750 
<[h' RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 10, 1020 
THE HENYARD 
Feeding Young Chicks 
Feeding Rules. —Theiv arc do inflex¬ 
ible rules which must be followed to in¬ 
sure success in chicken raising, as varying 
conditions of reason, methods of brooding, 
providing with range, etc., require modi¬ 
fications in the poultryman’s practice 
from time to time. There are some prin¬ 
ciples which it seems necessary, to ob¬ 
serve. however, if the health and thrift of 
the flock is to he maintained and losses 
minimized. 
The First Food and Drink. —Newly 
hatched chicks should not be given solid 
food until from ?«6 to 48 hours old; the 
reason for this is that nature has provid¬ 
ed food for the chick for the first two 
days by arranging for the inclosure with¬ 
in the youngster's body of a portion of 
the yolk of the egg from which it was 
hatched. This unused yolk suffices for 
the first few hours of the chick's life, and 
to add other food to it would only be to 
overtax the immature digestive organs. 
The constant picking at incubator win¬ 
dows. bits of litter and the eyes and feet 
of their companions is evidence, not of 
hunger, but of the beginning and uudis¬ 
criminating exercise of their natural in¬ 
stincts. There is a drink, which is also 
a food, however, which, if possible, should 
be given as soon as the chicks are comfor¬ 
tably in their brooder or coop with the 
mother hen. and which should be con¬ 
tinued for at least six weeks. This, is 
milk, and it may bo sweet milk, sour milk, 
whole milk, skim-milk or buttermilk. It 
was formerly thought that sour milk was 
superior to sweet milk because of the lac¬ 
tic acid which it contains, but there seems 
tu be little real evidence that milk in one 
form has any particular advantage oyer 
the same fluid in another. Milk is milk, 
though it is probably unwise to make fre¬ 
quent changes from one kind to another. 
Fluid milk is not always to be obtained, 
and an acceptable substitute_ for it lias 
been placed upon the market in the form 
of condensed, semi-solid buttermilk. This 
will keep in an ordinary cellar for several 
weeks, and. when diluted for feeding, now 
costs about 2%c per quart. 
The First Meat,. —Assuming that the 
chicks have been removed from nest or 
incubator and are awaiting their first 
meal in clean, comfortable quarters, the 
question of what to give them arises. 
Milk first, as has been said: or. lacking 
milk, water; and these must be given in 
some form of chick fountain that will not 
admit of being used as a bath tub. Young 
chicks are perpetually hungry, but their 
capacity is small, so the expense of the 
first few meals need not ordinarily be 
taken into consideration. For these, bread 
crumbs and rolled oats are excellent. The 
bread may be crumbled in the hand and, 
with the rolled oats, scattered over the 
chicks’, backs upon their dean, fresh 
ter. These foods are easily seen and 
evidently palatable; eating them, 
chicks learn to distinguish between food 
and litter. A little fine chick grit should 
also be provided in convenient dishes and, 
with the milk or water kept constantly 
before the flock. When sufficient milk is 
available, water need not be provided. 
With the bread and rolled oats, a little of 
the scratch grain hereafter to be men¬ 
tioned may be given in shallow trays. 
Feeding should be practiced five times 
daily for the first week or two, at least 
and only enough given at a time to satisfy 
the urgent desire of the chick for food, 
1 le may ‘better be left t 
than cloyed. 
Green Food. —Sharing 
credit for doing much to 
tive disorders may be mentioned green 
food of some kind. Almost any tender 
green stuff may be fed. plantain 
those of the young burdock plant, 
clover leaves, the tops of fresh 
vegetables, are all liked, and lettuce from 
the garden is devoured with avidity. 
Where only a few chicks are raised, 
enough lettuce may be raised upon a 
very small plot of good ground to supply 
the needs of the chicks for the first few 
weeks. Probably it is no better than 
other tender green ■stuff, but it is fun to 
feed it. These, or other, greens should 
be fed from the start, and, in quantity, all 
that the chicks will eat. 
