158 The Hen at Work 



sprinkled about the run after the chickens are 

 abed. Plain rolled oats are suitable for this feed- 

 ing. Then we can sleep on in peace without a 

 thought of hungry chickens yelling for breakfast. 



Enlarging the Diet. — ^After the first day it will 

 help to keep the chickens active if we sprinkle fine 

 chick feed about in the run. Finely cracked com 

 and wheat, with pinhead oatmeal will do well, or 

 any high-grade commercial chick feed, as we are 

 not depending on this for a ration so much as for 

 exercise. A handful twice a day for the first week 

 and double that the second, will give them some- 

 thing to dig for, assuming ten or a dozen chickens 

 in the flock. 



A hopper should be hung on the inner wall of 

 the coop, where the chickens can find it easily, in 

 which fine charcoal, grit, and cracked bone are 

 always ready. Oyster shell may be added, but this 

 is not important for young stock. They will eat 

 little from the hopper at first, but will soon be 

 making frequent visits. Sifted coal ashes should 

 be sprinkled over the floor of the coop. They are 

 good to eat, make the floor sweet, and keep lice 

 down as nothing else of the kind wUl do. 



Worms for young chickens are of doubtful value. 



