CHICKS FROM DYING IN THE SHELL 17 



filthy clean it out and put in some more. You will not have to clean it 

 often. It is less work than scrubbing the floor; 



How and What to Feed Brooder Chicks 



FOR years past every reader of the poultry and agricultural papers have 

 read the statement, reiterated time and time again, that it is a com- 

 paratively easy matter to hatch chicks in incubators, but a diflBcult 

 matter to raise them. So it has been, and so it is today. Feeding brooder 

 chicks is the most important part of poultry culture. I have found this 

 out by experience. I used to feed my chicks to death. I killed them try- 

 ing to be good to them, consequently I have given the subject of feeding 

 brooder chicks a great deal of careful study and have found at last how 

 and what to feed them for best results. Do not feed the young chicks for 

 from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after they are hatched, but allow 

 them to pick at sand, charcoal, a little bran, and timothy seed, that has 

 been placed in the brooder. At the end of twenty-four or thirty-six hours, 

 to 200 chicks feed one'-third cup of broken rice If you cannot obtain 

 broken rice, just grind some whole rice in j'our coffee mill. Do not grind it 

 very fine as a great deal will go to dust which will be a loss. Peed this raw 

 and dry. Then in about three hours give them a drink of boiled, sweet, 

 skimmed milk. Do not let them drink all they want of it for ten days, but 

 just enough to moisten their food real good. In the evening give them 

 one-half teacup of lettuce chopped real fine. This amount is for 200 

 chicks. Feed rice, lettuce and boiled milk but once the first day. The 

 second day feed one-halt teacup of rice three times, once in the morning, 

 at noon and night, and one-half cup of lettuce at ten o'clock in the forenoon 

 and one- half cup, chopped fine, at three in the afternoon. Give boiled sweet 

 milk but twice a day for ten days, once in .the forenoon and once in the 

 afternoon. Do not put this drink in open dishes, or troughs, and do not try 

 to water all at the same time, but make .some fountains out of old tin fruit 

 cans. Punch a hole about the size of a ten penny nail one-fourth inch 

 down from the open end of the can. Put the milk or water in this. Place 

 a saucer over the top and turn quickly and the milk or water will come 

 out as fast as the chicks drink it. A quart can is the right size for a 

 saucer and a pint can the size for a sauce dish. This prevents the -chicks 

 from getting wet. Water just a few chicks at a time so you will be sure 

 they do not get too much, for they can founder on water or milk just as 

 quickly as they can on feed, and it affects them just the same. Take a 

 cracker box and put two of the can fountains in it, then put ten or fifteen 

 chicks in it and watch them and see that they all get a drink, but not too 

 much. After they have had enough, remove them to another box. Do 



