40 A REVOLUTION IN EGG PRO DUCTION 



After the chicks get started eating and drinking, they can 

 be fed on rolled oats or steel cut oatmeal, commercial chick 

 feed and broken rice, or whatever other feeds in a fine state, 

 and in variety, can be procured locally. Boiled rice is relished 

 for a change, but must be fed with the moisture nearly all out, 

 so it will not be mushy. This boiled rice helps out also in case 

 of bowel trouble. Care must be used, however, not to leave 

 any around to get sour. 



You will also need charcoal, grit, and oyster shells. 



Little chicks can be fed on boards with a strip of lath 

 nailed around the edges, to prevent the feed from being scat- 

 tered. If a board, about six inches high, is nailed upright in 

 the center, and an opening is made for a handle, this kind of 

 feeding trough will be very convenient, even for grown fowls, 

 to feed a moistened mash. A feeding board, made in this man- 

 ner, also protects the mash from being trampled on. 



Growing chicks must be fed liberally if they are expected to 

 mature early. A stunted chicken will never mature properly, 

 or obtain its fullest possible growth, any more than will a 

 stunted calf or colt. 



If fed on the right kind of food, the writer does not think 

 it possible to overfeed chicks after two weeks old. However 

 full their crops, they are always ready for a taste of something 

 new, and they should be gi\'en plenty of opportunities for grati- 

 fying this taste. We are considering now only chicks which 

 are fed regularly — not chicks kept in an alternate condition of 

 starvation and plenty. 



In feeding chicks, we should not lose sight of the fact 

 that we are manufacturing "egg machines," and chicks which 

 never have their crops distended will develop small crops pro- 

 portionately ; hence, will have smaller fuel boxes for use in 

 manufacturing eggs later. Growing chicks can be fed an extra 

 meal late at night, if a good artificial light is used. 



The writer has raised Leghorn chicks now for several 

 years, and has always collected the first pullet eggs in from 

 one to three weeks under five months from hatching. He has 

 also seen chickens hatched from his own eggs, at the same 

 time, and in the same incubators, which, for three or four sea- 

 sons running, did not lay an egg before from seven to seven 

 and a half months from hatching. It all depends on the care. 



