Starting a Flock 53 



rations intelligently, but with assorted broods it is 

 different. It is not well to keep each brood in a 

 small run, and yet we do not want to keep big 

 chicks on^ the small chick feed any longer than 

 necessary, while the larger grains are not suited 

 to the small chicks. 



Again — the incubator, handled with care, 

 hatches chickens with more uniform vigor. I have 

 just been through a siege with a hen that simply 

 refused to leave her nest. As it is necessary to air 

 the eggs each day for at least fifteen days of the 

 incubation period, I had to haul her off each day, 

 and try to ^et her to eat and drink. The chicks 

 are now hatched, eleven out of thirteen, and while 

 they seem lively, they are not well feathered, are 

 long, and their heads are small and sharp, all in- 

 dications of poor development in the shell. 



The enormous increase in the sale of small in- 

 cubators during the past ten years is ample proof 

 that this method of hatching has proved decidedly 

 successful. 



Day-Old Chicks. — Another plan for starting a 

 flock is that of buying a number of chicks from a 

 dealer who maintains large breeding pens and large 

 incubators, containing thousands of eggs. For 



