nM \ (i “a ES IN 5 My +? Ey. a ia 1g yo Ae @ ere] “RAD 4 Cornell University Library OF THE Hew Work State College of Agriculture Ce ull. 3778 Li SF 487.R3 Th A SUGGESTION OF PLEASURE AND PROFIT THE CHICK BOOK FROM THE BREEDING PEN THROUGH THE SHELL TO MATURITY Contains the Experience of the World’s Leading Poultry- men and All the Latest and Most Trustworthy Information About Hatching, Rearing, Fat- tening. and Marketing Chickens with Special Articles on the Shipping of Newly Hatched Chicks PRICE, FIFTY CENTS PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company, Quincy, Illinois = AND American Poultry Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York Copyright 1910, by Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company, Quincy, Illinois. Ez of AS SFARY RSt4- jaya hg. 186 TABLE OF CONTENTS Frontispiece - - = S 3 Introduction - 3 7 é - CHAPTER I Breeding - s = 3 5 CHAPTER II Incubation - - - . B CHAPTER III Brooding - - - 2 = ' CHAPTER IV § Care and Food - - . < 3 CHAPTER V Summer and Winter Care - = Z CHAPTER VI Marketing - - = 3 { Page 16 "96 42 63 73 ca Introductory HE poultryman’s profit depends in a great measure upon his succes sin rearing thechicks. Success is attained only by intelligent use of correct methods. If the incuba- tion, growth and develop- ment of the chick are not attended by such condi- tions as produce and main- tain the good health neces- sary for building a vigorous body and strong constitu- tion, the grown bird does not have the power to pro- duce, or earn, more than a nominal profit for its owner, however well it.is housed and cared for. Nor does the negative effect stop at the profit of the first year; the progeny of such birds is not only weak and unremunerative, but if raised under like conditions will be less valuable than the parents and such rapid deterioration will render the flock absolutely un- profitable in two generations. On the other hand, chicks well hatched, from good eggs, if given intelligent care and surrounded with the essentials required for proper growth and robust development, will mature into fowls which are capable of returning to their owner the last cent in payment for the food and accommodations provided. Such methods increase the productive efficiency of succeeding generations and the road to a competence is auspiciously opened. If the chicks in hand are to be marketed as squab broilers, broilers or roasters, the problem of improving them for stock purposes is eliminated; but the necessity for pain- staking effort is not lessened, if indeed it is not increased. The chick} destined for the market must make « very rapid growth; not so much of bone and muscle, as of flesh and fat, and to do this in the least time assures the greatest profit. Conditions, too, at the time when such chicks must be grown to command the top price must be largely artificial. Natural conditions must be approximated as closely as may be, or the young birds cannot stand the heavy feeding neces- sary to produce the results that count. To one whose heart is in the work, it is as interesting as it is important and offers opportunity for the full exercise of both his mental and phy- sical faculties. , That a large per cent of all strong chicks hatched can be raised to the age for marketing, or to maturity, is not disputed. The present-day appliances greatly facilitate the work, and prepared foods, selling at reasonable prices, sim- plify the problems of feeding. ‘Establishments properly equipped and handled are raising chicks in numbers that were scarcely dreamed of two decades ago, and by placing them on the market in good condition at a time when the majority of producers have nothing to offer, they obtain ex- treme prices. Later in the season when the market is filled with chickens from farmers and less energetic and less up-to-date poultrymen, the large raisers, with their better 3 equipment. and thorough knowledge of the business, are able to place their goods on sale in more attractive condition and at a lower cost of production than their competitors, secur- ing a better price and larger profit. This is not intended to indicate that large plants are the only ones that can and do accomplish satisfactory re- sults. Small plants are doing good and remunerative work on.a smaller scale; some are growing chicks for market, and others for stock purposes; some are doing the work by artificial methods, while not a few hold to the motherly hen of thirteen eggs capacity. After giving due credit to the appliances and improved foods, for the part they play in producing good chickens, the major share is left to be distributed between hard, con- scientious work and well grounded knowledge of the busi- ness. Of all these factors knowledge is the greatest and the one most difficult to secure. When it is found it commands its own price. How Knowledge is Obtained There are two ways of acquiring this knowledge: By years of costly experience and by careful study of the best poultry literature, supplemented and verified by practical experience. The former, although good, and enduring as the hills, places a man_too near the far end of life’s journey when it graduates him and burns up money which ought to be saved and invested in the business. The latter is the shorter road and enables one, by taking advantage of the experience of others and avoiding their mistakes, to cut cross lots to success with money in his pocket. The printed wisdom of poultry culture is as far ahead of that of ten years’ ago as can be imagined. In gathering the material for this book the same sources of information have been drawn upon that furnished the matter for the other popular books published by this company; that is, the poultrymen and women who have made a substantial suc- cess in the business and who are specially fitted to write upon .the subjects assigned them. Such information, though difficult and expensive to ob- tain, is valuable almost beyond estimating. It consists not in dry rules and dogmatically expressed theories, but in the live experience of men in the field, with the whys and where- fores for every step and dependable guidance at every turn. It is information that can be trusted to the letter. By fol- lowing it the mistakes of the novice can be avoided and the methods of the more experienced may be improved. This is not a one-man book, but a broad-gauge one, holding out to the reader several courses which have proved successful so that he may choose from them whatever seems best adapted to his requirements. Condition of the Breeding Stock Securing good condition in breeding birds is not diffi- cult. Any poultryman worthy the name selects each sea- son birds having the development and style that denote vigor and constitution while selecting the shape required for the variety at hand. It is a fact that birds of standard size and shape are not produced year after year by any but healthy, vigorous stock. Constitutional vigor is the source of strong procreative power and is built up only by careful breeding for a term of years. With this characteristic well established, it remains only to maintain good health and normal condition of flesh to produce eggs that will bring forth chicks that live, thrive and make a profit. In this connection it is safe to remember that appearance, although a good indicator of health, is not infallible, for a bird may seem to be in the best of condition, when it is unable to produce a fertile egg. Supply the food and conditions required and trust to nothing less, whatever the appearances, to bring about the desired results. Every effort should be made to conserve the energy and maintain the strength during the winter, when conditions are largely artificial. This does not mean that all profit from the birds in a practical way must be lost or that hens may not lay well during the winter and produce fertile eggs in the spring. The best rule to follow is this: Provide as nearly as possible the exercise, fresh air and foods that the hen would get if allowed her freedom on’a grass range in summer. . We cannot lay down a rule for feeding. What will pro- duce good results in one yard will not always do so in an- other, because of different conditions. Sufficient informa- tion upon the feeding values of all commercial foods and their effects upon birds under various conditions is available, so that a little experience and intelligent observation will enable any one to compound the ration best adapted to the needs of his flock. . Incubating the Eggs , That the up-to-date hatchers can be depended upon to do their full share toward making the poultryman independ- ent requires no argument. Good eggs and proper handling by the operator will assure good hatches of vigorous chicks. An understanding of the machine and how to control it, with some knowledge of how to treat eggs during the period of incubation and of the essentials of correct environment, constitutes the wisdom required for successful hatching. We find incubators operating in dark cellars, where there is no light except that of burning kerosene; where good air enters by chance and not from intention, and the atmos- phere is damp and laden with germs of decay and disease. Again we find them located in rooms above ground, in houses built for the purpose, in dwellings and in rooms partitioned off in the barn, poultry house and shed where the air, though dry, is seldom renewed and light from the sun is rigidly excluded that a more even temperature may be maintained. A strong man could not stay in one of these places an hour and the flame that heats the incubator frequently has difficulty in collecting enough oxygen for perfect combustion. To expect to develop so delicate an organism as an embryo chick under such conditions, is nothing less than folly; yet some people attempt it and, failing, denounce the machine and artificial incubation. How to provide the proper en- vironment and successfully operate the machines is plainly told in succeeding pages. Brooding the Chicks There are good brooders and brooding systems, and good foods ready to feed. These ready made factors in success are easily obtained, but for their efficiency they depend upon the discriminating mind of one skilled in the work. In no other branch of the business is the effect of level thinking and CHICK BOOK well directed effort more noticeable. Five minutes in a brooding house will frequently enable the intelligent observer to estimate correctly the ability of the man in charge; for the appearance of the chicks is the best possible evidence and no flock of chicks is healthy and vigorous that does not look so. It is of primary importance that every aid to good health be supplied, for enfeebled constitutions are as frequently caused by bad housing, brooding and care as by improper feeding. Cleanliness, good ventilation and exercise exert more influence than the novice is prone to believe. As the blacksmith’s arm grows strong by constant use, the physical structure of the chicks grows strong and is kept in trim by running about and scratching in clean quarters, where fresh air supplies the material for myriads of life-giving blood cor- puscles and the digestive organs are made capable of con- verting to the body’s use all the nutriment the food contains. Hatching and Raising With Hens The usefulness of the broody hen is by no means a thing of the past. The breeder with a sitting of eggs from a favorite hen to be hatched and the chicks reared by themselves, the owner of the farm yard flock and the village poultryman with a dozen hens find biddy up-to-date and sufficient for their needs. So much latter-day intelligence has been applied to chicken culture that sometimes it becomes too great a bur- den and the hen is divested alike of her natural responsi- bilities and of her opportunities. Our fore fathers allowed the old hen to have pretty much her own way and she, tak- ing advantage of the good things that nature provides, not alone hatched and raised the chicks at less cost, but presented better chicks. Nature’s ways are more resultful than the made-to-order methods sometimes recommended. The hen that is allowed to run with her chicks in the daytime, search- -ing for the nutritious worm and balancing the supplied ration by the food selected from field and swamp, will raise a brood that is a credit to the breeder and that will stand him in good stead the following winter. The successful raisers approxi- mate these conditions as closely as the circumstances permit. Maturing the Flock A chick well started is-half raised; but it must be wel cared for, or it will not win in the show room, or command a premium in the market. Good care does not mean that manner of feeding and housing which pampers the birds, but the care that supplies them with plenty of good food and an environment conducive to their physical welfare. The plan of colonizing the youngsters in roomy, open front roosting coops, works wonders toward the production of sturdy stock and hopper feeding not alone reduces the labor involved, but in many cases seems to hasten growth faster than the time honored system of three meals'a day. The Value of Common Sense This is an age of practical things in poultry culture and the application of common sense to all its problems is fast clearing it of much of the theory which has been “thrust upon” it. It is the person who goes at the work with sleeves rolled up whose success can be counted in big round dollars and whose advice is worth all it costs to every earnest worker. The experience of such men, and women, too, is gi in detail in this book. one CHAPTER I CONSTITUTIONAL VIGOR | WEAK FOWLS SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR BREEDING PURPOSES—BREEDING FOR HEALTH AND VIGOR—SELECTION OF BREEDING STOCK—PRACTICAL NOTES ON THE CORNELL BULLETIN P. T. WOODS, M. D. ONSTITUTIONAL Vigor—Active strength in the make-up of, and in all parts of the body. Vitality—The power to live. We build today, not for ourselves alone, but for future generations. Con- sciously or unconsciously this must be so whether we wish it or not. It is the Law that may not be broken and is as old as Time. Reader, are you building well and wisely, or are you building carelessly in your poultry work? Through the breeding stock we build either for strength or weak- ness in the progeny, and in their chicks for generations. Why not strive for Health and Strength? In building up a strain of fowls there is something even more important than breeding for Standard points, for prolific egg production, for meat, and that something is breeding for health and constitutional vigor. How many poultrymen do this? Comparatively few; they are successful men, in the business on a large scale most of them, who have learned by experience that it pays to breed for vigor and vitality. The natural method of breeding is “the survival of the fittest.’ In wild life only those possessed of an abundance of vigor and vitality, and the ability to fight their way, live to successfully reproduce their kind. The male must win his mates through physical prowess and usually keeps them only so long as he is able to whip all other aspirants for favor. His sturdy mate or mates must possess sufficient constitu- tional vigor to win through the breeding and laying season, to hatch, brood, and care for the young, until they are able to shift for themselves. The female must produce eggs which will contain all the elements needed to develop, nourish and perfect the embryo chick and insure the possession of vitality, the power to live. We need to take some of this “‘back to Nature’ doctrine into the poultry yard, and to begin now to breed for constitu- tional vigor, not alone in this season’s chicks, but season after season for all future generations of chicks. Inherited faults or weaknesses are often faithfully transmitted to the offspring for several generations with the tendency to increase the fault rather than to lessen it. Start with a foundation of health and build on it making still better health, vigor and vitality, and more of it. Every breeder knows that inside values count in breeding. If it isn’t in the blood it cannot be depended upon to come out in the chick. Strong blood lines are the fancier’s foundation in breeding exhibi- tion quality Standard-bred stock. In mating two birds one 3 and the other $ pure blood of the line he is almost sure of what results will be in the progeny—as sure as we can be of anything in this world where nothing is absolutely certain but “death and taxes.” Breed for Inside Values He knows the inside values and he uses that knowledge in, breeding. Why not apply the same knowledge to breed- ing for health? It‘can be done! Breed only birds rich in strong blood lines of robust health and constitutional vigor. Select every specimen intended for the breeding pen, first for health, vigor and vitality and then for desired qualifications in other desired points. Choose only the best to breed from and so mate them that similar physical defects will not be found in both males and females. The defects are pretty certain to be there for we are too many generations removed from natural living to hope to find complete physical per- fection. Try to offset defects in one parent by breeding to it a specimen that is strong where the other shows weakness. When the choice is made and the fowls well mated, then house, manage and feed them sensibly with a view to have and hold the maximum constitutional vigor. When in doubt study the fowl; often its natural instinct, given it for self- preservation, will be a better guide to follow than some ‘‘ex- pert’s” wonderfully devised ‘‘system”’ or theoretical method. Elaborate houses, elaborate rations and “scientific” sys- tems are often a delusion and a snare for the unwary. The needs of the fowls are of the simplest; comfortable shelter to use when needed, a fair variety of wholesome food, (min- eral, animal, and vegetable) pure water to drink and an abundance of pure, open-air to breathe at all times. The more simple and less costly the buildings the better. It is not sufficient to exercise this care with the breeding stock alone. The care and management of the eggs between laying and hatching, during the hatch, and of the chicks to maturity or breeding age is of equal importance. It is upon the common sense application of these truths that the success of poultry culture in the future depends. We should begin now, before it is too late, to work for improvement in con- stitutional vigor, for health and vitality in the flocks, not only for our own benefit but for the good of +he future of the great poultry industry. Year after year we have heard complaints of lowered vitality in flocks, of greater difficulty in obtaining a good percentage of fertile eggs, of poor hatches, and of chicks that, though a fair percentage hatched, did not thrive. Isn’t it fair to asume that this diminished vitality (the power to live and reproduce) is due in part, if not wholly to impaired constitutional vigor, to breeding, housing, hatching, rearing and feeding without due regard to reproducing inside values in health, vigor and vitality? The Cornell Bulletin The recent bulletin of the New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell University, by Prof. James E. Rice and C. A. Rogers on the “‘Importance of Constitutional Vigor in the Breeding of Poultry’’ has attracted wide spread atten- tion and it should be read by all who are interested in the future of poultry keeping for profit or pleasure. 