May, 1 9 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



MAY POULTRY- WORK 



By E. 1. FARRINGTON 



"Chicks hatched in May 

 Make hens that lay" 



THE verse maker's doggerel is an ac- 

 curate statement in so far as it applies 

 to the smaller breeds. Leghorn, Ancona 

 and other Mediterranean pullets will begin 

 laying in October with ordinary care, if 

 hatched the first week in May. If grown 

 rapidly, they may start in September, but 

 this is not an end to be sought. September 

 eggs from pullets are likelv to be small 

 and unsatisfactory. Pullets beginning to 

 lay in the middle of October may be de- 

 pended upon to produce eggs of good size 

 and to make a creditable Winter record. 

 It is not unusual for even Plymouth Rocks, 

 Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds to 

 commence laying before November when 

 hatched early in May. 



Late hatched chicks are easier to raise 

 than the early birds, for they may be put 

 on the ground right away, and chickens 

 never thrive so well as when they have 

 solid earth under their feet. If the big 

 breeders are able to get their youngsters 

 into outdoor runs by the time the downy 

 birds are ten days old. they are happy, al- 

 though the month may be February. 



It is an easy matter to supply the late 

 hatched chicks with green food, while if 

 they can be given a wide range, they will 

 get many bugs and worms to properly bal- 

 ance the grain rations. And a chick much 

 prefers balancing its own ration, rather 

 than to have some one balance it for him. 

 It is claimed, too, that there is commonly 

 a preponderance of pullets among the 

 chickens which are hatched as late as May. 



It is one thing to hatch chicks and quite 

 another thing to raise them. Yet poultry- 

 men are learning the science of chick grow- 

 ing. Already they have found that close 

 attention to details is imperative, but that 

 coddling is a waste of time. A great ad- 

 vance was made when the old-fashioned 

 wet mash gave way to dry feeds. The 

 point for amateurs to remember now is not 

 to begin feeding too soon, to watch out for 

 lice and to avoid tainted ground. 



There is no reason for feeding a chick- 

 before it is forty-eight hours old. In point 

 of fact, another twenty-four hours might 

 be added without harm, but the conscience 

 of the average amateur rebels at any 

 stretching of the two-day limit. The yolk 

 of the egg absorbed into the abdomen jus' 

 before the chicken is hatched contains a 

 large amount of nourishment for such a 

 tiny body. 



I once heard of a man who got up at 

 night to feed his chickens an extra meal 

 by lamplight. That was wasteful coddling. 

 It is well to feed four or five times a day 

 for the first few days, but three times a 

 day soon becomes often enough. If a hen 

 is mothering the chicks, she usually will see 

 to it that they eat little the first two or 

 three days; she will eat the rations her- 

 lelf if necessary, or scratch the grain out 



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