Feeding 85 



especially corn and middlings — as almost everything, from 

 bran to flour, is sold as middlings. 



I feed poultry of all ages about the same ration, except the 

 first few weeks I do not feed baby chicks any meat because 

 if the mash should not be exactly right, they will be better 

 off without meat. I have raised fine, healthy chicks that 

 never tasted meat for the first two months. The earlier they 

 get meat the faster the grow. 



I will use baby chicks for illustration — as they are the most 

 sensitive to proper or improper feeds, and we get quicker 

 results one way or the other. I will begin by feeding baby 

 chicks chick-foods composed of seeds and grains. These 

 chicks are in good condition, and the chick food is the best 

 that money can buy. I feed these chicks five times a day 

 in fine chopped straw, (I use coarse planer shavings in the 

 yards) and to be sure that they all get enough I give them 

 all that I think they will eat up quickly. Here is where I 

 make a mistake whereby I kill my chicks because I think I 

 have fed the right amount, and no two persons think in the 

 same quality. At the next feeding time the chicks are hungry 

 and I feed about twice the amount I gave before and keep 

 that up. Next day my chicks do not seem to be so active 

 and about the fourth day they begin looking weak, many of 

 them so weak on their legs that they cannot stand up. About 

 the fifth day half of them die, and the remainder die in a 

 few days. At one place I lost five hatches of chicks, 1,000 

 chicks to each hatch, making a total of 5,000 chicks in all 

 and near me on another place, another party lost 23,000 chicks 

 in the same way. 



My chicks nearly all died on the fifth day, and I thought 

 they were poisoned because little stools of blood were passed; 

 but what really killed them was over-feeding with grains. 

 They ate more than they could digest, some of the food 



