You will then secure a small combination hopper, fill one side of it with 
cracked oyster shell and the other side with medium-sized charcoal, and 
keep it within reach of the birds at all times. 
The oyster shell can be bought of any poultry supply house. Inas¬ 
much, however, as pullets prefer fresh oyster shells to the dry shells big 
poultry farms have to buy, you will obtain fully as good results by having 
your boy go to some sea-food house on Saturday afternoon, get some oyster 
shells, and smash them up fine with a hatchet. This, by furnishing agree¬ 
able exercise for the boy, will keep time from hanging on his hands. 
Charcoal is the only tonic used on the Rancocas Farm. By absorbing 
gases in the digestive tract, it keeps the digestive organs in good condition 
and protects the birds against disorders. 
Of course the chicks you secured in April or May will be treated at 
every stage in just the same way as those hatched in February. 
We have now discussed the feeding of your flock up to the beginning 
of winter. 
In connection with winter feeding I wish to impress upon you the fact 
that corn should be fed to chickens only as a generator of heat. Corn 
is necessary during the winter months because without it the chickens 
would be unable to stand the severe temperature. In the feeding of your 
evening grain—which must be made up of wheat and corn—follow this 
rule: 
When the temperature is about 40, give a mixture of one-third corn 
and two-thirds wheat; when the weather becomes frosty, the mixture 
should be composed of equal parts of corn and wheat; in December, 
January, and February—if the weather runs about 15 degrees above 
zero—the proportion should be 3 parts corn to 1 part wheat; with the tem¬ 
perature below 15 degrees above zero, the evening feed should be all corn. 
When you have fed an all-corn food at night, throw into your litter the 
next morning a little wheat. 
The birds should be given at night just what food they will clean up— 
though a little should be left in the trough for the bashful and late 
comers. Care should be taken to keep the hens from getting too fat, 
because overfat birds will not lay up to full capacity. 
It is not necessary to use nest eggs. 
The hen with an egg in her will be impelled to lay it—not by means 
of counterfeit hen fruit in the nest—but from a course of feeding that will 
so develop the egg as to make her eager to place it on exhibition. 
In the housing of chickens it is important to keep the perches clean, 
remove the droppings, provide new litter when the old has become foul, 
and supply fresh drinking water. You should secure a spray pump (it 
can be bought for 50 or 60 cents) and spray the perches and perch poles 
with a solution of kerosene and napthaline flake—mixed in the proportion 
of 16 parts kerosene to 1 part napthaline flake. This will kill mites, which 
are likely to gather under the perches and poles where birds roost at night. 
In addition you should get a good lice powder after your birds are 2 weeks 
old and put it on them in the evening while they are on the roosts. Rub 
some powder into each bird, beginning at the tail and working up to the 
Your Boy’s 
Part 
A Good Rule 
Important 
15 
