108 The Truth About the Poultry Business 



Use plenty of sand where the chicks can get it, but do not 

 use sharp prepared grit at first. 



It is a fact, as I have pointed out on another page, that 

 hens eating some rations under different conditions, or hav- 

 ing indigestion, will eat grit, charcoal, bones and glass in 

 quantities, and will eat it in preference to grain. Chicks are 

 the same way, so if your food is not properly balanced or 

 your chicks have indigestion, do not rush for some white- 

 diarrhoea cure or some other kind of a cure. Get down to 

 the real cause, and when you find it and remedy it your 

 troubles will cease. 



Where five quarts of grain a day is fed to 100 hens, much 

 more mash is eaten by the hens, and the ration does not 

 contain as much protein. 



The more grain fed and the less mash, the more meat 

 should be placed in the mash. 



The amount of beef-scrap given in these rations are about 

 correct when using five quarts of grain to 100 hens. 



If you use plenty of litter (coarse planer shavings are 

 good, but do not use the fine as it gets in the chicks' or hens' 

 eyes) in your house and yards the hens will keep this 

 worked up, which will prevent the ground from becoming 

 contaminated. A small yard which the hens keep worked up 

 and cleaned is far better than a large yard where the drop- 

 pings are allowed to pack. Hens and chicks often get dirt 

 in their eyes which cause the head to swell and is often mis- 

 taken for roup, but this dirt will be found in the upper front 

 part of the eye and can be removed. 



When the right grains are used, the best grade of those 

 grains, the right amount of those grains and balanced cor- 

 rectly every disease that poultry is subjected to through 

 wrong feeding is prevented. When this is understood and 

 your housing conditions are correct, your hens will lay, and 