8 CHICK BOOK The statements made in this bulletin are sensible and conservative but leave one with a desire for more data and more complete information. It states that: “We must breed for constitutional vigor’ because ‘“‘the most important problem before poultrymen is to maintain and increase the — constitutional vigor of the flock. This is because we are asking more of the modern hen in proportion to her live weight than we are expecting of any other class of domestic animals.” , “A good hen is expected to lay in a year about five times her weight in eggs. This means a reproductive process on an average, at least every third day during the year, or perhaps, in rare instances, every other day.” We quote from Prof. Rice’s Cornell bulletin the follow- ing contributory causes to loss of physical vigor, which th bulletin cites, with some personal comment: ‘ “(1) Increased productiveness. Modern poultry hus- bandry makes larger and larger demands on the strength of the fowl. The wild jungle fowl, from which our domestic fowls have come, is reported to lay less than one dozen eggs a year. The modern fowl, under good care, is expected to lay 125 to 150 or more eggs per year, and at the same time to produce eggs that will yield chickens having as strong vitality as the parent. It must be evident that with any in- crease in the average production. of a fowl there must be a proportionate increase in the physical strength of the fowl to enable her to thrive under the larger consumption of food and heavier production of eggs.” It may be (undoubtedly is) true that in some cases prolific laying is a cause or a contributory cause of the loss of constitutional vigor, but we are inclined to believe that in many cases the danger from this source is overestimated. We know of a good many poultry farms that have been in successful operation for a dozen or fifteen years, where the habit has been to breed from vigorous, well-matured pullets, that were prolific egg producers, and were out of heavy laying stock. On these same plants they continue to get, year after year, strong, vigorous chicks that live and thrive. There are other matters to be taken into consideration besides the mere fact of heavy egg production. Oy ae WO Late selectiun— Strong at ‘quently resorted Reproduced from Cornell Reading Course Bulletin No. 45. Pullets in group A averaged in weight over $ pound more than those in group B, All were hatched at the same time, in the same machine, leg-banded, and brooded, fed and allowed to run together on free range during the sum- mer. Observe the differences in type of body, size of comb, etc. Where fully-developed, well-grown healthy vigorous ypullets are used, there is little danger of lessening vitality -during the first season. These same birds, if carried over to ibe used as yearlings or two-year-olds—that is, a second or ‘third breeding season—might, and probably would, show. considerable loss of bodily vigor. Heavy layers are prone to develop during the latter part of their first year of laying, some weakness or degeneration of the egg laying organs. When this occurs, the bird ceases to be of value as a breeders and is useful only as an egg-laying machine until she reaches the end of her scope. For this reason extreme care should be exercised in the selection of yearlings and two-year-old hens for breeding purposes. “(2) In-and-in-breeding without , regard to: vigor. This practice is fre- to in order to em- phasize and de- velop high pro- duction, or exhi- bition or ot her qualities. Close breeding can be followed with success only when the first consider- ation is given to mating strong in- dividuals. Too many times the breeder has not had the courage to sacrifice a week individual because of its other desirable qualities.” There can be no doubt that in-and-in breeding, even when great care is taken to select sound, vigorous specimens, is always a menace to constitutional vigor. Reproduced from Cornell Reading Course Bulletin No. 45. Showing contrast in constitu- tional vigor in Barred Plymouth Rock cockerels. Strong specimen at left, weak at right. Breeding from Pullets (3) The use of pullets instead of hens for breeding. By breeding from pullets the breeder is undertaking to repro- duce from fowls that have not yet reached maturity, and that, presumably because of their well-known qualities of ‘heavy fall and winter laying, may have lowered their vitality before the breeding season. It appears reasonable, therefore, that the conjinued breeding, generation after generation, from pullets instead of hens, may have a tendency to shorten the normal length of life of the race of fowls, and, at the same time, to lower its native vigor, while the breeding from mature fowls, two or more years of age and still vigorous, should tend toward longevity and a consequent increase in vitality.” We cannot wholly agree with the statements made in the paragraph quoted above. Pullets are generally spoken of as such until they have completed their first year of laying, and in most varieties early hatched pullets are ready. and safe to breed from in March and April at which time they should be from eleven to twelve months old. It is never safe to breed from undeveloped, immature pullets, but fully- developed, well-maturéd specimens, well established in lay- ing, make excellent breeders if carefully selected for health and vigor. The practical profit-value age of the fowl is compara- tively short, most practical plants preferring pullets and yearlings, with only a very limited number of two-year-olds, the object being to get the greatest possible production dur- ing the first two seasons of laying, and dispose of the bird as market poultry before the muscles are sufficiently aged and hardened to injure the sale of the fowl as prime market poultry. The length of life of a fowl is not of the same im- portance as with other farm animals. Under favorable con- ditions fowls may live until from nine to twelve years old, but they are seldom profitable after the third laying season. “(4) Heavy feeding to induce large egg yield during fall and winter, the unnatural season for egg production. The trouble here arises from the attempt to do, at the same time, two things which are more or less antagonistic; namely, to force a fowl to her highest digestive power by feeding her rich, appetizing foods to increase production when prices are high, and to expect her to produce eggs for hatching that are normal in their supply of nourishment and fully imbued with that mysterious something called life. Under normal conditions in nature a fowl is allowed to devote the larger part of the year to storing up energy in order to reproduce in the normal’ manner. A fowl to be used for breeding should be selected far in advance of the breeding - season, BREEDING 9 fed and housed with special regard to the laying of alarge number of hatchable eggs during the natural mating seas- on, instead of being forced to heavy production for com- mercial purposes during fall and winter.” Heavy feeding and underfeeding are both sources of impaired physical vigor. Where they are dry fed and given an opportunity to exercise there is little danger of overfeed- : ing pullets. For several seasons we have been inter- ested in the work of successive flocks of pullets housed in open-air houses and fed liberally by the dry meth- od, food always before them. Five generations of | pullets have yield-. ed a plentiful sup- ply of fall, winter and spring eggs, showing inthe spring exceptionally good fertility and good hatches of chicks that live and thrive. We have failed to note in these birds any lessening of constitutional vigor. Male birds were not introduced into the above mentioned tlocks until two weeks before eggs were wanted for hatching and this we think is an important factor in securing vigorous chicks. There is no need of worrying the pullets with the attentions of an active and masterful “lord of the harem” until his services are needed. Reproduced from Cornell Reading Course Bul- Jetin No. 45. Showing contrast in constitu- tional vigor in White Plymouth Rock cockerels. Strong specimen at left, weak at right. Fresh Air an Important Asset The bulletin fails to cite one of the chief factors contribu- tory to loss of physical vigor, that of housing birds in poorly ventilated quarters. Fresh air is one of the most important assets which we have for building up and maintaining bodily vigor. To get best results the birds should be housed in open-air buildings. “(5) Congestion and crowding of the breeding stock by keeping large numbers on limited areas. Without doubt, this is one of the most serious causes of loss of vitality. The modern system of handling fowls in large numbers must be on extensive farms rather than on congested plants. The land thus occupied should be used for growing fruit, grain ~ and grass crops, its use by the hens being only incidental. This’avoids soil contamination and gives the. fowls the natural free-range conditions necessary; that is; opportunity and in- centive to forage. In any event, rigid grading as to size and vigor should be practiced in order to avoid the unequal contest between the physically. unlike.” ' Paragraph numbered ‘5’ is one that should be care- fully considered by every poultryman. It does not mean that intensive poultry farming cannot be'successfully con- ducted, but it does mean that such methods are always practiced at a risk of loss of vigor and vitality. Poultry keepers who find it necessary to have large flocks on limited aréas should pay particular attention to Keeping the soil.” d purified, by frequent cultivation and the potltry quarters ~ disinfected ‘regularly. They should introduce new blood... frequently and ‘obtain supplies of farm-grown young stock, often. Intensive .poultry’farming calls for strict attention, tassglecting breeding stock for health and vigor. Beste “-"6(6) “Lack of exercise for the breeding stock. This is a necessary consequence of congestion, and a common ac- companiment of over-feeding. Too much to eat and too little to do appears to be one of the most potent sources of difficulty in securing fertile eggs with strong hatching power, capable of producing vigorous chickens. The dangers of over-feeding maybe greatly reduced and health promoted by furnishing for the Peoeding flocks a deep litter of straw or other scratching material, by feeding all whole grain in ‘rations under free-range conditions. the litter and by providing a large range to encourage exer- cise in the fresh air the year round. “(7) Carelessness in methods of keeping eggs for hatching. It is apparent, from experiments made at Cornell that the fertility and hatching power of eggs can be impaired, or entirely lost,’ by -wrong methods of holding eggs for in- cubation, Presumably, lossof vitality in the egg may affect a chicken through life. Ordinarily, eggs held for incubation should be turned each day, kept in a cool place, 45 to 55 degrees, and should not be incubated when over one, or, at most, two weeks old.” na Carelessness in keeping and handling hatching eggs is, we believe, one of the most common and dangerous contribu- tory causes of loss of physical vigor. Probably more chicks are found dead in the shell or die soon after hatching every year from this cause than from any other. It has always been a mystery to us how anyone could expect to get a good hatch from eggs which had been. kept in a warm room for two or three weeks, or which had been exposed to frequent extreme change of temperature. We do not believe in turning eggs every day. It is a good deal better to let them alone. Gather the eggs fre- quently, place them in a clean receptacle, cover to prevent evaporation of contents through drafts of air, and keep them in a cool room where the temperature dogs not go below 40 or above 60 degrees F. Whenever possible, they should be used for incubation before they are a week old. Incuba- tion of a fertile egg begins before the egg is laid. Exposure of the egg to a temperature of 70 to 80 degrees, results in quickening. Prolonged exposure to above 80 degrees or frequent warming or cooling while keeping for hatching may kill the germ and will surely result in loss of vitality. (8) Improper systems of incubation. Apparently, faulty incubation is accountable for much of the loss of vi- tality in chicks. This may apply to both the natural and the artificial systems, although more_frequently the latter is at fault. This is because so many things that will injure the chicks may happen with good machines in the hands of poor operators, with poor machines and good operators, or with poor machines and poor operators. Since so many of these combinations of unfavorable conditions exist, it ap- pears that much injury to the health of the flocks may result. It should be said, in justice to the most modern systems of artificial incubation, that good incubators in the hands of good operators have caused no apparent loss of vitality even when artificial incubation has’ been practiced continuously for many years. Reproduced from Cornell Reading Course Bulletin No. 45. Four chickens of the same. variety, age and method of rearing. Two in center yof group show faulty development and lack of constitutional vigor The difference in size and strength apparently due to inherited weakness. hah as es %, e “(9).. Brooding and rearing chickens under crowded »,qonditions ‘with a general violation of the principles of sani- tation. However important it may be that mature fowls be kept in healthful environment, it is equally important that the chickens be. raised naturally and rapidly on the best 2 L : Too rapid forcing on rich, easily assimilated food with lack of exercise, results in leg weakness and faulty digestion. Feeding too large a pro- portion of coarse feed with much: fibre, making it slow of assimilation, results in stunted growth and the trouble known as ‘long wings.’ ”’ } profit they will give. 10 CHICK BOOK Z (10) Failure to select breeding stock of recognized superior physical vigor. The most vigorous breeding stock is necessary if we are to maintain or increase the physical vigor of our fowls. This selection is possible if the breeder has a clear understanding of the physical differences between the constitutionally strong and the constitutionally weak fowls. Such differences exist and can be quickly recognized by any one who will take the trouble to study the various types of fowls.” Conclusions “From the experiments we must conclude that there is a relation between the physical characters of fowls and their constitutional vigor, which will enable a careful observer to select the weak from the strong, and also that these qualities are transmissible from parent to offspring; we may also as- sume that, other conditions being equal, weak parents are more likely to produce infertile or less hatchable eggs, which will give weaker chickens, than are strong parents. ‘Should we not, in view of these facts, practice a system of rigid selection of the weak from the strong during all stages of the life of the flock, and from the strong select only a few of the strongest for breeding in order that we may keep only the most vigorous fowls, with the object of secur- ing larger production with less mortality and greater net profit, and at the same time of insuring stronger stock each succeeding generation? : “Tf we are to succeed permanently we must so hatch, rear, feed, house and breed our poultry that they will keep. in perfect health.: Good health in the fowls is the founda- tion of successful poultry husbandry.” SELECTION OF BREEDERS AND LAYERS ELEMENTARY RULES OF HYGIENE MUST BE STRICTLY OBSERVED—STUNTED CHICKENS;SHOULD NEVER BE KEPT FOR LAYING OR BREEDING PURPOSES—CULL THE CHICKENS THREE TIMES— WEAKLINGS ARE ALWAYS UNPROFITABLE—LATE CHICKS NOT FIRST CLASS LAYERS VICTOR FORTIER (Poultry Division of the Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Can.) nourishment must be given from the start and until the chickens are full grown. It is necessary to observe strictly the elementary rules of hygiene at all times and everywhere. Should these fundamental principles be dis- regarded, growth is considerably arrested and a noticeable proportion of the chickens remain stunted. These should never be kept either for laying or breeding purposes. No one can ever expect to get profitable returns from such fowls, no matter how good the breed he has on hand. Chickens intended to be kept for laying or breeding pur- poses should be carefully selected quite young, the first selec- tion’ being made to the best advantage when they are about eight weeks old. Those which have been kept back by ail- ments, such as white diarrhcea (chalky diarrhea), bilious diarrhoea, leg weakness, or through any other causes, should then be separated from the more robust ones and placed in a separate pen, where they can be fed and prepared for the market as soon as possible. The selected: chickens on reaching the age of four months should be re-selected and the weaklings removed. A third.and final selection should be made in the fall of the year, just prior to placing the fowls in their respective winter quarters. There should be no reluct- ance on the part of the owner to sacrifice all the weaker birds and use them for table pur- poses, because such birds will always eat more than the T ORDER to insure the rapid growth of chickens, proper Weaklings are Unprofitable Careful experiments have most positively demonstrated the fact that weaklings of the same brood, of the same strain and of the same age do not lay as many eggs the first year, or, in fact, during the following years as which have rapidly and healthily developed. Unfortunately it has been too often the practice to pay those little attention to the wise selection of birds which are in- tended for egg laying. The farmer and amateur poultry raiser are often heard complaining of the unproductive birds. in their possession, and they are unable to account for this. lack of production, but we are quite convinced it is due to. the fact that a proper and timely selection of chickens has. been neglected. Our remarks regarding weaklings, puny looking and ab-. normally developed birds, although hatched in good season, also apply to other birds that have hatched too late, after- the 15th of June or at the beginning of July. The latter are- scarcely worth more as egg producers than the former; in both cases the egg production will be very scant. In support of this theory, let us take, for example, two- broods of Barred Plymouth Rocks, all of the same strain, of which a certain number were hatched about the 5th of May and the remaining portion about the 15th of June, or say six SOME SATISFACTORY BROOD COOPS. These coops are in use on a Canadian poultry farm. Th question and are rat proof at night. y e owner says he finds they have solved the cat weeks later, and let us winter them in poultry houses identi-. cally the same, giving them the same kind of food. The. first lot’ will invariably commence to lay during the months. BREEDING 11 of November or December, the latter will continue to develop and probably take on flesh, but will not commence to lay before February or March and will give from 40 to 60 eggs less than the first ones, though they may continue to lay a little longer in summer. Undesirable as Layers We give here the result of some interesting experiments: One group of twenty-two Barred Plymouth Rock pul- lets, which were hatched in May and wintered in a cold cotton- front poultry house, each laid an average of 684 eggs. A like number of White Wyandottes which hatched during the same month and wintered under like conditions each laid an average of 76} eggs. In another case, six pullets, three Barred Plymouth Rocks and three White Wyandottes, all hatched in May, fed in the very same manner as in the first case, but placed in a warm hen house, (both kinds had been slow in growth and had reached their full development during October, November and December) had a record of an average of only 154 eggs for each bird. Six other pullets of the same stock similarly treated and fed as the former but which had hatched about the end of June, laid an average of 23 eggs only. As a result of these experiments and the conclusions ar- rived at, we with certainty say to all who are interested in poultry keeping, that if they rid their yards of all unhealthy puny-looking and abnormally developed birds which threaten the ruin of poultry raisers, the success in this branch of agri- culture would be enhanced in a few years by one hundred per cent in the production of eggs, while the table would like- wise be furnished with a fowl of far superior quality. LINE BREEDING A VETERAN POULTRYMAN TELLS HIS FELLOW BREEDERS HOW TO PRODUCE THOUSANDS OF CHICKS AND THREE STRAINS OF BLOOD FROM A SINGLE PAIR—THESE BIRDS WILL IMPROVE IN SHAPE AND COLOR WHILE RETAINING THE VIGOR OF THE ORIGINAL PAIR I. K. FELCH govern it are strictly followed. The trouble is that we all grow careless and a little carelessness often destroys all our previous work and throws the whole scheme or plan out of order. Intense in-breeding often results in a sterile flock. The secret of success, if secret it be, is to breed so as to preserve the line within our own strain and yet have each mating— each pair—show a difference in blood. For instance, we all know that the chickens of any ; pair of birds inherit half the blood of each parent. If two of these chicks are mated the proportion of the blood of the sire and dam remains the. same, but if the pullets of the second generation are mated to the old cock of the first generation, there is a material change in the third generation as these birds have three- fourths of the blood: of the cock and only one-fourth of the blood of the dam. In the accompanying chart, which I originated a num- ber of years ago, the female line is indicated by the dotted lines and the male line by the solid lines. You will note that 1, the female, and 2, the male, mated together produce group 3 and that pullets from group 3 mated to 2, which repre- sents the male of the first gen- eration—produce group 5, or the third generation, to which we have just referred. Now = 7 if a cockerel from group 3 is mated to hen 1 we shall get group 4, having three-fourths of the blood of the original hen and only one-fourth of the original male. 1, breeding is very simple when the rules that original pair. FELCH’S BREEDING CHART Showing how thousands of chickens and three strains of blood can be produced from a single pair, in the vigor, size and color of the We are now in position to mate again, using birds from group 4 and 5 and the result is that in group 7 we have a flock identically the same in blood as group 3, though they did not come directly from the same birds, 1 and 2. By mating birds from 6 and 8 we obtain group 11, hav- ing the same proportion of blood as group 3, unless we wish to admit that these matings have exhausted the blood of the original pair that founded the strain. Arithmetic teaches us that the percentage of blood in groups 3, 7 and 11 is the same, though to a casual observer the chart would seem to lie, as 10 and 12 and 4 and 5 appar- ently are not alike, though they are actually, because members from groups 10 and 12 mated will produce birds that have half of the blood of the original pair. It is an old English rule that when we reach birds with seven-eighths of the blood of a given pair of an- cestors we have exhausted the eighth of foreign blood that was used to invigorate the strain. Under that rule 6 and 8 become practically 1 and 2, because breeding birds from these two groups will produce group 11, which has the same blood proportion as groups 3 and 7. But while the birds in 9 and 13 have recovered the eighth blood lost in 10 and 12, because their dams come from their own strain, yet, had 9 and 13 been ie _ mated, their progeny would have been the same in blood as groups 3, 7,11 and16. In 15 and 17 we have a little bet- ter than half of the blood of the male and the female strains we are endeavoring to establish. 