HATCHING AND REARING 31 



not as a rule intended to be fed to growing chicks that have 

 reached an age of a month or more. When the chicks are 

 four weeks old whole wheat and cracked corn may be substi- 

 tuted for part of the chick food furnished and the propor- 

 tion gradually increased until the chick food is entirely 

 dispensed with at the end of six weeks. This, of course, 

 does not refer to the various foods prepared and sold es- 

 pecially for feeding growing chicks. Many of these are 

 well-balanced rations and are convenient and economical 

 to feed. Where these cannot be conveniently obtained, 

 cracked corn, whole wheat, beef scraps and charcoal will 

 make a satisfactory combination for chicks that are on free 

 range where they can obtain grit, green food, bugs, worms, 

 etc., and will produce vigorous, heal,thy growth until the 

 chicks go into winter quarters. 



For chicks that are confined in yards a more varied ration 

 is necessary. To the cracked corn and wheat may be 

 added hulled oats and grit; beef scraps and charcoal may 

 be fed in separate hoppers or if mash is added, whether dry 

 or damp, the beef scraps may be mixed with that to make 

 eight per cent of the mixture by bulk. The other parts 

 of the mash may be cornmeal, ground oats and bran in pro- 

 portion of one part cornmeal, one part ground oats and two 

 parts wheat bran. If this is fed damp it should be mixed 

 with milk, whole or skim, if it can be obtained at reasonable^ 

 cost. 



Free Range for Future Breeders. 



Sorrie of the best and strongest chicks that appear in the 

 fall and winter shows are raised in very limited quarters, 

 but good growth and proper development in such quarters 

 are obtained only by those who thoroughly understand the 

 business and who attend very carefully to the work. 



Five-hundred chicks properly cooped on free range may 

 be as easily cared for as one tenth that nujnber confined 

 in small yards and usually the former will make faster and 

 more satisfactory growth. The yarded chicks must not 

 only b^ provided with a variety of food which must include 

 plenty of green food, preferably short, tender lawn grass, 

 but they must have artificial protection from the heat of the 

 sun and from danger of poisoning from the infected ground. 



