UANAOEMIINT OF CBICKEHS. 91 



MANAGEMENT OF CHICKENS. 



Chickens will, as I have already said, do without food for the 

 first day and night; but as soon as they begin to feed they should 

 be very well fed, and constantly. We all know the old saying, 

 that "Children and chicken are always picking." At first their 

 food should be crumbs of bread, sometimes dry, sometimes 

 soaked iu nulk, and the yolk of hard-boiled eggs crumbled' up 

 and mixed with bread-crumbs. This is quite enough for the 

 first , week. Afterwards small grain may be given, chicken 

 wheat, or tailings of wheat, groats, canary-seed, a very little 

 bempseed, bits of underdone meat minced small, a little 'flnely- 

 chopx>ed green food, macaroni boiled in milk and cut into small 

 bits, and so on. They should be fed very often, but only ^ven 

 a little at a time. I feed mine every two hours for the first three 

 weeks or so, taking care that they only have just as much as 

 they can eat at a time, so that the food is not wasted. Hemp- 

 seed mast be given with caution; but if the weather is cold and 

 damp it is very good for warming the chicks, and they are very 

 fond of it. Soft food mixed dry should be given them after the 

 first week, macaroni, barley-meal, or middlings. This mixture 

 should be made with milk, or, if no milk is- given, then scalded 

 water, but on no account should any food for chickens be mixed ■ 

 with water which has not been toiled or scalded. The food 

 should not be mixed in a wet, sloppy mass, but of such a con- 

 sistency that when thrown on the ground it will crumble 

 readily. 



