61 



earlier, and are sometimes a day or two behind time. Therefore if 

 a valuable brood is expected, and only a few are hatched out, the 

 remainder should be put under another hen, as the first, finding 

 the chickens moving beneath her, will raise herself up and allow the 

 remaining eggs to get chilled. 



The chickens hatched out should be left undisturbed iot twenty- 

 four hours, they may then be taken and placed under a coop with 

 the hen in a dry place. If the coop has a board bottom it should be 

 covered two inches deep with dry earth to prevent cramp in the 

 chickens. Chickens can stand cold, but none can withstand damp. 

 The first food should be finely chopped hard boiled egg and stale 

 bread crumbs, moistened, if desired, with a little new milk. They 

 should have food every two hours, and if early in the year, should 

 be fed the last thing by lamplight. At the end of a fortnight every 

 three hours will be suflBcient, and after the first month four or five 

 times a day. After the first week coarse oatmeal, boiled or raw, 

 mixed with fresh milk, a little canary or hemp seed, and animal food 

 occasionally, grit and green food, once a week a little boiled rice 

 may be given, Spratt's meal and Crissel, and dog biscuit broken up 

 small and soaked, are also good food. Change is the great thing, 

 and to give them just as much as they will clear up and no more. 

 From the first few days corn may be gradually begun, such as small 

 broken wheat, &c. ; this should be given at night or the last feed. 

 If water is given it must be kept out of the sun and changed 

 frequently, otherwise it will produce diarrhoea. Many breeders 

 give no water until the chicks are two or three months old, but let 

 them have milk to drink twice a day, taking it away as soon as they 

 have had sufiBcient. Frequently at this age the whole brood will 

 commence fighting and one will attain the mastery, which, if not 

 interfered with, he will keep until they are five or six months old. 

 In this, however, there seems no rule, some will fight so that one 

 or two of the brood may be spoilt or killed at seven or eight weeks 

 old ; at other times they will remain peaceably together until as many 

 months. At the age of ten or eleven weeks they should be allowed 

 to roost. The hen will go to roost and they will crowd round on each 

 side. If they do not roost in the trees they must have a perch 

 suitable to their size, as if too large some will become duck-footed, 

 that is, the hind toe brought round sideways, generally caused by 

 the perch being too big for them to grasp. The breeder should 

 occasionally just feel their breast bones as they are on the perch. 



