THE CHICK BOOK 



61 



corn they will pick up. They of course help themselves to 

 apples in the late summer and early fall, and we occasionally 

 give them cabbage and tomatoes to pick at after the grass 

 gets dry, or any little "treat" we happen to have for them, 

 to give variety. C. W. JEROME & CO. 



PLENTY OF RUNWAY AND YARD ROOM— LEAN- 

 TO COOP. 



I use both incubator and hens for hatching. If the hens 

 are slow in laying, requiring too long a time to supply a suf- 

 ficient number of eggs for au incubator, I put the first two 

 or three broody hens that 1 can find to work. I never set 



one hen singly. If 

 the hens lay well 

 I set tihe incuba- 

 tor. I much prei- 

 f e r Inioubators 

 ana brooders, es- 

 pecially the 

 broodier. I have 

 hatched out 

 chicks) by hens 

 raised them in 

 brooders without 

 any loss of chicks 

 to speak of and 



fig. 2— Style of Leaa-to Coop Used by Mr. 

 John Hettlcb. 



With much less trouble than watching the old hen. 



I never use outside coops, even for broods with hens. I 

 have on the south side of a main building a lean-to shed 

 six by fourteen feet with a glass front. (See Fig. 2.) This 

 shed I use for my young chicks. I have movable partitions 

 and can divide it into from three to five compartments, de- 

 pending on the number and the size of broods, each com- 

 partment containing a brood of chicks. From this they can 

 run on the outside in good weather either with the hen, or 

 with the hen confined on the inside, so the chicks can run 

 in and out at will. 



In this coop they remain until they are weaned, which is 

 from six to ten weeks. Of course this coop must be cleaned 

 three or four times a week, with plenty of litter or chaff on 

 the floor, with dry food fed in litter to make them work, and 

 plenty of fresh water. They grow and thrive from the very 

 start. After chicks are weaned they are moved from this 

 lean-to coop into the main room adjoining, which is 12x14. 

 In this room they are put to roost, while other youngsters 

 take their place in the first or young chick coop. The last 

 lot of chicks I allow to grow up in this shed, while the first 

 lot remain in the main room of the big building until about 

 October 1, when the cockerels are separated from the pullets. 

 My cockerel house is in another part of the yard, with 

 plenty of runway and yard room. Pullets go into my main 

 hen house, which is 12x15, divided into two parts, with 

 plenty of yard room to each part. I do not allow my hens 

 and pullets to run together. I find hens get too fat on a 

 ration that would keep a pullet starving hungry. 



.\s to feeding chicks I find little trouble to keep them 

 growing from the time they are six weeks to six months old 

 on plerity of sound small grain, wheat and chopped corn be- 

 ing my main ration. Twice a week I feed them a full mess 

 of wheat bran, middlings and oil-mea! well mixed. I be- 

 lieve that oil-meal has a splendid effect in producing fine, 

 glossy plumage. Of course, we all know that plenty of grit 

 and fresh water are two essentials. It is the little chicks 

 that give most trouble in getting them up to six weeks old. 



I am always making a fight on lice, both on fowls and 

 in buildings. Lice kill more chicks and grown fowls, for 

 that matter, than all other diseases combined. 



JOHN HBTTICH. 



MOVABLE COOPS IN BLUE GRASS PASTURE- 

 METHOD OF FEEDING — CORNFIELD AND 

 CLOVER FOR RANGE. 



I do not have any particular style of coop — a good roof 

 and bottom of boards always, made so that it can be conven- 

 iently cleaned. Twenty chicks to a hen I think about right. 

 The coops are placed near the house for convenience while 

 the chicks are young, moving them further away as they 

 grow older. At about five or six weeks they are located 

 near a blue grass pasture, with a number of apple trees for 

 shade. Here they have range until cold weather drives 

 them into winter quarters. 



My first food for little chicks is dry wheat bread, moist- 

 ened with sweet milk. This is good enough for the first 

 day; the second day, oatmeal and millet seed are given, 

 with good grit. They get water from the start. Up to four 

 weeks old their food is bread, moistened in milk, millet seed, 

 oatmeal cornbread, baked as for the table, and cracked 

 wheat. After they are four weeks old I discontinue the oat- 

 meal and bread and milk, and feed millet seed, whole wheat 

 and cracked corn, with cornbread for breakfast, baked the, 

 day before. After the chicks are two months old I feed a 

 bran mash, consisting of one-third each of ground oats, 

 corn and wheat bran, moistened with milk, clabber or sour 

 milk preferred. This I feed in the evening, all they will eat. 



I follow this method of feeding the old fowls, believing 

 the evening the proper time for soft food. For late hatched 

 broods (say the last of June or first of July hatches) I know 

 of no place better for cooping than a near cornfield, with a 

 clover meadow near by. The corn furnishes plenty of shade 

 through the warm days, and the clover field supplies grass- 

 hoppers. I have had good results from late broods raised in 

 this manner. o. L. KING. 



ROOSTING COOP FOR YOUNG STOCK— THREE FEEDS 

 A DAY AND PLENTY OF RANGE AND WORK. 



In raising chicks, if they have been fed and cared for as 

 they should, are free from mites and diseases until weaning 

 time, or until they are large enough to be taken from the 

 brooder to the roosting coop, I find that the greatest work 

 and care of the season is over. After my chicks are six to 

 eight weeks old I give them their liberty all through the 

 day, except when the weather is too bad to let them run. 

 I feed them three times a day and make them work for it all 

 except the morning feed. For a roosting place I use coops 

 with a floor space two and one-half feet square. (Fig. 3.) 

 I also use these coops with a run attached for the hen 

 and brood when I let the chicks run with the hen instead 

 of using a brood- 

 er, so when the 

 chicks are wean- 

 ed they will con- 

 tinue to go home 

 to roost. 



These coops are 

 made of sev6n- 

 eighths inch 

 matched lumtier, 

 well seasoned. 

 The sides can be 

 made of lumber 

 taken from dry goods boxes. The front should be two feet 

 high, the back sixteen inches high. This gives sufticieiit 

 slant to the top to run the water off when it rains. The 

 back is left open and has slats nailed across to keep the 

 hen in and to allow the chicks to pass out. This open side 

 admits plenty of fresh air at all times. The top should pro- 

 ject over about eight inches at back of coop to prevent the 



Fig. 3— Roosting Coops for Young Stock Rec- 

 ommended by Mr. C. C. Read. 