12 CHICK BOOK Let us suppose the following case: A breeder may have followed the chart to the end and have fine birds. Thinking that he has five groups he ‘sells all his old stock and mates 14 and 18 and 15 and 17. In reality the chickens he gets are all half-breeds like 3, 7, 11 and 16. Every one of them would be exactly of the same blood as group 3, and he would mate these last pullets to his male in group 18 and the cock- erels to the hens in group 14. It is intensely interesting for those who like to experi- ment to study this chart. By careful line breeding a breeder is in a position to produce at any time birds having half the blood of his original flock and he is safer to breed his own birds than to go out of his flock to get a hen to intro- duce to his own strain. It is more safe to breed a thousand chickens from a single pair than to keep crossing strange hens into one’s flock. With the occasional crosses like 5 and 8 and 4 and 6 we regain any seeming loss. Had not these two crosses been made the chart would have seemed to have verged into half-breeds in time. But these two crosses more firmly establish the two strains. Condensed Description of Chart Remember ‘in studying the chart that the solid lines show the male birds and the dotted lines the female. Each circle represents the progeny. Female No. 1 mated to male No. 2 will produce group No. 3, which is half the blood of the sire, and half that of the dam. Females from group No. 3 mated back to their own sire, No. 2, produce No. 5, which is three-fourths the blood of the sire. Select a cockerel from group No. 5 and a pullet from group No. 4, or vice versa, which will produce group No. 7, which is mathematically half the blood of each of the original pair, Nos. 1 and 2. This is the second step toward produc- ing a new strain. Females from No. 5 mated back to the original male, No. 2, produce group 8, that are seven-eighths the blood of No. 2. A cockerel from No. 4, mated back to the original dam, No. 1, produces group No. 6, which is seven-eighths © the blood of the original dam and only one-eighth the blood of the original sire, giving us a flock of birds that have prac- tically the same blood as the original dam, because the blood of the original sire is almost eliminated. : Select a male from No. 8 and females from No. 6, and for a third time produce chicks (in group No. 11) that are half the blood of the original pair. This is the third step and the ninth mating in the breeding of a new strain. In all this, the line of sires has not been broken, for every one has come from a group in which the preponderance of blood was that of the original sire. Nos. 2, 8 and 13 are virtually the blood of No. 2; in effect they are the same, for the blood of No. 1 is exhausted. A point is now reached where we can establish a male line whose blood is virtually that of the original dam. If now a male is selected from No. 6 and mated with a female from No. 4, group No. 9 will be pro- duced, which is 13-16ths the blood of the oirginal dam (No. 1) and 3-16ths the blood of the original sire (No. 2). Select a‘male from No. 9, and a female of the new strain (No. 11), and produce group No. 14, which has 21-32ds of the blood of the original dam, thus preserving her strain of blood. ‘ A male from No. 13 which is 13-16ths the blood of the original sire (No. 2) mated to females from No. 10, which are 5-16ths the blood of the original sire (No. 2) gives group No. 17, which is 9-16ths the blood of said sire and virtually is a group of the middle line or new strain, for we no longer call these birds half-bloods of Nos. 1 and 2. In No. 16 we have the new strain and in No. 18 the strain of our original sire, No. 2. We have three distinct strains, Nos. 14, 16 and 18, and with systematic care we can go on breeding for all time to come. I call this ‘Arithmetic in Poultry Culture.” It is pretty hard to get along without arithmetic in any calling and in this case it lends absorbing interest to our breeding. I am pleased to present my original breeding chart to your readers. The edition I had printed is exhausted and I do not intend to print another. I bequeath it to you. _ bere 2 Gy x 4 in mv 4 i S a & <=

The cost of put around in Bore x 14te [E - | Bote x 1ate wiring is not cheap colony qq more than the coops. In this YARD 2 (ie q_| YARD 5 cost of the out- way your - door covered brooding house : Lb aS run which is is used straight _ a z necessary with seg Play aasheetee lala = a outdoor year. e hov- rooder. ers can be in- YERDeS YARD: 6 While each stalled in any one has inter- laying house of ' esting ways our type on the L, of getting plant. They do not have to be put back each year into the FIG, V—-THE ELLIS COMBINATION HOUSE EQUIPPED WITH HOVERS AND CHICK RUNWAYS Diagram showing the arrangement and size of the yards enclosed by temporary wire fences surrounding the laying house while it is being used as a brooding house by having adaptable hovers temporarily installed. results all must use those best suited to his own plant. BROODING, COOPING AND FEEDING CHICKS A WRITER WHO IS REGARDED AS AUTHORITY DISCUSSES BROODERS AND BROODING, FOODS AND FEEDING, AND DESCRIBES THE PROPER CARE FOR CHICKS OF DIFFERENT AGES A. F. HUNTER ATCHING the chicks is but half the battle, if, indeed, H it is half the battle, as many a poultryman who has rejoiced in good hatches by either hens or in- cubator has afterwards learned to his sorrow. With in- cubator chicks raised in brooders elbow room seems to be a most important factor, and want of elbow room is one cause of great mortality in brooder chicks. Itis quite nat- ural to suppose that a brooder which is three feet square (giving nine square feet of floor space), is abundant room for seventy-five or one hundred chicks, and, indeed, it is for chicks as they come out of the incubator, and if we do not want our chicks to grow it is all right to crowd into a brood- er twice as many as should be init. A point that we should keep in mind, however, is that these chicks will be fully twice as large at three weeks old and probably four times as large at five weeks old, or by the time. we move them from the brooder, and that factor we should have in mind in gauging the capacity of a brooder. I have come to believe that for good results fifty chickens are as many as should be put in any brooder; that to increase the number beyond that point is to induce crowding, which kills some and stunts others, and is extremely unfortunate if quick and profitable growth is our aim. If, as not infrequently happens, we find we have one hundred and fifty chickens in the incubator when we only expected about one hundred, and have but two brooders heated up to receive them, no harm will result ‘in putting seventy-five chicks in each of the two brooders for a couple of days, but another brooder must be made ready at once and the one hundred and fifty chicks put into the three, which gives reasonably abundant room for all of them and they have a good chance to grow. We raise chickens on our farm for two purposes, first for market, second for breeding stock. The chickens for market are hatched usually from about Christmas time to the middle of March. Those intended for breeding stock are hatched from about the middle of March to the middle PART OF A LONG BROODER HOUSE The Foreground Shows Brooders Out of Doors, Each Brooder Enclosed in a Pen 20 Feet Square, Made of 1&-inch Netting. of May. To have chickens out by Christmas time we have an incubator started early in December, and at that time it is our custom to start one incubator a week, or, possibly, four incubators in three weeks, gradually increasing to two incubators a week through January and February, and so on. For these winter chicks we have a brooder house 130 feet long by ten feet wide, partitioned into sixteen pens eight feet by ten feet, each pen having a door and window in front which faces the south. This brooder-house is double walled, with a four-inch air space between the inner and outer walls (it would be better still if the wall and roof spaces were packed with straw or swale hay), and the only artificial heat used in this house is in the brooders them- selves, excepting that in some severely cold weather we put a small oil stove in each pen to take the chill out of the air, in order that the chicks may be out in the pen. We use brooders which are three feet square, heated by an oil lamp with a one and one-half inch wick, the air which passes into the brooder being heated by passing over a sheet iron ceiling to the lamp chamber, and by this method of applying the heat indirectly a slight current of warmed fresh air is passing into the brooder all the time. Herein, we think, is one of the great faults with many brooders, as, for example the hot-water pipe brooders in use in many brooder houses. Those hot-water pipes simply heat the air already within the hovers, which air is practically confined to the hovers by the felt curtain in front, which is supposed to enclose the warmth within the hovers. It does that’ very well, but it likewise encloses the air, which the chicks have to breathe over and over again, and in that defect I think we find a clue to not a little of the mortality and consequent shrink- ing of profits on brooder house chicks. A current of warmed fresh air supplied to the hovers would overcome this serious difficulty, and would, in my judgment, materially reduce the mortality of brooder chicks. The brooders are set in the ground to a depth of six or seven inches, which serves a twofold purpose. The lamp chamber is en- closed so as to cut off currents of air, and the chicks run out and in upon a level. For our winter chickens the brooders are set in the middle of the pens in the brooder houses, or, say, about four feet back from the window, and two pieces of board are fitted into slots at each front corner, extending to the side of the pen, so that the chicks are kept in that warm, sunny half of the pen until they are a week to ten days old. The first day after being re- moved from the incubator they are usually kept confined to the brooder, the food being put on small platters placed in the corners of the brooders for them. After they are old enough to be let out they are fed and watered outside, just in front of the brooders. These winter chickens will need the warmth of the brooders until they are seven or eight weeks old, but the BROODING 35 temperature of the hover is gradually reduced from 95 de- grees at the beginning to 90 or thereabouts at the end of the second week, then to 85, then 80, then 75, and the last week or so that the chicks occupy the brooder the flame of the lamp is kept as low as it can be run, to give just the least amount of ‘warmth, 65 to 70 degrees being sufficient. The chickens that we raise for breeding stock are brooded out of doors (it being our custom to begin setting brooders out about April Ist, the brooders being set in the ground, just as formerly inside the brooder house, but as we have much rainy weather in April and May, we have “shelter boards” to serve as protection from the rain, set a little way in front of the brooders, and under which the chicks can take refuge from storms. The chicks put out of doors are kept within the brooder for about one day, then a little pen a yard square made of three pieces of board three feet long set up to the front of the brooder gives them a snug little enclosure for the few days of babyhood. Next we make a pen about twenty feet square of one- inch mesh wire netting tied to tempor- ary stakes, and the chicks have the range of this‘pen until they are big enough to be weaned from the brooder, which, in May and June, is at about six weeks old. .Then they are moved back to a grassy ridge bordering the pasture on one side and mowing field on the other. There they are colonized in ‘“A’’ coops (as we call them) for five or six weeks, when it is time to separate the pullets from the cockerels, and put the pullets out in the grass fields, in roosting coops, in families of about twenty-five each, colonized about fifty yards apart. The cockerels in- tended to be raised for breeding are confined in pens about 50x100 feet, while the cockerels intended for market are taken back to the pens in the brooder house, which have small yards 10x20 outside, and there they are fed and grown for market. The coops for these chickens play a not unimportant part in chicken raising, and a brief description of them may be interesting. The ‘“‘A’’ coops are three feet six inches by two feet three inches on the ground and two feet high at the apex of the roof. They are built throughout of half-inch tongued and grooved pine and well painted. The front is all slats, as shown in the illustration, with a slatted gate sliding in grooves to close the front. We originally built “A” coops to slope down to the ground, but found it an im- provement to have a square base four inches high, with the corners turned to an angle, to prevent the chicks from crowding back under the eaves and smothering one or two at a time. We find it a most decided advantage to have these well built coops always at hand, and as we have coops now in use which were built ten years ago, and are as good to-day as when made, the economy of well made coops will be apparent. When we say. that the tongues and grooves of the roof pieces are painted before they are put together, the reader will realize that they are thoroughly well built. The roosting coop, which is chiefly intended for raising the pullets in, is six feet long, three feet wide, two feet high at back and three feet high in front. The roof, ends and back side are all of half-inch tongued and grooved pine, the front being laths, set a lath width apart, except that a strip of board is nailed to each corner for stiffening. Two roosts o stiffen it. five to thirty chickens until they are nearly grown; in fact, we sometimes have pullets to begin to lay before they are A coop like this will comfortably house twenty- BROODERS AS USED OUT OF DOORS The One in Foreground has a Very Small Pen for Baby Chicks brought in from these roosting coops. It is quite light and can be easily moved on a wheelbarrow, or moved its length and width to fresh ground, or it can be tipped up and drop- pings removed, and it is a perfect summer shelter. If they are to be used in the spring or fall, when the nights are cold, an improvement would be to make a front or half-inch boards, hinged at the top edge, so it could swing outward and upward and rest upon folding legs hingéd at the bottom corners, which would become a roof to shelter the birds from rains. One disadvantage of this light coop is, that it may be easily tipped over by a high wind, especially when the chickens are-all out of it, as during the day. To prevent it from so tipping over, a flat stone should be placed on each front corner of the roof. The gate space in front of the coop gives access to the whole inside when the pullets are to be removed. The gate is made of laths nailed to two strips one inch square, the left hand ends of which are long enough to slip in behind the lath front, the right hand side being secured by one or two buttons. If one prefers, these gates can be hinged at one side or the other and secured by a hook or a button, but of two by three scantling, slightly rounded at top, run the whole length and are a foot apart, being securely nailed to a frame of furring (one by three stuff) nine inches from the ground. To this frame we nail the ends, back side and front corner boards and then fit in at the top a frame of inch-square stuff.to nail the roof boards to and we have found it a convenience to have them wholly detachable, and so make them. Shelter from rain and sun is of quite as much help as a good coop to sleep in. By experimenting in different ways we learn that it would pay as well to have ‘‘shelter boards” always ready, just as are the coops; hence we make them of the half-inch, tongued and grooved pine, taking five strips three feet long by six inches wide for each shelter board. These strips are securely nailed_to pieces of inch-square spruce at top and bottom, and then the weather side is well painted. We make a light frame of the inch square spruce . Strips and laths to fit up to the “A” coops when we want 36 to put the shelter close to the coop, using one of the 2}x3- foot shelter boards, as shown in the illustrations. As the chicks get a little older we move the frame out a little, set athwart the front of coop, and put two shelter boards over it side by side, setting it so that it furnishes shade if the sun is shining, or protects from a driving rain, of course adapt- ing it to the direction of the wind. ' When we move the pullets out into-the field and into the roosting cgops we set upon stakes and a strip of furring, a , Shelving’ roof seven and a half feet long by three feet wide, 'slight/y sloping to the south about eighteen inches high in front and a foot high at the back.’ By these devices we more ‘than double the available shelter from rain and sun and cor- reSpondingly increase’ the comfort. of the’ growing chicks.: ' Obviously, ‘if they have.to be crowded into their narrow ‘sleeping quarters on'.a long rdiny day or ‘fo get away from thé hot sum,,they are not making} good growth, and by so “simple an expedient as we have here,outlined we more than . double the: protection and:by so’ much promote their com- t fort, : = w 1‘ tat : ee ae <5» Foods, ahd Feeding “ “| “AS we stated at the beginning of this article, we raise two kinds’ of chicks, chickens for market and chickens for breeding stock.” The food for the first month or six weeks. is practically the same for: each class, but at the end of six weeks we begin to feed the market. chicks a richer and more fattening food, they of course being kept separate from the chicks intended for breed- ing stock. Feed often and feed but a little at a time is the tule for young chicks. We feed five times a day until they are about six weeks old. It is important that no food be left standing for the chicks to trample dirt into or to get sour in the sun; if they have not eaten it all in twefity min- utes to half. an hour, remove it. Nothing causes more bowel looseness and dysentary than sour food. Our chief foods for the first six weeks are coarsest oat- meal, slightly moistened with sweet milk if we have it; if not, with water, and waste bread ground to rather coarse crumbs in a bone mill. This also is moist- ened with sweet milk or water,—slightly moistened so that it is still crumbly and not “‘pasty.” The oatmeal is just such as is cooked for a breakfast dish on our table; in other words, it is oat meats ground very coarse. This we buy of wholesale grocers, by the barrel, at a cost of about two cents a pound. The waste bread is the broken pieces, part-loaves, rolls, corn cakes, etc., from hotels and restau- rants and costs about a cent and a half a pound. This bread we buy by the hundred weight and spread on the barn loft to dry; when thoroughly dry it is ground into coarse crumbs in a bone mill. The first food early in the morning is the bread crumbs, slightly moistened with sweet milk or water; the second, about nine o’clock in the morning, is oatmeal, slightly moistened a little before noon, bread crumbs again, about half past two oatmeal again and about 5 o’clock a little cracked wheat or finely cracked corn. Twice a week a little lean meat is boiled, chopped fine and mixed with one of the bread or oatmeal feeds, or the infertile eggs Brood coop with runwa: CHICK BOOK (clear eggs) from the incubators are boiled hard, chopped fine, shells and all, and mixed with the bread crumbs or oatmeal. ; . It is very important that the chicks have grit to grind their food, and as baby chicks are hardly to be trusted to supply themselves with good grit, we sprinkle a pinch of fine grit (or coarse sand) upon the small tin plates once a day just before feeding, or, if preferred, it can be mixed into the food: Grit in the gizzard to grind the food is a most important factor in preventing indigestion and loose- ness of the bowels. Green food is another important aid to good health. If the chicks are cooped upon fresh grass the problem is easily solved, because they will help themselves. Obviously, the January, February and March hatched chicks cannot have access to fresh grass, neither can the larger chickens shut up to be fatted for market, hence a supply of green food must be provided. Cabbages, onions, lettuce and onion tops all make a good green food supply, and the same can be said of weeds from the garden, which are easily obtained. It is a comparatively easy matter to supply the green food if one has the will. We are well aware that many readers cannot get waste bread from hotels and restaurants, and to such we recommend the making of “johnny cake” of mixed meals, baked very thoroughly, and we will give also the rule for ‘“Ex- celsior Meal bread” as rec- ommended by Mr. I. K. Felch. ‘Grind into a fine meal in the following pro- portions: Twenty pounds corn, fifteen pounds oats, ten pounds barley, ten pounds wheat bran. Make the cakes by taking one quart sour milk (or butter- milk), adding a little salt and molasses, one quart of water in which a large heaping teaspoonful of sal- eratus has been dissolved. Then thicken all to a lit- tle stiffer batter than your wife makes for corn cakes. Bake in shallow pens until thoroughly cooked. We believe a well appointed kitchen and brick oven pays, for in the baking of this food enough for a week can be cooked at a time.” It is very certain that a cooked food of this kind is a decided help to good growth in chicks, and as we on our farm want a good growth, we study to promote it by feeding a good food. Not a few farmers and poultrymen think that oatmeal as a food for chicks is a luxury. Wright’s ‘Practical Poul- try Keeper’’ says: ‘‘With regard to feeding, if the question be asked what is the best food for chickens, irrespective of price, the answer must decidedly be, ‘oatmeal.’ After the first meal of bread crumbs and egg no food is equal to it, if coarsely ground, and only moistened so much as to remain crumbly. The price of oatmeal is, however, so high as to ‘forbid its use in general except for valuable birds; but we should still advise it for the first week in order to lay a good foundation.” We are obliged to differ from Mr. Wright as to oatmeal being an expensive food for chicks. It may look expensive to pay $4 a barrel (two cents a pound) for oatmeal for chick- en food; but it goes so far we have found it a decidedly economical food. We use perhaps fifty dollars’ worth of oat- y for hen and chicks. meal a year and it makes about one-fifth of our chicks’ food’ ' ' ’ BROODING 37 ration for the first three months of their life. Considered simply as a food ration it is economical, but when we con- sider that itis a good foundation for the future usefulness of the bird, and: that a good foundation for chicks means eggs in the basket next fall and winter—then we realize that oatmeal is a cheap food in the best sense of the term. By the time the chicks are six to eight weeks old the principal dangers of chickenhood are past and the two. dif- ferent methods of ‘feeding are inaugur- ated. The chickens intended to be raised for breeding stock are put out in the fields, where they have a grass run and a free range. The chickens intended for market are kept confined in the brooder house pens and yards and fed a slightly different grade of food. The principal difference is in increasing the amount of cracked corn and corn meal of the market chicks and cutting off the oatmeal, of course the green food being plentifully supplied and grit being constantly accessible. The chicks in the field intended for laying and breeding stock must have a liberal supply of nourishing, strengthen- ing food, which will build up a strong, healthy and vigorous body, with stores of strength to lean upon when maturity shall come. The breakfast is bread crumbs, continued usually until the chicks are about ten “ weeks old, when they are graduated into a morning mash of cooked vegetables (which makes about one-third of the whole) and mixed meals, being equal parts by weight of corn meal, ground oats, fancy middlings and bran (or shorts); this is salted about as it would be if it were food for the table. The vegetables are potatoes, beets, turnips, carrots, onions —anything in the vegetable line, thor- oughly cooked and mashed fine, the mixed meals being stirred in until it is stiff as a strong arm can make it. The breakfast in the morning is this mash; in the middle of the forenoon a light feed of coarse oatmeal, moistened; just after dinner a light feed of cracked wheat and about five o’clock whole wheat or cracked corn, one, one day the other the next. About twice a week we have fresh meat (butcher’s trimmings), which are boiled and then chopped fine. This we mix with the oatmeal (about half and half) for the second feeding. We have also a bone cutter and: twice a week the chicks have a good time wrestling and trampling over each other in their eagerness to get the fresh cut bone. Cut bone, if perfectly fresh and sweet, is one of the best animal food supplies that we have, but, if this is not available, meat meal or beef scraps should be mixed into the morning mash, about one-quarter ounce. per bird per day, for young birds, increasing to about one-half ounce per day as they approach maturity. We vary the food ration continually within the range here described. For instance, one day the food will be mash, bread crumbs, cracked wheat and cracked corn; next day, mash, oatmeal and chopped meat, cracked corn, and whole wheat; the next day bread crumbs, cut bone, oatmeal, cracked corn and soon. The intention is to feed only what the chicks will eat up clean and quickly; but we break the rule so far As ‘a Shelter from Sun. A Shed Roof Shelter as the ldst feed is concerned and the boy goes around a second time twenty or thirty minutes after feeding, and if the food is all eaten up clean three or four handfuls more are put down so that all shall have a chance to “fill up” for the night. If a handful is left uneaten it quickly disappears in the morning, and as it is always dry grain it does not sour and there is no danger from leaving it out. We have said nothing about fresh water because it goes without saying that fresh, clean water must always be ac- cessible to the chickens. ' We water them three times a day, morning, noon and late afternoon; some times going around between while if it is hot weather and the chickens are likely to drink a good deal. The water dishes are care- fully rinsed once a day and water which is fresh and cool is always accessible to them. Grit to grind the food is an- other necessity, a pan of which is placed near each food trough out in the field, or a small box of it in each pen in the brooder house. We have personally noted that chickens when let out of the coops in the morning would go to the grit dish for two or three bits of grit before going to join their mates at the food trough. Thus far we have been writing about chicks raised for breeding stock. When the market chicks are six to eight weeks old we cut off the oatmeal (or ground oats) from the food ration, double the quantity of corn meal and cracked corn, feeding also on wheat or barley, feeding them occa- sionally, say once a week, a feed of whole oats for a change. The corn meal and meat meal are gradually increased and a “week to ten days before the chickens are to be marketed a very little gluten meal is added to the ration and the meat meal practically doubled in quan- tity until we are feeding a full ounce per bird per day. With this decidedly fattening ration the birds should go to market in first-class condition and bring top prices for market chicks. The chicks intended for breeding stock have free range and can roam over the fields at will in search of insects worms, etc., the exercise of ranging promoting growth and good health. We study to promote the comfort and well being of the chicks, believing that it pays to do so. The coops are kept scrupulously clean by being moved to fresh ground every other day, and every reasonable pains is taken to insure steady, continuous growth. -It is the full egg bas- ket in November, December and January, when eggs bring top prices and pay the creamy profits, that is being planned for and worked for in this good care and good feeding, and we have abundantly proved on our farm that this good care and good feeding pay richly. We cannot get a valuable thing for nothing; the good things in this world come by working for them, and the good profits that are to be gained in poultry raising have got to be worked for. With us the problem is early hatched pullets kept growing so that they shall come to laying maturity in October, and then kept lay- ing. Our pullets are kept growing, and after they reach laying maturity are kept laying, by good care and good food. As a Shelter from Rain. REARING CHICKS IN BROODERS AN ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR AN EASILY CONSTRUCTED, PORTABLE COL- ONY HOUSE—CARE OF BROODER CHICKS—THE QUESTION OF FEED E. W. McBRIDE WENTY-FOUR hours after hatching the chicks are removed to the warm brooder. Not more than fifty chicks are placed in each and one brooder is placed in each colony house. The next thing is to instruct them in the ways of their new home. The little motherless chick must be taught everything, but it soon learns. Teach them first of all how to seek the warmth of the “‘hover.’’ Watch carefully to see they do not remain outside huddling up against the exterior of the cloth instead of nestling snugly inside. For the first few days they must have con- stant attention. Show them where to find the water, and dip their bills into it so that they may know how to use it when found. Some kind of litter such as clover leaves or chopped straw should be placed on the floor of the brooder as soon as the chicks are put into it, and in this chick feed and small grit should be scattered, so that they may learn early to scratch. At the end grain, such as wheat screenings, cracked corn and Kaffir corn. The manner of mixing the soft feed is important. Take two parts of corn meal and one of middlings and mix these together dry, thoroughly. Then pour boiling water on the mixture (the water must be boiling) and stir vigorously into a crummy state. This food is partly cooked, and is very wholesome and relished by the chicks. The brooder should be kept closed at night for about a week or ten days until the chicks understand how to go in and out, and the lamp should be kept.going for about four weeks, although it is needed only at night when the day is warm and the brooder is not used. After the chicks have gone, say, two weeks, without any artificial heat the brooder is taken out and used over again for younger chicks, and is replaced by a ‘‘cold’”’ brooder, that is, a brooder without the “hover” or lamp, and having simply the inside dia- phragm. This is used until they are large enough to roost. Then the cold of a week they can be given a mash made of two parts corn meal and one part middlings. They can be al-, lowed out of the brooder after two days to run about the colony house, but particular care should be taken to teach them how to brooder is removed, and roosts are placed in the colony houses. The cock- erels are finally re- moved to the fat- tening pen, and the pullets allowed to run loose until ready for laying. The colony houses shown in the illustration go back by the passageway leading up from the ground. Do not lift the stupid ones off the floor of the colony house, even though this may be an easier method, but make them go back the right way, so that they may know how to return to the brooder when they want the heat. As soon as they have learned these lessons they may be allowed outside in the yard. This enclosure need not be more than 10 feet square, with l-inch mesh wire netting a foot high. After they are ten days or two weeks old this pen may be removed and the chicks allowed to run at will, but for a few days they should be watched to see that they return properly to the brooder. : They should be taught a call the first day. An imita- tion of a hen’s cluck is a good call for this purpose. As they grow older change this to tapping on the feed bucket, as this sound they can hear and distinguish a good distance away. ‘ When they are about three weeks old give them larger A PORTABLE COLONY HOUSE which accompanies this article possess some novel feat- ures. They are 6 feet square at the base, and 7 feet high. The bottom is a soft pine board 1 by 12 inches. The corners are fastened with a piece set in so that they can not possibly pull apart. The framing of the upper part and doorways is made of Oregon pine, stripped and fenced to } inch thick and 2}inches wide. All the joints are cleat nailed, thus preventing the wind from racking the frames in any way. The tent has « back entrance door and one chick door at the front left hand corner, as well as one front window opening which is provided with a duck canvas curtain, but in which glass. can be set in cold weather if necessary. The four sides are of 12 inch Army duck canvas. Thorough ventilation is secured by 6 by 8 inch openings in the front and back, with roll-up canvas curtains adjustable at any point. These houses are serviceable, well ventilated, and portable; they are moreover built so that they can be taken apart and laid aside in the winter when not in use. NO ARTIFICIAL HEAT ABOUT FIVE HUNDRED CHICKS RAISED EACH SEASON WITH PRACTICALLY NO ARTIFICIAL HEAT AND COMPARATIVELY NO LOSS--IT SOUNDS EASY— BUSY FARMER’S WIVES WOULD DO WELL TO GIVE THIS METHOD A TRIAL MRS. L. L. WHITE old saying, ‘‘All roads lead to Rome” by the different methods given for feeding, either young or old fowls. Having been repeatedly asked for my way of feeding little chicks, shall begin at the very machine and tell how I handle the little tots to get them up out of the way so quickly. About the time I think they will put in their appear- ance, I place my big ‘‘goods’’ boxes in sheltered, sunny spots, just where I intend to leave them as long as needed. Hay loft trash is scattered on the floor and little wire runs (made by using twenty feet of twenty-four inch wide, one inch mesh wire netting, tacked to old broom handles at each end) are placed in front of the boxes. One end of the broom is sharpened to a point so that it can be pushed or driven into the ground about six inches. The wire is stretched in a semi- circle from each side of the front of the boxes. Drive three or four stout sticks at different parts of the circle to hold the wire curved so that the wind will not move it. Then the future home of the chicks is ready and the only thing to do is to scatter food and place the water fountains. While the chicks are small these water fountains are made from old baking powder cans with little holes punched in the top edge about one-half inch deep, then the can is filled with water, in- verted in a saucer, or can top, quite a bit larger than the water can, and these do very well indeed. I raise five or six hundred chicks each season in two hatches. I used to raise splendid droves of Mammoth Bronze Turkeys, but the dogs put me out of the business. I keep all my hatch in one of the incubators, putting in all the first hatched ones, as I exchange eggs for chicks from one machine to an- other. When ready to take the little fluff balls out of the machine I have my little heatless brooders that hold fifty chicks until a month old all bedded and ready; then open the machine, grab right and left all that are thoroughly dried and fluffed and drop into the brooder. I close the incubator again quickly-and rush upstairs. My machines are all set in the cellar, which while not particularly damp yet contains sufficient moisture so that I never need water in any shape inside of the machines. _ For best results never put the later hatched chicks in a brooder with a lot of first ones, for they will not stand much show, the first ones being so much lustier. However, the later ones grow up to be just as strong if given a chance by themselves, so put them all in one brooder together. These heatless brooders are boxes 12x20 feet, filled half full of fine blue grass hay. From two to four days I keep them in these boxes, merely covering the boxes at night with a woolen blanket turned back at each corner so as to give them air. For forty-eight hours they really need nothing but sleep. When from forty-eight to ninety-six hours old I take the T IS really amusing to note how aptly illustrated is the * brooders out, place them in the back part of the large boxes, scatter a little fine grit around in the run, also a little com- mon, bulk, rolled oats and crushed wheat, which I make myself by grinding through an old coffee mill. Then I fill the fountains and turn the “‘tigers’ loose. Veritable little tigers they are, so hungry and thirsty and how they “hip- pity skip” all around their enclosures! These larger boxes have holes in the sides for fresh air and if the weather is extra cold I put a three gallon jug filled with hot water in the center of the big box just before I retire. Cull at Eight Weeks For the first three days, of course, they need watching to see that they learn to run back in the brooders when cold or sleepy. After that until eight weeks old they use the goods boxes and heatless brooders. At that age they are ready to be culled and you can sell for broilers all faulty- looking ones. , For feed the first three or four days they get what I first named, then I add fine granulated bone and meat scraps and I stop grinding the wheat. The rolled oats are almost “cut out.’’ I lose almost none, except by accident or a too hungry cat. The chicks get no corn until they are at least six weeks old, then I keep chops, bran, bone and meat = scraps, all mixed, in hoppers where they can get at it all the time. There is no danger of overfeeding young growing stock if they have the range of a good sized yard. Of course they fly out of the little enclosures within about three weeks’ time, so then I prop up two or three places so they may run under instead of climbing over. In a week’s time my little ones are really up and out of my way and cause me very little trouble. I aim to have all my chicks hatched by the 20th of April and the birds mature so that they begin to lay before winter sets in. 0” Sen @ o 12 INCHES . A COLD BROODER N THE plant of King Brothers in a Wisconsin city, we found this cold brooder being used for the chicks. The upper floor of the 30x80 foot house is used for a brooding house, being heated with hot water, while _the chicks are kept in cold hovers, which are boxes twenty inches square and twelve inches high (see illustration). The upper half of this box is arranged like a cover so that it can be opened wide and on each side of the cover is bored three one-half inch holes for ventilation. There is a frame that sets on cleats to which flannel is tacked so that it sags low enough to come in contact with the backs of the chicks. The room has windows reaching to the floor on the east and south sides so that the chicks get plenty of sunshine. Each little chick pen is 4x16 and the floor is first covered with glass sand and then with ground clover. SUCCESSFUL CHICK RAISING RAISING POULTRY HAS PROVED A PROFITABLE BUSINESS—GIVES DRY FEED —PREFERS INCUBATORS FOR HATCHING—A PRACTICAL POULTRY HOUSE MRS. EDITH M. HANDY HAVE kept hens more or less for a number of years, I but did not make a regular business of it until about five years ago, when I decided to try poultry raising for profit. Being undecided which was the best breed to raise for market fowl, eggs and exhibition purposes, I tried several, but before long decided that the White Wyandotte was the variety for me. I have found that dry feed gives better results and is much less work than when one feeds mashes. Keep a dry mash before them all the time and throw dry mixed grain in the litter in the house at night. In summer feed plenty of green food when they cannot run at large- and in the winter give them mangles and cabbages, also turnips, beets and potatoes. The droppings boards are cleaned every morning and sprayed once a week with liquid lice killer. This course has relieved me of any trouble from lice and mites. Prefers Incubators I tried hens for hatching chickens when I started in business, but had such poor luck that I bought an incubator as an experiment. Having never run one before I was a little doubtful of the outcome, but soon decided that I had no use for sitting hens. Artificial incubation suited me much better. : All the chicks are raised in outdoor brooders and they are allowed out on the ground as early as possible. The chicks are usually kept in the incubators. for forty-eight hours after they are hatched and then are removed to the brooders, as I have found that chicks are much stronger and better after this rest in the incubator. The little chicks are fed dry feed from the first with green food, charcoal and plenty of water. I have had good luck(?) with chickens and I am making a success of the poultry business and would advise any woman who likes poultry to try raising it for profit. It pays to be honest in this business, as in any other, and it is not difficult to satisfy all reasonable customers if you practice the golden rule. Our Poultry House The accompanying drawings show our poultry house. It has given us very good satisfaction. You will note that we have one glass covered window and one that is muslin covered in each pen. All the fixtures are removable in order that the house may be thoroughly cleaned. Have found the hall way in the rear of the house a great convenience. You will note also by reference to the drawing of the interior that the nests are under the droppings board and that the eggs can be removed from the hall way and that the mash can be placed in the trough in the hall without entering the pens to disturb the birds. LAA ZA = tat ae i Flay sae TRE tae et ier 3 OL Mag FOR PERSPECTIVE. Mrs. Edith M. Handy’s Poultry House. ) KAT XXX? ORR KRY PERU YX AY) RRA OAR YY SAFTIAL ANS INTERIOR, R—Roosts, D B—Droppings Board. N—Nest P—Platform in front of nests, D—Hinged door opening into walk through which eggs can be removed from the nests. T—Feed Trough lo- cated in the walk, S—Spindles through which the hens feed. WALK 3' WIDE GROUND PLAN, Ground Floor Plan of Mrs. Edith M. Handy’s Poultry House. HOW TO RAISE BROODER CHICKS SUCCESSFULLY PARENT STOCK OF FIRST IMPORTANCE—SINGLE BROODERS PREFERRED TO PIPE SYSTEM—WHAT AND HOW TO FEED EDGAR BRIGGS NE of the first things to be considered in raising brood- er chicks successfully is the parent stock, which must be in perfect health, properly fed and given abund- ant exercise to insure fertile eggs and strong chicks. A first-class incubator must be selected, one that will hatch from 75 to 90 per cent of fertile eggs, and when you get such hatches you will get strong chicks that will live if properly cared for. The next thing to be selected is a brooder, and this is equally if not more important than the incubator. You must get a brooder that imitates a hen as closely as possible; one that will let in any amount of fresh air; one that has a round cylinder with no corners for chicks to crowd in, and one easily heated with a lamp that will not blow out nor smoke. I prefer the single brooders to the pipe system. In winter heat your house to 60 and 70 degrees and keep your brooders 90 degrees at thestart, gradu- ally lowering the temperature after twelve days. Do not let the chicks get chilled at any time nor allow them to crowd, for if you do bowel trouble will be the result, which will take off a large per cent in a short time. Too much heat will weaken them and cause many to die, so you must ‘be very careful, especially at night, about obtaining the right temperature, as it often grows very cool the latter part of the night, so a little extra flame should be left on in cool nights. I use runs five feet wide, ten feet long inside of house, and outside runs fifty feet long well shaded in summer. The next and most important of all is food. I wish to say, right here that overfeeding for the first four weeks of a chick’s life has put more people out of the business than all other things combined. You can hardly feed too little. We feed four times a day for the first five weeks. The first three weeks we use principally dry food and make them We feed At ten and two o’clock we feed millet seed, pinhead oatmeal and cracked scratch for every meal but that given at night. prepared dry chick food morning and night. wheat. three inches deep, and throw all their food in this. We keep them well bedded with cut clover two or They also eat much of the clover. We feed very sparingly at first. Keep them hungry at all times. Much depends on keeping them at work; it assists in keeping them in good health. We keep grit and charcoal before them all the time, and fresh water is always before them. Care must be taken to keep their drinking dishes free from slime; they, | should be washed daily. Clean your brooder every other day if you bed with cut hay, and every day if you use sand or bran. After three weeks,your chicks will begin to tire of this’ feed, then we give two meals a day of soft food composed of one part stale bread soaked in water, or better, milk, one part bran, one part hominy meal, ten per cent finely ground meat. The same mash with ten per cent good beef scraps is a grand growing food and much more easily prepared, but more expensive. We continue feeding chick feed once.a day for two weeks longer, giving mash morning and night, using cracked corn and wheat once a day. If running for broilers make your mash one-half cornmeal. We run but fifty to sixty chicks in one lot, as this is enough for any single brooder if you want them to live. After they are old enough to leave the brooder and you cannot give free range make yards twenty feet wide by one hundred feet long and put sixty to seventy-five in a flock on grass yards with plenty of shade, dividing the pullets from the cockerels. Keep them free from lice and you will have birds of fine quality for breeders. BROOD HOUSE ON THE R. I. RED PLANT OF D. W. RICH Note the three inside brood coops in which hens are confined, each caring’'for her share of 50 chicks. Note also the heavy curtain which can be pulled down in case of storms. CHAPTER IV ‘ THE FEEDING AND CARE OF YOUNG CHICKS PRACTICAL, SUGGESTIONS FOR ALL WHO RAISE CHICKS EITHER BY NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL METHODS—DRY FEED BEST BECAUSE MOST ECONOMICAL AND LABOR-SAV- ING—SOME HELPFUL POINTERS ON CHICK GROWING FROM SHELL TO WEANING TIME P. T. WOODS, M. D. OT all poultrymen agree on the best methods of feeding and caring for young chicks, but it is a subject that interests all growers of poultry. While, in this article, we practically confine ourselves to one method of feeding, it is only fair to state that there are many plans of chick feeding that prove successful and give entirely satisfactory results. It would be unwise, however, to incorpor- ate too many methods in a brief article intended more especially for beginners, for fear of confusing the reader and rendering him unable to decide which course is the wisést for him to follow. Undoubtedly the dry method of feeding, or feeding chicks on a dry grain mixture of chick food, is the easiest, safest and also most economical method of feeding small chicks for the beginner with poultry. Feeding mashes or moist dough to either young or old stock always has an element of danger, the liability of throwing the digestive organs out of condition and so ruining the chances of the flock. Skillful feeders meet with remarkable success when feeding either raw or cooked moist mashes and so-called johnnycake, but the wisest course for the beginner will be to confine himself strictly to the dry method, using a care- fully prepared chick food made from sound, sweet grains. The farm wife, whose rugged little broods are usually hatched out under hens in the spring of the year when the grass is green and all things favorable for chick growing, often is suc- cessful in growing her brood on corn meal dough with an occasional feeding of bread crumbs and curds, but where this method has been attempted by others, who either do not or are unable to give the chicks the same tender care and motherly attention, the results are far from satisfactory. Vitality Must Be Inherited Chick rearing under what may be termed normal and natural conditions should be a comparatively easy matter, though oftentimes even the most careful managers meet un- expected reverses and serious losses. A fact often lost sight of is that everything does not depend upon the food and care. It is a matter of great importance that the chick should be well born, should be normally hatched from an egg that is out of healthy, sound, vigorous breeding stock capable of imparting an ample supply of vitality to their progeny. Vitality in the chick, meaning that it possesses vital force, the power which renders it capable of living, is the very foundation of our chick growing. To get this vitality we must begin with the breeding stock and even generations back, breeding each year from only the best, healthy, hardy and most: vigorous specimens that we can obtain. This sturdy, healthy breeding stock must be kept healthy by good care and management. The vitality which they impart to the eggs must be preserved by careful treat- ment of the eggs while saving them for incubating purposes. It is a matter of importance that the eggs should be handled as little as possible while saving them for hatching. The * fine the hen and let the chicks run. daily turning of eggs so frequently recommended by some authorities on artificial incubation is in our opinion a seriqus error. The less handling the eggs receive, the better. While being saved for hatching, the eggs must not be exposed for too long a time to a warm temperature of to a very cold one. The safest temperature for keeping eggs is a fairly uniform one between 40° and 60° F. Prolonged exposure of the eggs to a temperature above 70° or 80°, or frequent warming and cooling of the eggs, is almost certain to impair the vitality of the germ so that when such eggs are hatched the chicks are weaklings. Another matter of great importance in preserving the vitality handed down by healthy breeding stock is that the eggs shall be properly incubated. Where eggs are incubated under hens there is little or no danger from this source. Where the eggs are incubated in machines there is danger from the use of poorly constructed incubators, from too great. variations in temperature during hatching, from overheating the eggs or too long exposure to high temperatures above 104°, from prolonged and frequent cooling, and sometimes chilling. All of these things impair the vital force-of the little chick and render it less capable of living. The normal chick, when properly hatched from eggs. that are out of sound, healthy, vigorous breeding stock, comes into the world with a strong, rugged constitution and the maximum vitality. It’s natural tendency.is to live and thrive, and such chicks if given a reasonably fair chance will live and thrive. Where losses do occur they are usually directly the result of careless brooding or of indigestion from indifferent feeding. Management of Hen-Hatched Chicks When the little brood hatched under a hen is from 36 to 48 hours old, having had ample time to dry off and to get digestion of the yolk remnant (which they have brought into the world with them) fairly started they are ready to go to their brooding quarters for their first food. The brooding quarters may be a box or barrel with a slatted front, made comfortable by littering with chaff, cut clover or similar material. In cold weather it should not be too large because of the difficulty of keeping the mother hen warm and com- fortable. You do not want to oblige her to waste too much of her own heat on keeping herself warm in a large cold box.: She needs all the heat she can spare for the comfort of her brood. An ordinary flour barrel, well littered and covered with canvass or some waterproof material to keep out the rain, makes an admirable home for the new brood, or packing boxes that are about 2 or 2} feet cube prove a very satis- factory home. For the first two or three days the little brood should be kept confined quite close to the mother hen. After this con- Keep pure, fresh water in a clean drinking fountain close to the slatted front of the coop so that the hen can readily reach it. Keep a dish of cracked corn and wheat also within reach of the mother hen. Feed the little chicks a more expensive ration just out of reach of the hen mother so that the little birds will have it always before them, but the mother hen cannot reach it to CARE AND FOOD 43 scratch it about and waste it. Where chick food costs $2.50 per hundred pounds and over, it is much wiser to pursue this course and let the mother hen live. on less ex- pensive food. Keep the little chicks supplied with chick food, chick-size grit, granulated bone, charcoal, and pure, wholesome beef scrap always before them in a wooden or gal- vanized iron feed box or hopper. Protect this food from the weather by a single board roof or shelter sufficiently large to cover it and raised about one foot off the ground. We much prefer keeping food before the chicks all the time but same must be protected and kept dry, as otherwise in -wet, stormy weather it will become sour or moldy and unfit to eat. Some poultrymen use lemon, orange and cracker boxes for brood coops for confining the mother hen. These make much smaller quarters than we have recommended in a. pre- ceding paragraph, but proved very satisfactory, especially when used under shelter. Where an orange or lemon box is used one front is slatted perpendicularly with the slats just far enough for the hen to get her head out, and for the chicks to freely run in and out. The rear portion of the box retains the thin horizontal boarding with the exception of about one inch from the floor, which space is left open. The top of the box is slatted so that the hen can get her head up through to stretch herself. In such boxes the hen mothers scratch and cluck vigorously, and by their activity keep the litter and dirt moving from front to back and out of the opening in the rear, so that these brood boxes may really be termed self-cleaning. With two mother hens confined thus close together it is necessary to keep the broods separate for several days until they become accustomed to their respective mothers, and it is advisable to have the chicks in both broods all the same color, otherwise some of the little fellows may be in- jured by getting into the compartment with the wrong mother hen. There is a great difference in hen mothers in this re- gard, some of them being always willing to add a new chick to the flock, while others are intolerant of strangers and seem bound to kill them if they can possibly do so. The chicks are kept in these brooding quarters until they are ready to be weaned. Where convenient to do so, the hen is given a little run with the chicks once a day, but frequently hens which are so kept in confinement for five weeks or longer, often begin to lay in the brooding boxes, so that they apparently experience no discomfort from this close confinement while mothering a brood. After the first week or ten days the chicks will begin to eat a considerable proportion of fine cracked corn aud wheat, which maybe gradually substituted for the more expensive chick food. Always give them if possible a grass run, and where this can- not be had, feed cut clover or fresh green stuff daily. If cut clover is used it may be fed either dry or barely moist after scalding. Brooder Chicks In artificial brooding the chief requisites are to keep the chicks comfortably, warm, provide them with an abund- ance of pure, fresh air and give them an opportunity to exercise in quarters that are not too cramped or crowded. Not more than fifty chicks should be placed in one flock in any brooder. This we consider the maximum limit of safety. Care must be taken to keep the chicks warm and comfortable at all times. The operator should be guided more by the apparent comfort of his chicks than by the temperature as indicated by the thermometer. Run the brooder not by the thermometer but by the chicks. Keep them warm, happy and contented at all times, and see that they are al- ways supplied with an abundance of pure, fresh air to breathe. Sun and air the brooders daily. Teach the chicks to use the space underneath the hover for the purpose of keeping warm, + and train them so that they will know the way in and out of the machine. Do not give up your efforts in this direc- tion until you.are sure that the chicks have learned what is required of them in taking care of themselves in the brooder. Their first food should preferably be given by placing little piles of chick food and beef scrap where they can have free access to them. Afterwards keep the food before them all the time in a food box or hopper. Dry grain chick food, peef scrap, charcoal granulated bone, grit and pure water are necessary at all times. Give them chaff or cut clover to scratch in. As the chicks grow older gradually accustom them to a larger range or run, and have same on grass land if possible. At the end of the first week or ten days begin substituting fine, sifted cracked corn or corn grits and small kernels of hard, sound wheat for a portion of the dry grain chick food. Gradually increase the quantity of this grain and reduce the amount of chick food fed. If the beef scrap which you obtain is coarse, sift out the finer particles and feed these at first and feed the coarser particles of the scrap after the chicks have become large enough to eat them readily. A Feeding Coop for Chicks A Home-Made Chick Food A number of years ago when commercial chick food was not as easily obtainable as it is now, we began the dry method of feeding small chicks. By good luck we were able to buy at a small cost of a junk dealer a second-hand, large-sized coffee mill such as are used in grocery stores. This mill we fitted up in our barn so that the balance wheel was at con- venient height for running the mill. From the spout or out- let of the mill we ran at a sharp angle a long piece of wire mosquito netting bent into broad, shallow trough shape and tacked on a wooden frame. At the bottom of this screen we placed an ordinary wooden bushel box, and beneath the screen put an old piece of sail cloth. By adjusting the mill we were able to crush grain to a size acceptable by newly hatched chicks. The hopper not being large enough to suit our convenience, we built a box-like arrangement above the hopper and fitted into same a box-like addition that would hold about half a bushel of grain. Into this we fed a mixture of one-half (by measure) whole corn; one-fourth whole wheat; one-eighth hulled oats; one-eighth barley with the hulls on. These whole grains were. thoroughly mixed togéther before feeding into the hopper. By the exercise of a little muscle or ‘elbow grease’ we were able to get a very acceptable chick food by grinding this grain mixture. The meal sifted through the mosquito netting.screen into the sailcloth and all the coarser particles of the cracked grain ran down the screen into the bushel’ box at the bottom. The flour or meal was used in soft mashes fed to the breeding 44 CHICK BOOK and layng stock, as at that time we were feeding mashes several days a week. The first season we used this home-made chick food our little flock did so well that soon some of our neighbors began making inquiries as to the cause, with the result that there- after we were not obliged to do our own grinding. For the privilege of using our mill to grind their own chick food, the neighbors ground oursforus. Perhaps some of our readers who find it difficult to obtain good, clean, bright and new, commercial chick food, will find our old-time home-made substitute a valuable one for feeding their little flocks. Other Chick Foods As a rule the beginner will find that it pays best to buy a good commercial chick food rather than to attempt to manufacture his own. Generally, manufacturers who pro- duce chick food in large quantities are able to buy a much better grade of grain, and by means of perfected milling ap- paratus are able to turn out a cleaner and much more whole- some article than that which is prepared on the home plant. A first class chick food should be free from all mustiness or stale odors. It should be clean and entirely free from dust. It should present a clean, bright, wholesome appear- ance, and on holding a sample to the nose you should not be able to detect any musty or moldy odor. commercial chick food that we have seen contain altogether too much millet. An excess of millet is undesirable and is BROODER AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCK CHICKS ON THE FARM OF U. R. FISHEL On the farm where this view was taken thousands of White Plymouth Rock chicks are hatched i They are reared in brooding houses with adapt- able hovers afterward being removed to out-of-door brooders similar to this one later going into the fields where they occupy colony coops until they are finally moved to winter quarters.