354 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 
Great care should be taken not to over-feed. Best results are 
secured in both eggs and health of fowls when they are active and 
in normal flesh. They should only be fed what they will eat up 
clean each day and should come hungry to every meal. During the 
daytime their appetites should be kept keen and never entirely 
satisfied. 
Chick Ration.—The chicks are removed to the brooder after 
24 hours, but are not fed for from 60 to 72 hours after the hatch 
is completed. When the chick leaves the shell its digestive appara- 
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Fria. 104.—Scattering grain in the litter. (California Station.) 
tus contains a considerable amount of unabsorbed yolk. Until this 
is thoroughly digested and absorbed into the blood the chick’s deli- 
cate stomach is not ready to receive much feed. When they are 
first taken to the brooder only a fountain of water should be put 
before them. They will immediately begin picking at the sand on 
the floor and drinking water. This prepares and hardens the crop 
for the reception of feed. 
In feeding chicks a grain mixture composed of equal parts of 
fine cracked wheat. fine cracked corn and steel-cut oats is fed in a 
wooden chick hopper the first two days and left before them all the 
time so that they can pick at the grains and learn how to eat. They 