Grain and Mash.— P.oth hard cracked 
grains and ground mashes will be used, 
either from the start or after a day or Two 
of the foods mentioned above. There are 
many combinations, but simplicity is of 
value here, as elsewhere. I can recom¬ 
mend nothing better for scratch grains 
than corn, wheat and oats. This formula, 
for instance; One part pinhead or rolled 
oats, two parts cracked wheat and three 
parts finely cracked corn. After about 
five weeks, the corn need not be so finely 
cracked, and the expensive pinhead or 
rolled oats may be left out. Whole wheat 
will also then be eaten. Mash formulas 
are numerous, but the following prob¬ 
ably cannot be improved upon: Equal 
parts, by weight, of eonimeal. ground 
oats, with the coarse hulls sifted out. 
wheat bran, middlings and high-grade beef 
scrap from which the coarser hits of bone 
and meat have been sifted for the old 
fowls. After a few weeks the ground 
oats need not be sifted and coarser beef 
scrap will be eaten. Two parts of wheat 
bran, instead of one. may also be used in 
rbis formula, many think to advantage. 
How to Feed Grain and Mash. —The 
scratch grain should be fed at first on 
shallow trays; after the chicks have 
lit- 
are 
the 
little hungry 
with milk the 
forestall diges- 
1 eaves, 
tender 
garden 
learned to recognize it. it may be scattered 
in light, clean litter. It should be hand- 
fed at intervals and only in such quan¬ 
tities as will readily be cleaned lip in a 
few minutes. The mash may be fed dry 
or moistened, not wetted, with skiiu-milk 
or water. Dry feeding is safest : one or 
more meals of moist mash daily will has¬ 
ten growth. The writer believes that only 
the experienced poultryman should feed 
wet mashes, and that, indeed, no mashes 
at all should be fed for the first few 
weeks if there is reason to fear bowel 
troubles. Hard grains do not promote 
quick growth as do mashes, neither do 
they do as much to encourage digestive 
disorders. In addition to the hand feed¬ 
ing of grain, the mash may be kept dry 
before the chicks throughout the day. 
This is host done in shallow boxes, about 
the size of cigar boxes. A piece of hard¬ 
ware cloth should be cut to lit loosely iu- 
side of the box used and laid upon the 
mash: as the latter is eaten through the 
meshes, the hardware cloth will follow 
the ground grains down and keep the 
chicks from scratching them out of the 
container. 
Older Chicks. —After 12 weeks, the 
chicks may be given rations suited to lay¬ 
ing fowls, and, if on free range, as they 
should be. may be hopper fed. Develop¬ 
ment may now be hastened, if desired, by 
the more free use of moist mashes, or re¬ 
tarded by limiting the mash and meat 
food and increasing the proportion of 
whole grain in the ration. If on limited 
range, the grain may be hand-fed twice 
daily and the mash kept before the chicks, 
dry. in hoppers, one moist meal mash, in 
addition, being fed daily. M. u. i>. 
and horse meal. T got from 11 to 13 
eggs a day. They all started in one day 
and I found five or six all picked under¬ 
neath and around the rump, and bleeding. 
They seem to eat holes right in eacii 
other. They still keep it up. ('an you 
give me a remedy for this disease? 
New York. d. s. 
This pleasant habit of eating each other 
alive is one not uncommon to flocks that 
have been closely confined through the 
Winter, and seems to bear no relation to 
the need for meat in the ration, as it oc¬ 
curs in flocks that have fresh meat iu 
abundance, as well as in those that are 
denrived of it. The only reliable remedy 
that I have found is to turn the flock 
loose and give them an opportunity to for¬ 
get their blood craving in roamiug about 
the premises and hunting for other kinds 
of mischief to get into. >i. b. d. 
come stronger allow the mother free range 
so that the young birds may feed on in¬ 
sects. their natural food. Continue to feed 
them all they will eat. g. g. i. 
