May, 1912 
POULTRY. 
FEEDING THE GROWING CHICKS 
By E. I. FARRINGTON 
HEN chicks are hatched, at first they 
will peck at anything, from sand to 
sawdust. They will eat the ravelings from 
brooder coverings and sometimes pick at 
one another’s feet until the blood comes. 
A week or more passes before a chick really 
reaches the age of discretion. 
Sharp sand is what the chicks should 
eat first, and so the floor of the brooder 
is usually strewn with it. No food is re- 
quired for thirty-six hours or more because 
the downy youngsters absorb the yolks of 
the eggs from which they are hatched just 
before they begin pecking their way to 
freedom. The chicks ought not to be re- 
moved from the brooder or from the under 
the sitting hen until they are thoroughly 
dry. They are wet, bedraggled little birds 
when they make their appearance on the 
stage of action. 
Hard boiled eggs crumbled fine is the 
traditional first meal, and an excellent but 
by no means necessary one. Rolled oats 
or dry oatmeal, such as the cook uses, may 
be ied from the start. Some people mix 
breadcrumbs with an egg the first day 
and feed the breadcrumbs alone for sev- 
eral days after. The first feedings should 
not be too generous—just what the chicks 
will eat up clean four times a day. The 
rations, whatever they consist of, are best 
given on a shingle for two or three days; 
what is not eaten being removed. The 
chicks should come to each meal with a 
keen appetite, as expressed in voice and 
manner. 
If the chicks are being raised in a 
brooder, or if they are confined with a hen 
in a run, there should be a litter of cut 
clover, alfalfa or hay on the floor, and as 
soon as a habit of regular feeding has been 
established, the grain should be thrown in 
that litter so that the chicks will be obliged 
to work a little in order to get it. An 
abundance of exercise is very essential. 
When the chicks are three or four days old 
they may be given one of the commercial 
chick feeds. Indeed, some people begin 
with these feeds. The commercial mix- 
tures greatly simplify the feeding question 
for the amateur and are only a little more 
expensive than mixtures made from grains 
bought separately. They contain a variety 
of grain, cracked fine. When the commer- 
cial grain is not easily obtained, cracked , 
corn, wheat and rolled oats may be given. 
Green food is needed after the first few 
days and may consist of bits of lettuce, cab- 
bage chopped fine or clover sweepings from 
the barn floor. 
After the first week, a dry mash is kept 
in hoppers before the chicks at all times 
on many poultry plants. This mash may be 
a commercial mixture, in which case it 
probably will contain alfalfa and _ beef 
scraps, or it may consist of some such mix- 
ture as the following: Three parts of 
bran, one part of corn meal, one part of 
middlings and one part of good beef scraps. 
A little meat seems essential, if the chicks 
are confined, and beef scraps are easily 
handled. When the chicks have a wide 
range they usually get enough bugs and. 
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ERR 
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Eastern Office 
1123 Broadway, New York City 
Elston and Webster Avenues 
Chicago, Illinois 
