FEEDING PRACTICES AND APPLIANCES 401 



minutes, since the poults are now obtaining more food on the 

 range in the form of insects. 



" About the same time sour milk is introduced. It is placed, 

 whey and curd well mixed, in shallow pans or in troughs 

 scattered about the range. It is at first given each morning 

 and night at the rate of about one quart to forty poults, and 

 is gradually increased in amount until by the beginning of the 

 fourth month one quart may be given for each twenty birds, 

 each morning and night. 



" During the second month, which is the critical period for 

 the young birds, the feeding is continued about as in the latter 

 part of the first month. But, after the age of about six 

 weeks the number of meals per day may be reduced to two. 

 Green food in the form of chopped carrot tops, onion tops, 

 or lettuce should be given in abundance; it should comprise 

 at least one-half of the ration for each meal. The time limit 

 remains at about two and one-half minutes. 



"When the poults are about six weeks old the nest or 

 brooder coops should be replaced by larger houses made of 

 laths and covered partly with roofing paper. ' Such a house 

 may suffice until the poults are about three or four months 

 old. These may be about three feet by five feet and three 

 feet high at the apex. Family houses should then be given up 

 and all the poults, with their mothers, be brought together in 

 a single roosting shed. 



"The feeding for the third month is like that of the second 

 except that the amount of sour milk is gradually increased 

 and that a grain mixture of equal parts of cracked corn and 

 wheat may be gradually substituted for the chick grain. 



"As the autumn months advance and the insect life dis- 

 appears, the time limit may be lengthened to three or three 

 and one-half minutes. In rainy weather the noonday meal 

 may be added and a four-minute period allowed. Rolled 

 oats may be omitted and the ration made to consist of the 

 grain mixture with an occasiona:! feed of rolled oats or bread 

 and milk. A mash may now be added containing some 

 beef scrap. 



" Before Thanksgiving the breeders for the coming season 

 should be selected and marked. Their feeding for the winter 

 26 