Cannibal -Hens 
I have a flock of about fi.” Rhode Island 
Red pullets. I have a good henhouse and 
have kept them warm and clean. My 
rations have been oats and corn and 
bran, apples and small potatoes, plenty 
of shell and the meat has been muskrats 
Mating Guinea Fowls 
I wish to keep six guinea hens; how 
many male birds must I keep to have fer¬ 
tile eggs? Due of our neighbors kept 
nine hens and nine male birds, and many 
•of the eggs were unfertile. Another 
kept six hens and three males and nearly 
half of the eggs were not fertile. C. r. p. 
New Jersey. 
It is not easy to account for infertility 
of eggs. Under the best of conditions we 
seldom get a 100 per cent hatch. I would 
keep the same number of males as females. 
If you do this it will prevent the male 
birds from fighting and chasing one 
another. I would advise you to set 17 
eggs under a good gentle hen. Guineas 
do not make good mothers. They set 
late, are too wild, travel too far for the 
young brood and are generally unman¬ 
ageable. The eggs should hatch in 2$ 
days. The hen should be confined in a 
coop or small park for a few days, allow¬ 
ing the young guineas their freedom. Feed 
often at first, and as the young birds be- 
Trouble with White Leghorns 
1. What is the matter with my White 
Leghorn pullets? I find one now and 
then that is all bloody around the head 
and neck, and they die the same day I 
find them. When I examine them I can¬ 
not find anything, only it seems as if 
they bled out of the nose. 2. I have a 
field that I wish to plant in corn. I limed 
it. about 70 bushels to an acre, but I have 
no manure to put on. Would it pay to 
sow some fertilizer? If so, what kind? 
Iloiv much and when is the best, time to 
apply it? I can got a corn planter with 
fertilizer attachment. G, G. S. 
Pennsylvania. 
1. I should suspect bleeding from 
frozen combs or wattles, perhaps aggra¬ 
vated by the attacks of other birds, if I 
found healthy fowls with their heads and 
necks stained by blood now. Only an 
examination could determine the source 
of the hemorrhage, however. 
2. Whether the application of fertilizer 
to a field of corn would pay or not would 
depend upon many circumstances other 
than the use of the chemicals. With 
other conditions favorable, it may ordi¬ 
narily be expected to. If, as is probable, 
you have poultry manure to use, 
you need to ask for nothing better, but 
you can make this manure still more 
valuable by mixing acid phosphate with 
it. both for the purpose of drying it out 
and making it easier to handle and apply 
and of supplying needed phosphorus. 
* ,ich the poultry manure alone lacks. 
Acid phosphate may be purchased of any 
lealer iu fertilizers, and it is well to add 
it to the poultry manure as it accumulates 
in the Winter, using enough to absorb 
the moisture and keep the droppings in 
friable condition. M. R. P. 
Faithful Servants 
—worthy of their hire 
And their only wage is their daily feed. Make that 
feed good, tasty, nourishing, that stronger, healthier 
workers may thrive upon it. 
But to spend too much upon their feed makes 
horses’ wage too high. 
Read}' mixed feeds for animals and poultry are popu¬ 
lar because they produce the desired 
result at saving of time and money. 
Were this not true, such feeds would 
not be ordered and reordered; as a 
You arc protected by the lairs of every 
state and the Federal statutes 
Send for a free book on Feeds and Feed 
Manufacturing. Contains facts never 
before published 
matter of fact, hundreds of thousands of tons of 
molasses, for example, are used yearly in horse, mule 
and cattle rations—supplying energy formerly gained 
through corn—a costly feed. 
“Mixing your own” saves in theory—fails in practice. 
Buy ready mixed feeds. Every bag of horse, cow, 
steer, hog or poultry feed that is pro¬ 
duced by our members is honestly 
labelled with its correct analysis and 
true ingredients. 
AMERICAN FEED MANUFACTURERS’ ASSOCIATION 
Room 114—53 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 
