182 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



Septra, ber, lai3 



<^ Potaltry 



Bits for Beginners. 



It has been said that chicks are 

 heirs to nothing but health and cn- 

 joNTncnt of life, while the ills come 

 from mismanagement and there is a 

 lot of truth in this, for it is the 

 natural tendency of a healthily 

 bred chick to grow and thrive. 



Costly errors are often made by 

 careless methods. One cannot give 

 poultry too close attention. This 

 is particularly so in the matter of 

 feeding. Beginners are apt to be 

 irregular in this. They do not 

 have any set hour. The stock will 

 soon learn to knpw when their 

 feeding hour arrives, and will be in 

 a more or less p.nxio|is state until 

 they are fed. 



A rooster is often capricious. 

 There may be a hen that will at- 

 tract all his attention. He will 

 then neglect the rest, and, as can 

 be easily seen, this will prove dis- 

 astrous to the fertilitv, of the eggs 

 laid b}^ the other inmates of the 

 l)en. Best remove her to a place 

 where she can be kept by herself. 

 If her eggs are wanted, let the 

 male run with her every other 

 day, which will be sullicient. A 

 half-hour in the morning will an- 

 swer. If the birds are laying well, 

 then feed well. 



When brooder chicks are four 

 weeks old, the chick feed can be 

 reduced, and they can be given a 

 ilittle whole wheat and cracked 

 maize. Hulled oats are excellent 

 if you can get them at a reason- 

 able price. If iiossible, give the 

 little chaps a fresh green run, or if 

 not all the green stuff they will 

 eat. 



The result of a recent expesiment 

 in the fattening of chickens by 

 trough feeding are reported by a 

 Canadian Station, which show 

 that the average probt in three 

 weeks' feeding was from 6J2 to 

 j'/i per bird. 



It is by coddling and mishand- 

 ling chicks that we make them 

 delicate. We are afraid to give 

 them fresh ai'r, afraid to open thi 

 brooder, afraid to let the chicks 

 l>e natural, forgetting that the mo- 

 ther hen, in natural brooding, has 

 no such .scruples, and frequently 

 rises from h'cr brooding position, 

 forcing her chickens to take exer- 

 cise and fresh air whether they ap- 

 I)ear to want it or not. She har- 

 dens her chicks to frequent and 



IVotes # 



sudden changes, and when wean- 

 ing time comes, declines in no un- 

 certain manner to brood them any 

 longer. Having become hardened 

 there is seldom any trouble with 

 hiin raised chicks when Biddy fin- 

 ally quits her job. 



In broodiers with artificial heat, 

 don't start too high, also lower 

 the temperature gradually, but do 

 not be afraid to open up the 

 hoover regularly and give the whole 

 of the insidie of the brooder a good 

 sun bath quite often. The chicks 

 themselves wiii be a l>etter guide 

 than any thermometer. If they 

 squeak and pack they are cold. 

 If they sweat and d'roop they are 

 too hot. If when you open the 

 brooder at night you find them 

 squatting coiriortaljly over the 

 whole lloor area they are just 

 right. 



The rate at which a chick,: en will 

 gTow depends in the first place and 

 to some extent on the breed, but 

 much more on the feed. It woi'.ild 

 be difficult to define any standard 

 of progress but the following re- 

 cord of a Hock of White Wyan- 

 dotte chickens is certainly extra- 

 ordinarily good— New. y hatched, 2 

 ozs. ; at four days, 2 ozs. /; at ten 

 days, 4 ozs. ; at three weeks, 8 ozs; 

 at four weeks, 12 ozs ; at eight 

 weeks, 2 lbs. ; at 10 weeks, 3 lt>s. 

 Aside from the normal standing 

 still for the first four days these 

 chicks put on the pace from the 

 start. The ordinary chick is do- 

 ing very well to get within 30 per 

 cent, of these figures. 



It is at the time that chickens 

 leave the mother, or more especi- 

 ally when they pass from the heat- 

 ed to the unheated brooder that 

 trouble often comes. Unless thev 

 are p'roi^erly handled at this time, 

 they will fail to develop. They 

 want to be kept growing right 

 from the start. There .should be 

 no marking time, with no appar- 

 ent gain. With a normal healthy 

 chicken you should be able to 

 almo.st .see it grow, so continuous 

 aiid ral)id is the devclopmeat. 



— Poultry Fattening. — 



Farmers' Bulletin, 140, US. A. 

 Dept. of Agriculture, publishes, a 

 lot of information on trough fat- 

 tening. To very briefly summarise 

 the results— it was found that the 

 total cost of food per lb. of gain 

 averaged just under 3Xd. in an ex- 

 periment where 43 -944 birds were 

 fattened for from 6 to I'o, days, and 

 in a second experiment in which 

 61.706 birds were fed from 6 to 15 

 days the cost averaged just under 

 4d. The average total cost of 

 food and labour per porind of gain 

 for all the birds in both experi- 

 ments was just over 4/^d. per ffi., 

 the average cost of food alone be- 

 ing 3/id. The cheaper gains were 

 made in shorter 'feeding periods (7 

 or 8 days) and by light chickens. 



— Sprouted Grain. — 



Sprouted Grain is an old substi- 

 tute for green food. The princi- 

 ple- by the way, was adopted, it 

 is stated, by old-time Arctic ex- 

 ployers to obtain green veget- 

 able growths. Sow the grain 

 thickly in a shallow box (such as 

 galvanised iron case) ; cover with 

 a little light horse manure, and 

 water as needed. The case should 

 stand in the shade ; a straw thatch 

 or shelter of boughs will do. When 

 a few inches high soil and growth 

 can be cut out in sections, and 

 fed to the birds, or the growth 

 only may be cut and fed to the 

 bairds. In many sprouting grains 

 and seeds there is valuable food 

 material — this is not contained to 

 such an extent in the older 

 growths. 



— To Drink or not to Drink. — 



One of the questions which crops 

 up from time to time in the poul- 

 try press is whether chickens 

 should be allowed water to drink j 

 or not. vSome of the most sue- 1 

 cessful breeders, it is said, give 

 no water to their young stock, j 

 while others give both milk and j 

 water. As the chickens will drink j 

 greedilv, when offered water, it has j 

 been inferred that it is cruel to ' 

 withhold it from them, but the ; 

 young of many wild birds have lit- 1 

 tie or. no water. j 



Mr. Lewis Wright, who went ex- 3 

 hni'istivilv into this question, came 1 



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