—F. L. in incubators from early in January until June. Sewell. liable to cause digestive disturbance in the little chicks. In post mortem examinations of hundreds of little chicks fed on dry grain chick food, those that died of indigestion almost invariably showed considerable quantities of undigested millet seed in their little crops and gizzards. An excellent chick food can be made from the following formula: Sifted corn grits or fine cracked corn with the meal and coarser particles sifted out (use only the best, hard, yellow corn), 50 tbs.; cracked or steel cut amber or red wheat (the best, hard, sound grain obtainable), 30 tbs.; cracked barley with hulls sifted out, 10 tbs.; steel cut oats or C grade oat meal, 8 tbs.; golden millet, 1 tb.; granulated raw bone, 1 tb. Supplementary Foods and Green Food In addition to the dry grain food and beef scrap kept always before the chicks, they require some supplementary food for variety and to keep their digestive organs in good working order. Where a liberal grass range can be obtained the supply of vegetable food is close at hand prepared by nature, and it is not necessary to give anything in the vege- table line in addition to the fresh green grass easily obtain- able by the chicks. Where chicks are confined we advise beginning on the second day to feed raw potatoes or raw beets cut in large pieces for the chicks to pick at, Give only Many samples of. a little at first until they become accustomed to this raw vegetable food, then in a few days give them all that they will clean up daily. Raw vegetable food or green stuff of some sort is absolutely necessary to properly balance the supply of dry grain and beef scrap, which is kept always before the little chicks. In addition to the green stuff or vegetables it is well to supply some supplementary food to stimulate the appetite and prevent the chicks from getting off their feed. For such purpose there is nothing better than thoroughly cooked wheat or cracked rice. Cracked rice of good quality can usually be had cheaply. Wheat used for this purpose should be sound, clean, and of the best quality obtainable. The grain should be boiled thoroughly, first seasoning the water lightly with salt. Boil until the grains are very soft and almost all of the water has been evaporated. Do not stir any more than is absolutely necessary while cooking, as it is desired to have the grains remain as nearly whole as pos- sible. This cooked food should be allowed to thoroughly cool before feeding. When ready to feed remove the amount you intend to give the flock and sprinkle over it a little raw bone meal. Give as much of this food as the chicks will clean up in from fifteen to twenty minutes. Feed on clean boards and spread out sufficiently to give all chicks free ac- cess to it without the necessity of tramping all over the food. Feed this supplementary food two or three times a week. From the time the chicks are a few days old until they are three weeks old, as a supplement- ary ration it will often be beneficial to feed thoroughly hard boiled infertile eggs that have been tested out from the incubator. These may be given two or three times a week, gradually reducing the frequency of feeding as the chicks become older. We simply cut the hard boiled egg in halves and let the little chicks have it to pick at shell and all, or the egg may be crushed and fed on the feed-board if desired. For chicks three or four days old one egg to each twenty-five chicks is sufficient. After that give them at one feed what they will clean up eagerly in from fifteen to twenty minutes. Do not forget that it is necessary to keep pure, fresh water before the chicks all the time, and keep the drinking vessels clean. Filthy drinking water will quickly get the little birds out of condition. Give your flock plenty of wholesome food. You cannot ‘grow them successfully on a starvation diet, and there is practically no danger when feeding dry food of overfeeding healthy, vigorous growing chicks. Be sure to supplement their dry grain with variety food of some sort, as advised above, to stimulate their appetites and keep them in good condition. Weaning the Chicks Begin early to wean the chicks from chick food, usually not later than the 10th day or the end of the second week. With chicks that are fed on prepared chick food begin to give a little sifted fine cracked corn or corn grits, and a little small hard red wheat, to take the place of a portion of the chick food. Gradually increase the proportions of cracked corn and wheat and decrease the quantity of chick food as the little birds become accustomed to the new ration until you are feeding them almost exclusively on cracked corn, whole wheat, beef scrap and the usual allowance of vegetable food or green stuff, with an occasional feeding of cooked grain or rice. Feed the cooked food less often as the chicks CARE AND FOOD grow older until you feed it only about once a week. ' The simple methods herein outlined can be depended 45 -upon to give satisfactory results, provided the chicks are given reasonably good care and are kept comfortably warm. ROSE COMB WHITE LEGHORNS Part fof a flock of Rose Comb White Leghorn Chicks. appear at three to four months as in the above picture. trade for choice broilers.—F. L. Srwx.u. ‘ Early April hatched Leghorn chicks will be nearly c ¢ i Many White Leghorn farms supply ten to twelve weeks old chicks to the highest priced rown by July and August and FEEDING YOUNG CHICKS IT IS MANAGEMENT FROM FIRST TO LAST THAT COUNTS MORE THAN THE PARTICULAR FEED USED H. J. BLANCHARD UCCESSFUL feeding of young chicks is not the intricate S problem some poultry writers would have us believe. It is wonderful only in its simplicity. Almost any sweet, clean, dry feed given them very sparingly, five or six times daily for the first ten days and then four times until the chicks are six or eight weeks old, is all they require in the way of food. Clean water and sharp grit should be be- fore them from the first, but not very cold water for the first two weeks. We feed nothing the first two days, then give water and a little sharp grit and a very little dry bread crumbs or any good wholesome food. Last season we raised some broods of our best chicks. on dry ground grains—dry mash—from the first, and they are still eating it. After they were about eight weeks old _we began feeding them wheat and cracked corn once a day in connection with the dry mash. We fed this dry mash in open troughs, but now that ‘these chicks are well-grown this dry mash is put in self-feed- ing hoppers so arranged that they can be closed at will. We believe it is best to close the hoppers at night and in the morning feed a light ration of whole mixed grains Then water the birds and feed mangel wurzels cut in halves and placed on the floor. scattered in litter on the floor. About noon another light ration of whole mixed grains is scattered in the litter and the dry mash hoppers thrown open, from which they eat at will until night. With our houses well ventilated day and night and therefore dry, our birds are healthy, active and vigorous. In connection with our well known straw loft system of ven- tilation, we now use muslin covered frames that are the same size as the sliding windows, one or two to each room according to its size. At night these muslin covered frames are drawn over the openings in place of the glass windows which slide back out of the way, and on mild nights a crack is left in the openings also. In the morning the muslin frames are pushed back and the glass windows drawn over the openings to let in the light and sunshine, and unless very cold the windows are left open more or less, according to the weather. After all, it is management from first to last that counts more than what particular feed we use. CARE AND FEEDING OF CHICKS PRACTICAL ADVICE ON CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG CHICKENS IN MAY, JUNE AND JULY— HATCHING AND REARING WITH HENS—FOOD AND FEEDING—BROOD COOPS. RUNS AND SHELTERS— IMPORTANCE OF SHADE IN HOT WEATHER—GREEN FOOD— PREVENTING LOSSES FROM CATS, ETC. P. T. WOODS, M. D. late in May chicks may be hatched as late as July first with the chances good for successful rearing. It is a good plan to stop hatching for the summer within a month or six weeks after apple blossom time as chicks brought out in extreme hot weather are always difficult to rear. Chick- ens that do not get u fair start before the advent of the blackberry season are seldom worth having. Hatching may be safely begun again after the close of dog days. Some poultrymen are successful in hatching the year ’round, but unless there is a cool, shady orchard available for use during the hot season it is wiser not to try to hatch summer chicks. T CLIMATES where the apple trees do not bloom until Nest Boxes and Sitting Hens Broody hens are generally plentiful in May and it is a good time to make use of them. Breeding birds which you intend to hold over another season will go through the sum- mer in better shape if permitted to hatch and rear a brood. Although the care of sitting hens is a very simple matter, some poultrymen appear to have difficulty in getting good results. On page 16 appears a description of nest boxes and how to set a hen. Keep sitting hens confined on the nest and allow off for food, water and exercise at a regular hour once each day. Let off two, four or six at one time and watch them to pre- vent fights and to see that they return to the proper nests. Provide a box of moist sandy loam for a dust bath, plenty of pure fresh water and a supply of whole and cracked corn, grit and shell where hens can have access to it when off the nest. Chicks will be due in twenty-one days after eggs are set and on eighteenth day the hen should have another dust- ing with insect powder to insure freedom from lice. Let the hen alone at hatching time. If infertile eggs and dead germs have been’removed the chicks will have room enough in the nest. Those who use incubators for hatching will find less labor in handling a large number of eggs than where “natural methods” are employed, but they should always be sure to learn and follow the manufacturer’s directions sup- plied with the machines. There is ample time for two good incubator hatches before hot weather and at this season the eggs generally hatch well. Brooding Coops and Brooding Hens Any good sized packing box can be converted into a sat- isfactory brood coop and a fair sized wooden cracker box makes a good brood box when provided with a slat front. Fig. 1 (on this page) is diagram showing front view of fever ee ee SN OO ere eh ZA i} ° BB Elle eS = a I FE eS Q Fig. 1—Diagram view of front of Brood-coop with front of brood box shown ste on floor inside. Brood coop is 8ft. x 3ft., 2ft:6in. high in front and 22 in. high in rear. It is shed roofed. Brood-box has slat front as shown and is 18in. wide by 18 in. high by 22 in. deep. Center slat is removable to admit hen. ‘““BB” is Brood-box. an excellent brood coop containing a brood box. The hen mother is confined {in “brood box” and chicks have the run of the’coop. 1 Fig. 2 (on this page) shows side section view of brood coop and box with front of coop used as an awning. “A” is lower half of hinged front of coop and is made of wire netting (fine mesh) stretched on a light wooden frame. “AA” is upper half of hinged front and is made of muslin stretched on wooden frame. This front is hooked or hinged to board at top of brood coop and can be lowered at night to close brood coop, confine chicks and keep out marauding ver- min. If muslin is also protected by wire screen it gives a rat-proof coop. “8” is stake or support used to hold up hinged front. “BB” is brood box in which hen mother is confined. Usual dimensions of brood coop are 3ft. wide by 3 ft. deep by 2 ft. 6 in. high in front and 22 in. high inrear. Makeit with tight board floor and a tight shed roof. Brood box used in coop may be made 18 inches wide by 18 in. high by 22 in. deep and he 2—Side View Diagram Plan of Brood-Coop and Brood Box. article. on wooden frame. covered with muslin on wooden frame. ‘'S when same is used as shelter or awning. ‘‘BB’’ Brood Box. 1 Dimensions given in “A” Lower half of hinged front to brood-coop, it is made of fine mesh wite netting ‘AA’ Upper half of hinged front; it is made of fine mesh wire netting ” stake or support used to hold up hinged front should have a slattedfront. One slat should be removable and slats should be about three inches apart, just enough to confine the hen and give the chicks free passage in and out. CARE AND FOOD 47 Locate these brood coops on grass land or in the orchard. Keep the hens confined and let the chicks have the run of the coop for the first week, then begin to give them an out- door run, gradually increasing the range as they become used to it. They can have free range by the time they are two weeks old. If wire enclosed runs are used to protect chicks from cats change coops to new ground frequently or keep earth well scraped and spaded. Brooders of the outdoor pattern with chick shelters at- tached make ideal homes for flocks of twenty-five to fifty in- cubator chicks particularly where space is limited and where there is danger from cats or other four-footed pests. Care of Newly Hatched Chicks Newly hatched chicks need rest and warmth for the first thirty-six hours after hatching. They need time to begin digestion of the egg yolk remnant which was taken into the body just prior to hatching and they do not need other food. Clean out the egg shells and dead eggs and then let the little fellows alone, taking care that they do not fall out of the nest; a strip of burlap will keep them in. When thirty-six hours old they are ready for their first food which for hen hatched chicks should be given in the brood coop. Litter the brood box well with hay or straw, mow chaff or cut clover and place it in the brood coop. Keep the hen confined and supply just outside of the slatted front a little heap of commercial chick food and a box containing ground grain mixture made as follows: Equal parts by measure best wheat bran, corn meal, leaves sifted from cut clover and fancy wheat middlings; to each ten pounds of this ground grain mixture add one-half pound of best fine-ground beef scrap. Be sure that beef scrap is pure and sweet. Cheap or poor beef scrap is dangerous and may cause losses. If not sure of the scrap omit it and feed instead, two or three times a week, a little fresh beef scraped from sweet, clean shin or chuck. Supply sand or other grit, granulated bone, charcoal and pure fresh water just outside of brood box where hen and chicks can have free access to them. After the third day keep a supply of chick food just out ofjreach of the hen mother and supply her with cracked corn and a little wheat. There is no need to feed the hen on the more expensive chick food. The dry mash should be kept where they can have access to it at all hours of the day, but the chick food may be given in regular feedings four times daily if desired. A supply of pure fresh water in a clean galvanized iron drinking fountain is of the greatest import- ance. Begin by the close of the third week to substitute cracked corn and small wheat for a part of the chick food. The close confinement in brood box will not hurt the hen How canvas and awning cloth combined with ‘‘A’’ coops will supply shade and shelter. mother and often she will begin to lay within two weeks after she is put out with her brood. She will usually wean her brood by the time they are five to seven weeks old. If the \ Outdoor Brooder with Chick shelter attached in use on lawn at Dr. Woods’ Home. t nights are cold they may be allowed to use the brood box for a bed room until they are well feathered, it saves them from dangers of chilling at this time. When they are well feath- ered remove the brood box and let them occupy the brood coop until ready to roost. Clean the coops and boxes often and renew the litter. In warm weather sand will serve for bedding material. Dust hen and chicks with Persian insect powder when flock is ten days old. Brooder Chicks Brooder chicks require a little more care at first than flocks with hens but after they learn to care for themselves they thrive as well or better than ‘natural’ broods and be- come wonderfully independent little fellows well able to look out for themselves if given a fair chance. We like individual out-door brooders with chick shelters attached and on a grass lot they are easy to care for. Flocks of from twenty- five to fifty chicks vield best results; it is never wise to put more than fifty chicks in any brooder. The brooder should be warmed to 90 degrees under the hover and waiting for the chicks, having been run long enough to get warmed throughout and regulating properly. Litter the floor well with cut clover and a little chick size grit or clean sand. Place a little pile of dry mash and com- mercial chick food side by side in the litter in hover apart- ment and provide a galvanized iron fountain containing pure fresh water. Place chicks in brooder when twenty-four to thirty-six hours old in time to have their first meal before dark in the afternoon. Keep the hover space always warm enough to have the chicks comfortable at all times. Always be guided more by the comfort of the chicks than by the temperature as indicated by the thermometer. Remember that brooder chicks only know what you teach them and exercise a little patience in teaching these motherless little fellows how to use the hover to warm up, and how to find food and water. Keep them confined to hover apartment for first two days, then teach them to go back and forth to exercise room. By the time they are a week old get them outside brooder for an outdoor run and get them gradually accustomed to more run until they have freedom of chick shelter and know enough to go back and forth. Don’t let them huddle in sunny places or anywhere in corners of brooder or run, drive them under the hover to warm up. Clean brooder frequently and change run to fresh, clean ground often. Remove hover 48 CHICK BOOK often to sun and air brooding apartment. Dry mash used for brooder chicks should be same as recommended for hen chicks and may be kept before them all the time. After second week the heat of brooder can usually be gradually reduced. Read and follow manufacturers’ directions. Ac- cording to season chicks can generally be weaned when six to eight weeks old but if weather is cold it is best to supply heat, at night until they are well feathered. Feeding Growing Chicks Chicks three weeks old, whether brooded by hen or artificially, will take about the same ration. It is well to keep before them all the time a dry mash like that advised under heading ‘‘Care of Newly Hatched Chicks’ and they may have this mash until full grown. For first three weeks supplement their chick food ration with feedings of boiled cracked rice or wheat. This should be thoroughly cooked until soft:and almost dry and shéuld be lightly seasoned with salt while cooking. They should also have raw potato cut in chunks for them to pick at. Fresh green food, cut cabbage, grass, clover, grain sprouts, etc., should be supplied freely every day after the first few days until they are grown. Plenty of green food is neces- sary and heavy grain feeding cannot be safely conducted without it. Unless chicks have run where they can get plenty of grass, green food must be supplied regularly. Keep the dry mash, grit, granulated raw bone (dry), granulated charcoal and pure water always before them, in covered food troughs or hoppers. Supply the food and water in a shady place. Change water often in hot weather. When chicks are three weeks old begin to replace a part of the chick food with cracked corn and small wheat. Increase the amount of grain so fed until by the time they are two months old the chick food has been discontinued. At this age they should be fed three times daily until maturity and allowed liberal range. They can have the same ration as the laying hens from now on and an excellent dry mash for chicks eight weeks old and older may be made as follows: Coarse wheat bran_------ 20200000 200 pounds Fancy wheat middlings. ...100 pounds Best dry cut clover_-_-_-........... 200 pounds Yellow gluten feed__-_-__._-_..... 100 pounds Yellow corn meal. -_-- 2.220200... eee 100 pounds Linseed meal (old process)__._ 2.000000... 50 pounds Best fine-ground beef scrap____..............