70 CHICKS 



eat about as adult fowls except that large size grains are 

 not of course suitable for them. But they can eat whole 

 wheat at four weeks, whole corn at eight weeks. Whole 

 oats are scarcely proper for chicks except in small pro- 

 portions and with plenty of good grit and abundant activity. 

 But hulled oats are the best grain food chicks can eat. 

 Chicks need animal food after first four days of feeding, 

 even if you do not give them animal food, as milk or eggs, 

 before that. Service of animal food to chicks can easily 

 be overdone — is often greatly overdone. Five per cent of 

 total food by weight is enough for a beginning and eight per 

 cent should never be exceeded at any time up to twelve 

 weeks of age, and ten per cent should ne^er be exceeded 

 at any age. 



Don't "Coddle" the Chicks. 



Chicks should not be kept overwarm, not be coddled at 

 all. Chicks that need coddling are never much good as 

 adults. If they are healthy chicks, well hatched, their 

 apparent need of coddhng is your own fault. Chicks should 

 be hardened, gradually, but rapidly. When hardened they 

 are better without much brooder heat. 



They will grow well, feather rapidly and well, if 30U 

 don't coddle them and if you feed them rightly. Chicks 

 should be made to work for the bulk of their food as early 

 as possible, should be taught to scratch for dear life and 

 do that every day of their lives ever after. 



Eighty degrees Fahrenheit in the brooder is about 

 what the best chicks need as a starter if they are gradually 

 cooled off from temperature of the incubator during, say 

 three hours. It seems to be unsafe to tell this to most 

 .people, I wrote it with the utmost care for Californians 

 a year ago. One man had nearly all his chicks die just 

 because he did not take account of proper precautions 

 plainly told in my directions. Another man who followed 

 my suggestions with intelligence reared every chick hatched. 

 The funny thing was that the man who lost nearly all 

 his chicks was a neighbor of the man who lost none. 



