92 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



perches. I have recommended the lath platform or floor to many 

 and it has proved always successful. 



Teaching Them to Roost 



It is sometimes difficult to persuade the young chickens at this 

 time of the year (September), when moved to winter quarters, to 

 go into the coop or house, which they should occupy. The little 

 perversities insist on returning to the place where their mother 

 has raised them, or they will huddle together on the ground, while 

 the older ones fly into the low trees. Night after night, they have 

 to be carried to their house. I, however, have found that by driving 

 them gently with a broom for two or at most three nights, they 

 will soon learn what is expected of them. A broom is by far the 

 best way of driving chickens without frightening them. 



A broom in each hand is the best way of driving a large herd of 

 turkeys, also, by gently waving them on each side. They will be 

 afraid of the broom, but never become wild or afraid of the attend- 

 ant in this way. It is entirely possible to drive the profits out of a 

 flock of hens by stoning and pelting them every time they get into 

 mischief. Be quiet in your manner if you wish to be successful 

 with hens. Make the fowls feel that, when you are present there 

 is a protector among them, not something that is likely to scare 

 or harm them. The only way to keep your fowls on good terms 

 with you is by keeping them tame and treating them in a common- 

 sense manner. 



Protecting Chicks from Older Fowls 



It may sometimes be necessary to allow young and old fowls 

 to run together. This creates trouble, as the young chicks require 

 more frequent feeding than the older ones. To avoid this trouble, 

 make a pen about six feet square and covered with wire netting. 

 The pen should be made on a framework so that it can be easily 

 moved. Feed for the chicks is scattered in the pen far enough from 

 the edge so the older fowls cannot reach it from the outside. Then 

 the pen is raised on blocks, just high enough to allow the chicks 

 to pass under but will prevent the older fowls from getting inside. 



The Dry Hopper 



In the matter of feeding hens on a farm, I would much prefer 

 the dry hopper method, keeping one hopper full of mixed grains 

 and one hopper with beef scraps or granulated milk, and letting the 

 fowls have free range until it is time to put them in their winter 

 quarters. Then, instead of only grain in the hopper, make the mix- 

 ture of bran, corn meal and alfalfa meal, or take one of the good 

 balanced rations sold at the poultry supply houses for the hopper. 

 The reason for this change which should be made gradually, is that 

 the fowls being confined, do not get the exercise and consequently 

 may get overfat from eating the whole grains, while the finely- 

 ground food has to be eaten more slowly. For fowls in confine- 

 ment, besides the hopper or finely ground feed, they should have a 

 scratch pen in which the grain is thrown every morning for them 

 to scratch in. This will give them the exercise which they would 

 otherwise miss after being on free range all the summer. 