- 100 pounds Directions: and thoroughly mix with scoop shovel. bins and feed in food hopper to growing stock or laying Dump all of above on clean board floor Keep in sacks or ing corn or other grain gives grateful shelter in hot, sunny weather. Canvas and board shelters should be supplied when stock cannot have shelter or bushes, shrub- bery, trees or growing grain. An orchard makes an ideal summer run for growing chicks. Canvas or awning cloth tents or shelters stretched over common slatted “A” coops afford excellent shelter in ex- posed locations and can be easily arranged (illustration page 47), Even weeds may be made to serve for shelter from the hot sun. Whatever you do don’t fail to provide shade of some sort. When the chicks begin to show a disposition to go to roost at night provide open-front roosting coops made from packing boxes, piano boxes or supply the portable coops which may be obtained of any poultry supply depot. Don’t be afraid that roosting young will cause crooked breasts. Crooked breast bones are the result of faulty nutrition and insufficient mineral food and not of early roosting. Supply plenty of green food and an abundance of dry granulated raw bone, (oyster shells also after the first month) and you need not fear crooked breasts. Proper food, green food and plenty of mineral food in shape of bone and shell will also. prevent leg weakness. Hawks, Neighbors’ Cats and Other Vermin Hawks and crows often make life a burden to the poultryman in chick time where the growing chicks range. It is a good plan to erect poles about the chicken range and run wire or strong twine zig-zag from these, high enough to allow head room. From these lines suspend at frequent. intervals strips of white and colored cloth, bright bits of tin and pieces of bright glass. This is the most effective crow and hawk scare we know of and it is well worth the expense and labor. Crows often become so bold that no other scare-crow will keep them from stealing young chicks. If bits of bright tin and glass are so hung that they will strike and jingle in the breeze the “‘scare’’ will be still more effective. Hawks generally come at a regular hour every day and may be watched for or followed to their nests and killed with their broods. They can also be trapped by setting steel traps on tops of high poles on which they alight. Crows are so uncertain and crafty that they will often steal chicks before your eyes and get away. Chicken-stealing cats (the neighbors’ pets) are often a prolific source of trouble. If warning the neighbor does not keep the cat at home, keeping the cat away from your chicks, you are justified in shooting or killing that cat in any way youcan. In congested settl- ed districts shooting is dan- hens. Fig. 3, (on next page) shows a simple and conven- ient covered food trough for feeding dry mash or other food to growing chicks. Di- mensions may be made to suit available lumber. Trough proper should be made by nailing together a 3 in. and 4 in. strip. Importance of Shade While sunshine in wholesome quantities is good for chickens of all ages some provision must be made to supply shade in hot weather to prevent losses from sun- stroke. Berry bushes sup- ply admirable shade. Grow- Flock of ten weeks old White Wyandottes feeding in front of packing box colony house, gerous and forbidden by or- dinances and your angry neighbor may cause you trouble by complaint that the shooting breaks town law on account of the nearness. to buildings, so don’t be in a hurry tousea gun. There is an easier and more quiet. way. A good strong box-trap, big enough to catch a big cat, baited with a bag of catnip tied to the spindle, if set in the chicken yard, will soon catch the chicken thief. The trap should have a “V” shaped opening in one side large enough to let the cat put its head out and this CARE AND FOOD 49 should be covered with a stout slide. When you catch the thief raise the slide and as soon as head pops out push slide down and hold it fast, a sharp blow with an axe or hardwood billy will quietly put an end to the thief and he can be planted to enrich the grape vine while you are sure that no more chicks go that way. We knew one cat to take forty chicks in one day, then the box trap was used and the losses ceased. Where there is plenty of yard room combination fencing will protect against cats and also give the chicks a good run. Use one roll of one-inch mesh chick wire 18 inches high to‘stake out a circular corral or enclosure for chicks. Outside this fence stake up with thin plastering lath a flimsy fence of one roll of two-inch mesh wire netting two to three feet outside of low netting. Stake loosely by weaving lath in net- ting and driving into earth on alternate sides of wire. Use enough lath to hold fence erect but not to make it stiff. This gives a wire fence too high to jump and with no posts that can be climbed, for the lath is too flimsy and will bend when cat tries it. Fence is moved when necessary. We _ have used this successfully but some cats will dig under and must be trapped. Rats cause losses and will frequently kill and hide a large number of chicks in a single night. Make the coops rat proof. Raise coops and boxes often and kill any rats found underneath. A good rat dog is a great help. Traps are seldom effective and poison is not safe in chicken time. Lice and mites are best fought by free use of a good insect powder. Dust hen and chicks whenever lice are found. Keep the coops clean. If mites get into woodwork use a strong creolin solution to wash the woodwork and get it well into cracks. Kerosene may be applied to coops and boxes to kill mites but if used the coops must be well sunned and dried before the chicks are again allowed to use them. \ L Diarrhoea and the Remedy Pure food, plenty of green food, pure water in clean vessels, cleanliness and clean runs with comfortable quarters are with fresh air and sunshine the best disease preventives for young chicks. With common sense management if you Fig. 3—Covered food trough for young chicks provide the foregoing you need not fear disease. In hot weather diar- thoea may put in an appearance, but by prompt measures it may be quickly checked. Usually sour food, sour — runs or filthy drinking water or indi- gestion from careless feeding is the starting point of the trouble. Re- move the cause or avoid it by good management and the trouble will no longer worry you. Plenty of charcoal is one of the best preventives. Hot days and cold nights may start up diarrhoea when all ordinary precautions seem to have been taken. Look around for the cause and re- move it if you can find it. Get the flock on to fresh, clean ground. Scald the drinking fountains. Be sure that the drinking water is fresh and pure. If in doubt look up the source. It won’t do to give drinking. water fouled with the wash of a barn yard or chicken runs. Don’t allow the stock to drink from filthy surface puddles. Be sure that they have shady shelters in which to get away from the glare of the hot summer sun. If charcoal and the addition of middlings to mash food won’t stop the diarrhoea, try five drops of creolin in a pint of drinking water. If that fails withhold all food. Inspect the beef scrap used. It may be the cause of the trouble. Boil a little white flour for four or five hours. Use this to thicken some scalded milk until same is thickness of thin cream. Give this to chicks to drink and allow no other food for twenty-four hours. Return to regular ration gradually and do not feed beef scrap for one week. Flour thickened milk should be lightly seasoned with salt, nutmeg and ginger. Should trouble persist after trying home remedy call in an experienced poultryman to help locate the trouble and ad- vise you. Sore eyes and slight colds may be prevented by housing stock in fresh-air quarters and keeping coops clean and free from dust. The use of air-slaked lime on floors of coops is dangerous and should not be practiced; it is liable to cause catarrhal troubles through the inhalation of the irritating dust. Vaseline rubbed into cleft in roof of mouth and under lids of eyes will stop catarrbal colds if taken in time. The cause must be sought, found and removed. Overcrowding in close coops is a common cause of trouble. CARE OF YOUNG POULTRY ONE SHOULD NEITHER OVERFEED NOR STARVE GROWING CHICKS— CORN IS GOOD FOOD IF PROPERLY FED—ONLY ONE GENERAL RULE MRS. B. F. HISLOP N CARING for young growing chicks, many persons over- feed, giving them,an unbalanced ration, while others actually starve the growing birds. If the chicks are permitted free range on the farm, one need not go to the ex- pense or bother of supplying them with all the extras, such as meat meal, vegetables, etc., as the city or town breeder must do. The farmer’s wife only needs to see that the growing birds have good water, grit and shelter, though they should be fed three times a day while young with some good chick food mash mixed with sweet milk, which with the in- sects they pick up supply meat enough for them. One can easily mix suitable chick feed at home, if he wishes, using equal or nearly equal parts of corn meal and middlings, with a small per cent of bran. Mix this with sweet milk, or even with sour milk if it is not too stale, though * we prefer sweet milk. This food will furnish the chicks with all the elements needed for their growth. As they grow older, of course, they should be supplied with some coarser grain. There has been so much said, condemning corn as a chick food, that we have been almost afraid to feed it, but every farmer’s wife (they are the ones who supply the chicken meat) knows that corn is all right and that it is the grain that puts the meat on the chickens. Of course no one would expect to feed corn exclusively, but it is our opinion that more chicks have died on account of the lack of corn than from too much of it where it was fed to them in right proportions. Vary the Food There is no one food that is so good that it can be fed exclusively. Growing chicks permitted to range with the 50 CHICK BOOK mother hen can do well with the food that would not be adapted to the needs of the brooder chick. Remember in the latter case the breeder must assume the care usually given by the hen. We have reared brooder chicks success- fully, but for the past two years have rather fallen back on biddy. After the Fourth of July all our chicks are fed but twice a day, night and morning, because as the weather is warm they do not require food so often. Brooder chicks require \ food four or five times a day when small, a little at a time, and some dry food should be thrown in the scratching litter to keep them busy. The chick that is out with its mother gets enough exercise running after her. ; In the case of young or old stock one must use his good judgment as there is no cut and dried rule for raising birds, because they have different environment. There is one general rule that everyone should follow and that is to keep the birds free from lice. If you do not, they cannot thrive. MORE ABOUT THE FEEDING PROBLEM SUCCESSFUL HOPPER RATION HALF A CENTURY OLD—SOME CRITICISMS ANSWERED—OPINIONS BASED ON NEARLY THIRTY YEARS OF OBSERVATION, INVESTIGATION AND EXPERIMENTS IN THE FIELD OF POULTRY WORK—MUCH ABUSED CORN THE LEADING STAPLE GRAIN FOOD AND ONE THAT POULTRYMEN COULD LEAST AFFORD TO DO WITHOUT IN THE RATION P. T. WOODS, M. D. have written many articles concerning the feeding of poultry, giving the result of our observation of the experience of others as well as our own practical experi- ments along this line. In a recent issue of a poultry journal we find an article on ‘‘The Feeding Problem” by Mr. Alvin L. Dudley of South Lincoln, Mass. Apparently Mr. Dudley has been reading one of our numerous articles on poultry feeding, we haven’t the slightest idea which one; and he finds our suggestions ‘‘so singular’ and ‘‘out of the ordinary” that he feels compelled to discuss the matter at length. We are glad to find that he has discovered u difference of opinion existing between us, particularly as it has resulted in inspir- ing his excellent and interesting article. His chief objection to recommendations made by us appears to be that he does not believe that « hopper-fed ration consisting largely of Diagram & View For FEED HOPPER FP: time to time during the past twenty years we en Back 3 0 r. FRONT BOARD Gan Bend corn, either cracked or whole, is either safe or satisfactory in feeding fowls of the American and Asiatic varieties. Well, that is an honest difference of opinion at most. It isn’t serious and if he will view a larger and broader field of poultry work throughout the country we feel sure that he will find that Indian corn (maize) is a good, safe, honest food, the first and foremost staple poultry food, and the grain that poultrymen all over this broad land could least afford to do without. He says in part that: ‘Throughout the section wherein the writer lives and among the poultry keepers of his ac- quaintance, a diet of two-thirds corn and one-third wheat or oats fed ad libitum from a hopper has not given satisfactory results.” We cannot agree with him here either for we find corn freely and heavily fed both by hopper and in litter on a great number of successful practical poultry plants in eastern Massachusetts. These plants carry American and Asiatic breeds almost exclusively. Of all varieties the Barred Plymouth Rock is the most susceptible to laying on internal fat or fat about the viscera. In many cases they will not stand more than one season of heavy feeding or forcing on any ration. Notwithstanding this, many Barred Rocks, and grade flocks of the variety, are to be found that are doing good work on a heavy corn ration, box or hopper fed. Further, if Mr. Dudley is correct in his statement that poultrymen of his acquaintance in his section have not found this hopper-fed diet satis- factory, we do not see how it is that he finds our recommendation of this ration ‘‘so ‘singular’ and “out of the ordinary.”’ The two statements con- flict. If the ration as recommended is “out of the ordinary,” then cer- tainly he and his friends, being un- familiar with it, can scarcely have tested the ration. Mr. Dudley also says: ‘Another thing the Doctor seems to consider that wheat and oats each fills a similar place i in the ration and if one is left out and — /2"_____>. END vVIeEw MR. ALVIN L. DUDLEY’'S, FOOD HOOPER the other substituted the average results would be the same. Now, we haven’t found it so, and don’t CARE AND FOOD 51 believe that many poultry keepers have. Further than that we don’t believe corn, wheat and beef scraps, or corn, oats and beef scraps form a properly balanced and satisfactory entire ration for laying, breeding stock (green stuff in addition being included, of course). We have found that we obtained a much more satisfactory egg yield and better general conditions on a much wider ration, including among the grains barley, buckwheat, kaffir corn and sunflower seed, in varying quantities according to season and price, in addition to the corn, wheat and oats diet mentioned by the Doctor.” We are inclined to believe and also regret that Mr. Dudley has not read our writings on feeding poultry with much care. In the first place, we have repeatedly stated that there are many satisfactory rations for feeding poultry, almost as many as there are poultry feeders. So far as we know there is no one best ration. The corn, wheat and oats mixture recommended by us in several articles, and from time to time for a number of years in answers to corres- pondents, was not original with us and is a ration that has been used by practical poultry keepers in New England for more than half a century with entirely satisfactory results so far as the pro- duction of market poultry and eggs is concerned. It has stood the test of time, and practical men would not continue to use it if it did not give good results. Being old in use and in publicity, it surely is neither ‘‘so sin- gular” or “out of the ordinary.” To the best of our knowledge and belief we have never recommended this two and three-grain mixture to the exclusion of all other grains, with the possible exception of some answer to a correspondent where it was advised as a change or substitute ration where elaborate mixtures had caused trouble. In almost every instance we believe we have stated that we recommend for variety, adding to the ration from time to time, such other grains and seeds as may be available at a fair and economical price, including among these barley, buckwheat, kaffir corn and sunflower seed, which are mentioned by Mr. Dudley. is good practice. Corn, Wheat and Oats the Leading Staple Feeding Grains In considering feeding problems and writing on the sub- ject of poultry feeding we must take a broader view of the subject than that which applies only to one small section of this vast country. Our readers are located all over the world, and even in our‘own great United States the conditions vary widely in different parts of the country. With the excep- tion of some of the northern-most sections, corn is the most generally used and the most easily obtainable grain at a fair price. Wheat and oats are also generally available. Other grains and seeds are some times difficult to obtain at a price which will permit using them for poultry food. We think all authorities on the subject of feeding poultry will agree that corn, wheat and oats are, as we have frequently stated, the three leading staple grains for poultry feeding. We do not know what our critic found in any writing of ours to lead him to believe that we consider that wheat and oats take practically the same place in the fowl’s diet. We are quite familiar with the chemical composition of the several feeding grains, but do not believe that it is necessary for the poultry keeper to concern himself to any extent with chemical analyses of foodstuffs or with scientifically balanced rations. The more he dallies with so-called scientifically balanced foods the more liable he is to go astray. The many analyses made by the United States government have shown that various samples of the same kind of grain vary considerably in their chemical make-up, in all probability dependent upon the character of the soil in which the grain was grown, the season and the climate. With the fact known that there is such a wide variation in the chemical composition of grains, we can only base our estimates upon the average chemical content as estimated from the many analyses made. One of the leading writers on poultry topics told us some time ago that he wished he had left out of one of his books the chapter on analyses of food stuffs and science in poultry feed- ing, particularly that part pertaining to so-called scientifi- cally balanced rations. He did not believe that it had done any good to publish it and did believe that the element of mystery connected with the “‘scientific balance’ had tempted many would-be scientific feeders into deep water where, fail- ing to realize that they were beyond their depth, they made a decided failure of their poultry feeding experiments. No Growing crops in small poultry yards to provide shade and green food, and to purify the soil Note the luxuriant growth of corn shown in the above illustration, truer words were ever spoken that the old familiar quota- of? ‘tion, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing;”’ also ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”’ It is a good deal better for the average poultry keeper to leave “scientific” poultry keeping and the “scientific balance’ of rations entirely in the hands of the capable investigators in our government experiment stations, and to give themselves no further con- cern in the “‘science’ of poultry keeping than to supply their fowls with good, sound, wholesome grain in variety; a liberal supply of succulent green food and vegetable matter; good, pure beef scrap and the usual supply of pure water, chracoal, grit and shell. With regard to wheat and oats, both of these grains contain very nearly the same percentage of protein or nitrogenous matter, so far as these elements are concerned undoubtedly they may be satisfactorily substit- uted for one another, but oats contain considerably less non- nitrogenous matter and much more fibre than wheat, while the fat content of oats is more than double that of wheat. So far as practical feeding and my recommendations for the substitution of these grains one for the other are concerned, I did not advise using them interchangeably on account of their chemical characteristics. They were recommended to be fed interchangeably or together for the sake of varying 52 , CHICK BOOK the monotony of a heavy corn ration and to give a wider range of food material. We do not know whether or not Mr. Dudley has made any extensive investigations throughout the poultry keeping section of New England, but it is apparent from his state- ment that he has not visited many of the plants supplying the larger portion of the best table poultry and best table eggs to Boston, Providence and New York markets. These practical plants feed corn, cracked corn, oats and beef scraps very heavily, and feed a comparatively small amount of wheat, chiefly on account of the high price of good, sound feeding wheat. Some of the plants we have visited feed wheat screenings heavily when they can be obtained at a sufficiently low price, but in the main throughout New Eng- land (and this is true of the larger part of the United States also), yellow corn has been and still is the leading staple grain for feeding layers and market poultry. If we were obliged to confine ourselves to one grain we would take good, sound yellow corn. Fortunately this state of things has never been forced upon us. The conditions of the grain market in New England vary greatly in different towns, even at a short distance removed from one another. Early in the summer season of. 1908 it was almost impossible for us to buy of grain dealers in our nearest large towns corn and oats that were fit to feed, while the price for a few weeks was so high as to be almost pro- hibitive. With corn, wheat and oats at practically the same price per hundred pounds, and the corn and oats of inferior quality, wheat of course was the cheapest grain to buy. At the same time in a town 50 miles removed from