objections are easily overcome, and 

 where they are, June hatched chicks are profitable. 



C. BRICAULT, M. D. V. 



JUNE HATCHED CHICKS REACH MATURITY 



EARLY ENOUGH TO LAY WHEN PRICES OE 



EGGS ARE AT THEIR HEIGHT. 



Chicks hatched in June can be made profitable both as 

 layers and show birds, if raised under conditions to promote 

 a healthy growth. ~ Their treatment ' 

 differs but little from that which is 

 given the early ones; the difference 

 can be summed up in a few words, 

 namely, plenty of shade and cool. 

 Clean water to drink at all times. 



Up to louT years ago T shared' in 

 the belief that late hatched chicks 

 were undesirable, but after giving the 

 matter a thorough test 1 find that 

 White Wyandotte pullets hatched in 

 June reach laying maturity in less 

 time than the early hatched ones, and 

 many experienced breeders are of the 

 same opinion. 



Our late chicks are fed the same as 

 the early ones up to a certain age, 

 then they are fed differently. A pre 

 pared chick food is fed until they are 

 six weeks old, three times a day 

 the first week and five times a day up to the seventh 

 week. They are then changed gradually to hulled oats, 

 whole wheal and cracked corn. This is fed four times a day. 

 Several boxes containing ground oats, bran and beef scraps 

 (equal parts) are placed at different points on the range 

 and trom these they help themselves at will. It is astonish- 

 ing the amount of this mixture they will consume between 

 their regular meals. Being housed on a good grass range, 

 they have all the green food needed. About the middle of 

 September I begin to feed a mash to the pullets, and this is 

 where the difference in feeding occurs, the late pullets being 

 fed this mash at an earlier age than the early ones, for at 

 this season all are fed alike. The mash is composed as fol- 

 lows: Ground oats 50 per cent, bran 25 per cent, middlings 

 15 per cent, corn meal 10 per cent. It is mixed with boiling 

 water at noon and left to cook in its own heat until 5 

 p. m., when it is cool enough to feed. It is fed in several 

 long troughs so that every pullet has its share. No crowd- 

 ing at this meal is allowed, and the whole grain is scattered 

 so well that crowding is not necessary; all get their share. 



Pullets hatched June 20th and treated as above began 

 laying December 27th and were persistent layers for months. 

 If I were forced to delay hatching till June I would follow 

 the above method and have eggs for market when prices 

 are highest. 



Many of our best layers were hatched in June, and I 

 shall never again hesitate to hatch chicks in that month. 



SATISFACTORY EGG PRODUCTION BY JUNE 

 HATCHED CHICKS. 



Year after year we generally have more or less chicks 

 come off in June. This year, owing to the long and severe 

 winter and backward spring, we expect to hatch between 

 200 and 300 during that month. The main object with us is 

 eggs. We want pullets to lay early and lay lots of eggs. 

 We have, in most cases, found June hatched chicks profit- 

 able; the pullets especially. June hatched White Wyandotte 

 pullets have begun to lay with us in October or November, 

 jusi; before cold weather, and have continued to lay all 

 winter. 



We place the brooders, or hens with chicks, in a cool, 

 shady place under the trees and arrange the yards in such 



Where Chicks Crow Rapidly on the Plant of Mrs. H, W. Hand. 



a fashion that the chicks may have a little sunshine. 



Our method of feeding late hatched chicks does not vary 

 very much from that pursued in feeding earlier chicks; the 

 only difference being that we increase the beef scraps a 

 little after the chicks are four or five weeks old. 



We have tried in the past the dry feeding method for 

 small chicks, but have given it up for the mash and dry 

 grain combination. We can in this way get our birds to 

 mature quicker and lay earlier, without affecting their size. 

 We are using this spring one of the widely advertised chick 

 foods, twice a day, with cracked wheat, hominy grits, pin 

 head oatmeal and a little cracked corn. These small grains 

 a.re fed dry three times a day for the first week and twice 

 a day for the second and third weeks. After that time we 

 begin to feed a little hulled oats and whole wheat and a little 

 cracked corn once a day. We have lost less chicks this year, 

 up to the present time, than we ever did before when dry 

 food was used exclusively. 



We are careful in raising late hatched chicks to give the 

 little fellows plenty of shade, good pure drinking water and 

 to keep them free from lice. Our chicks when old! enough 

 to leave the brooders have the range of a meadow and a piece 

 of woodland, where they have plenty of shade. We use 

 colony houses 6x8 with shed roof, and four feet high at the 

 back and seven feet in front, with door and window, which 

 are replaced through the summer by screens. 



HAITZ POULTRY FARM. 