us the con- ditions were very different; poultry keepers in that section were buying oats of exceptionally fine quality at a reason- able price, and plenty of good corn was to be had at 25 cents less per hundred pounds than we were asked to pay for a very inferior article. These conditions in greater or less degree exist all over our country, and every poultry feeder must be governed by the local conditions. The Much Discussed Ration The criticised ration under discussion is in all probability our repeated recommendation of a main or staple ration made “up for hopper feeding practically as follows: Winter feed- ing—two-thirds corn or a mixture of cracked corn and whole corn, with one-third éither wheat or oats, or a mixture of wheat and oats. Summer feeding—two-thirds wheat or oats, or a mixture of wheat and oats, and one-third corn. Either amber or hard red wheat recommended, and for oats the best heavy clipped white oats running 38 to 40 Ibs per bushel. Corn preferred, sound hard yellow grain, or mixed yellow and white. White may be substituted for yellow in sections where yellow corn is not available. These mixtures are hopper-fed in addition to either free range on grass land or a liberal allowance of green and vegetable food. Beef scraps, charcoal, oyster shell and a good grade of grit con- taining an abundance of lime and silica to be kept before the birds all the time. Pure water to be supplied constantly. Occasional variation of this ration with feedings of buck- wheat in fall and winter, and from one to three per cent sun- flower seed during fall molting season, also kaffir corn and barley when available at a sufficiently low price at any season. Great care must always be taken in purchasing oats not to obtaina light-weight oat that is practically all hulland waste, or oats that have been spoiled in curing or otherwise dam- aged. We have frequently found poultry keepers trying to feed their birds on light-weight or an inferior black damaged oat, at the same time expressing the opinion that oats were not good food and that their fowls did not take kindly to them. The purchase of such poor grain is only money thrown away. Again, we have found musty corn, and corn green with mold, in use, and the poultryman condemning corn rather than his own judgment in purchasing an inferior article simply because it was obtainable at a low price. Our critic referred to above finds that where oats, wheat and corn are used together that his birds “hoe out” the greater part of the corn and oats from the hopper in order to get at the wheat. It is not probable that this condition prevails at all seasons of the year. We have met a number of poultrymen and poultrywomen who claim that their fowls are given certain peculiarities in regard to diet, and it is evident from the evidence submitted that they pamper their fowls and encourage these notions by their feeding methods. One woman told us that her fowls would never eat oats or barley, could not be induced to. Another that she could not make her hens eat wheat; a poultryman that his fowls would not eat raw potatoes or parings of same, as we said ours did. We had occasion to purchase fowls from these flocks and after they had been in our yards for a few days we did not notice that they exhibited any peculiarities so far as food preferences were concerned. They ate the same food given the other members of the flock and seemed glad to get it. Frequently when fowls have not had a certain kind of grain or other food for a long time they will be a little shy of it for the first few feedings. This is particularly true of grains having’a coarse fibrous hull like oats, barley and buckwheat. Experiment Stations Found Corn Good From time to time our experiment stations have at- tempted to demonstrate the difference in feeding value be- tween corn and wheat, and a dozen or more years ago many poultry writers were exceedingly active in condemning corn. This prejudice against corn has not entirely died out, and not long ago one of our leading poultry journals made the statement: “What a blessing it would be if the price of corn would remain so high fora term of years that poultry feeders could not reach an ear of it during that time! The fowls would be able in three years to build up some bone and muscle and thus increase their ability to produce eggs. The con- stant feeding of corn is doing a great injury to the fowls of the United States.” ; With all deference to the writer of the above, that state- ment is a manifest absurdity and we believe born of ignor- ance of practical poultry feeding. Several investigators at experiment stations in poultry feeding experiments to deter- mine the relative feeding value of wheat and corn, were much surprised to find, when their annual summary was made, that the heavily corn-fed hens laid not only a greater number of eggs than those fed heavily on wheat, but that the eggs were larger and heavier and the fowls were in much better condition at the end of the test. This experiment has been repeated many times, but the experiment was not needed to prove to practical men that corn, meaning good, sound, hard yellow Indian corn, is a particularly valuable feeding grain for fowls. As we stated earlier in this article, the best eggs and poultry in our eastern markets are corn fed. The faney South Shore chickens which bring upwards from 40 cents per pound in Boston market during the months of June and July are raised on an almost exclusive diet of cracked yellow corn, beef scrap and green food. During the last two seasons one grower tried to get away from feeding corn because of the increasing price and the difficulty then experienced of obtaining good yellow corn, and in comment on the product of this plant a promi- nent marketman said to us, “ ’s chickens are not nearly as good as they were when he raised them on corn and beef scrap, and this season he can’t touch the top price. His stuff isn’t up to it.” CARE AND FOOD 53 So far as practical results go, leading producers of market eggs and table poultry have demonstrated that a large percentage of corn in the diet of the fowls is necessary and desirable in producing a healthy, plump, meaty bird and. good, large, heavy, yellow-yolked eggs. The heavily wheat- fed egg is usually pale and not pleasant to look at when served for table use. Heavily wheat-fed fowls become hard meated and get out of condition easily and quickly. You can feed wheat too freely and so make your fowls sick. There is less danger in corn, but it must be well supplemented with green or vegetable food. It would not be fair to say, however, that the experi- ments conducted thus far by experiment stations are con- clusive in demonstrating the superiority of either corn or wheat rations, but they have proved that rations containing a high percentage of corn are more generally satisfactory to date than those containing a high percentage of wheat. The points in favor of a heavy corn diet are: A greater number of eggs, a lower food cost per egg, better and heavier eggs, fowls in better condition and of higher average weight at the close of the season, and an earlier and better molt for heavily corn-fed fowls than those receiving a high percentage of wheat. It is a well-known fact with practical poultry feeders that you can “‘stall” fowls, that is, get them off their feed or suffering from indigestion more quickly by heavy wheat feeding than you can by heavy feeding of corn. It is only during the season of extremely hot weather, particularly when fowls are confined in runs where there is very little shade, that the birds suffer any apparent injury from heavy corn feeding, and at such times they will usually do better with a heavy feeding of oats than a heavy feeding of wheat, in spite of the fact that oats contain more than twice as much fat as wheat and practically the same percentage of fat as field corn, the difference in the heating character of field corn and oats lying apparently in the lower percentage of contained carbohydrates of the latter grain. In Canada, in England and in Europe oats are fed heavily, particularly in the ground form, for the purpose of fattening fowls for market, the oat-fed product possessing the light-colored or so-called ‘‘white fat’’ preferred by English and foreign markets, instead of the yellow corn-fed fat so popular in most_of our own American markets. FEEDING CHICKENS BALANCED RATIONS FROM HATCHING TIME TO MATURITY—SUITABLE FOODS AND QUANTITIES FOR THE DIFFERENT PERIODS OF GROWTH—FEEDING THE NEWLY HATCHED CHICK—BAL- ANCING THE RATIONS—RATION FOR GROWTHY YOUNGSTERS—FORCING LATE HATCHED CHICKS FOR _SHOW—ANALYSIS OF FOOD IN COMMON USE BY POULTRYMEN \ ROBERT H. ESSEX HICKENS need a far narrower ration than do ma- C tured fowls—a ration containing considerable ani- mal food, and this is one of the points I wish to im- press upon readers. Experience has caused me to realize its importance. In the early days of Buff Plymouth Rocks, their combs were toa large, and knowing that meat, even in small quantities, tended to increase the size of the combs, I avoided its use as much as possible. By this course the size of the combs was governed to a certain extent, but what a difference was visible in the growth of the young birds which were supplied with animal food and those which were deprived of it. We.all like to experiment, and it took me a few years to find out that not only do chicks need animal food, but they need it in liberal quantities. It has long been demonstrated that some meat is necessary, but in the case of young chicks it is not generally fed in sufficient quantities. Feeding the Newly Hatched Chicks Study nature. Wild birds in feeding their young have preferences, even in the selection of vegetable foods.. Some prefer weed seeds, others the young buds of trees; many are partial to fruit and other vegetables, but a very large ma- jority gather in the flies, bugs, beetles and worms that ven- ture within their range, and upon these the young warblers thrive, grow fat and feathers, and are in a very short time in show condition. Have you ever noticed the quills on the nestlings? How fast they grow. Seldom do we see a chick feather so fast. The food that produces feather rapidly is the best food for chick- ens, and they should be well supplied with it, at least until they are through their first molt. Such food will be chiefly animal It is well known that the yolk of the egg is absorbed by the chick before and after hatching. That is nature’s food and must be good. Is it a wide or narrow ration? It is extremely narrow. One part protein to three parts fat is considered very narrow, but this first food of a chicken is even more so. It is composed of one part protein to about two parts fat (15.7:33.3), and please remember it is about one-half water—one-half water. Milk is another natural food for the young, and just as good for chickens as for babes. How is it proportioned—3.3 protein to 4 fat. Add the starchy contents, and approximately it reaches the pro- portion of 1:2. Quite narrow, is it not? Yet the young live and thrive upon it. Nature teaches us, therefore, that the food of young chickens should contain about one part protein to two parts carbohydrates and fat. This is from two to three parts narrower than is generally advocated, but it has given bet- ter results than any other I have tried and my experiments have been not a few. Then, too, as we have shown nature upholds it. Do not feed hard boiled eggs in large quantities. Such food may be balanced correctly, but it is indigestible for the very young chicks, and remember that of all foods only the portion digested provides nutriment. If you must feed it, let it be well broken. Let the par- ticles be thoroughly separated by the use of stale bread crumbs, then nearly the whole of it will be digested. It is far better, however, to use uncooked eggs. Mix them with bread crumbs, shorts, cornmeal or all of these, so that the food shall not be sticky or pasty. Use some bran if you choose, but not too much, and if you are tempted to add a little clear sand, don’t be timid about it. The food and will compose a very narrow ration. Home made drinking fountain forlittlechicks Shorts or middlings may be found too * 54 , sticky; bread crumbs are best for the purpose and if you have only a few chicks it will be well to separate the yolk from the white of egg, using only the former and so avoid mixing too much at a time. This refers, of course, to the first week. After that the chicks will take care of it all. Steel cut or granulated oats make a good food for the second week, also millet seed. As the chicks become older—say from two weeks of age, beef scraps, dried blood, animal meal or fine ground green bone may be used with benefit. These foods contain in large proportion the protein we want, and their use en- ables the feeder to make a ration suitable for chicks. Care must be taken that too much of this is not fed at first. Some of these foods are too strong for young chicks, and I use them at this age only when I can’t get fresh meat—liver, etc., etc. Without the aid of beef scraps or one of the other ani- mal foods mentioned the eastern duck growers would never have been able to place ducklings upon the market in such desirable condition as they do. Their growth would not be so fast, their flesh would be less tender and the ducklings less plump. This means that demand would decrease and prices would be lower. Just so with young chickens. If intended I sal | | a, | ' | \ | | i | = Tm RA fee Wht malady Ta mM .,, AANA A HS mh i i cru ! he i " si i ai SN at uafigl (l i Ny ha ee RT I PHAN yu) ath Va A Closed Roosting Coop for Cold Weather. for market as broilers they must have animal food to hasten growth and keep them in health. The forcing to which they are subject would run them off their legs in a short time if their food consisted exclusively of grain either whole or ground. A most desirable feature of these animal foods is that their protein contents produce flesh without an ex- cess of fat. The breeder of exhibition stock will appreciate the importance of this fact, especially if the cockerels which he has been forcing for early fall shows give signs of leg weakness. The food they have been getting has produced too much fat and not enough muscle and flesh. A change of food—the addition of animal protein to the ration—goes to the root of the trouble and in a short time the birds are again ‘‘on their feet.” Animal protein works wonders with fowls, and while it is so plentiful in green bone, dried blood, animal meal and beef scrap, etc., and considering that these foods are so easily obtainable, no breeder of fowls can afford to be with- out a suppy. In animal meal and beef scraps there is nearly as much protein as there are carbohydrates and fat. In green bone there is about half as much, and in dried blood there is little else than protein. How chickens delight in a little crisp lettuce, grass or clover. Provide it if possible; otherwise cook some carrots, cabbage, turnips, beets or mangles for them, or let them pick away at the raw roots, or a few raw potatoes. Clover is now sold in such convenient forms (both cut and ground) that no breeder should be without it if he has any difficulty in providing green food. Lettuce and clover contain a large proportion of protein. CHICK BOOK Let your chicks have enough food, but do not stuff them. Little chicks will begin to ery for you when they dis- cover that you are their attendant, and if you are at all soft hearted it will be hard to refuse the continued stuffing they cry for. Feed little and often. Chicks are never so happy as when scratching in shallow litter for little crumbs or seeds. Will they do this if overfed? No. Limit the food and keep them singing, but let them have enough to repay them for their work. Some breeders keep one variety of food continually be- fore their chicks and a number of them are successful poul- try raisers. This seems contradictory following immedi- ately after the suggestion to feed little and often, but it is not so strange as it appears at first glance. If one kind of food is kept continually before them, the chicks partake of it only occasionally as they need it. If they have, been fed on the plan first suggested—little and often, it is likely they will gorge themselves when first allowed access to large quantities of food, but if they have been used to it, they simply nibble and run, and although their crops are never empty, neither are they overloaded. If such a method be adopted the food to be kept before them must always be of the same variety. Cracked corn is generally used. A change from corn to wheat would be an inducement to over- feed. It would tempt their appetites and induce them to overload their crops. We do not advocate this method of feeding, but if it is adopted, as it sometimes is for a time- saver, the other food supply should be made up largely of protein. : Balancing the Rations for Chicks The reader has now been duly impressed with the value of protein and its use in the ration, and we will give an example of balancing the ration so that anybody with any foods will know how to go about it. Following along the lines of our argument the ration shall possess about one part protein to two parts carbohy- drates and fat, and is intended for newly hatched chicks. Our first chick food is egg, both white and yolk well beaten. In this the proportion of protein and carbohy- drates is about equal. This we mix with bread so as to render it comparatively dry. We will assume that we have a flock of chicks that require about a pound of dry matter each meal. Dry mat- ter is the total bulk of food less water or moisture. In one pound of eggs, that is the edible portion, there is twenty- seven per cent of dry matter that is made up of thirteen per cent protein and twelve per cent fat, in addition to ash, etc. In a pound of bread crumbs we find eighty-eight per cent of dry matter made up of eleven per cent protein, seventy-five per cent fat, etc. If we add the total amount of protein and fat contained in the eggs and bread, we find we have twenty-four parts protein and eighty-seven parts fat; that is, about three and a half times as much fat as protein, the actual figures being 3:6. The nutritive ratio of this mixture would be 1:3.6. To make the ration nar- rower we might reduce the bread crumbs to three-quarters of a pound, but that would make the mixture too “pasty.” We will therefore leave it as before and instead of securing the narrower ration by that means we feed in addition a little meat. Take beef scraps for instance. These on an average contain about ninety-three per cent dry matter, of which forty-five per cent is protein and forty-seven per cent is carbohydrates. The protein and carbohydrates being about equal it will need only a little beef scraps to bring the nutritive ratio down to 1:2, the ration we have sug- gested before as being a desirable one for chicks. We do not advise the use of beef scraps at this early age, but having the analysis before us, we used it as an example. CARE AND FOOD 55 Fresh meat will analyze much the same, so far as protein contents are concerned, and should be used in preference. If a little more bread is necessary to mix with the egg, it may be used. After the chickens are one or two weeks old the egg food will become scarcer or perhaps too expensive and it becomes necessary to have a substitute. We wish to make the change of food without making too great a change in the ratio. In looking around for a suitable food we think of cracked wheat. One pound of cracked wheat contains about eighty-nine per cent dry matter, of which .075 is pro- tein and .700 carbohydrates. Once more we take beef scraps to be fed in conjunction with it. We have given the amount of protein and carbohydrates in beef scraps. Now add the total to that contained in wheat and we have .525 protein and 1.170 carbohydrates and fats. Dividing the latter by the former gives us a ration of 1:2.2. Finely cracked corn may be substituted for the wheat. In which case the following result would be attained: Dry Matter Protein Carbohydrates One pound corn.._.............. 89 062 -752 One pound beef scraps--..... .93 45 AT : .512 1.222 Nutritive: Pathos qs scscnccceccceeosee sce 1:2.4. By the time the chickens have been fed this way for another week we reduce the proportion of beef scraps to one-half, which, in connection with cracked wheat, gives us a nutritive ratio of 1:3.2. This is a very satisfactory ration until the chickens are three weeks old. As far back as we can remember we have known eggs and bread crumbs to be a first food for cage birds and for chicks, and now having examined the composition of these articles of food, what does it prove? Simply that the “old woman’s nonsense” of eggs and bread crumbs is scientific- ally and naturally correct and that, knowingly or unknow- ingly, our grandmothers have been following nature’s way as closely as possible. If it is not desirable to go to the trouble of figuring out a ration, the easier way is to choose from the list such a variety of foods as will give a’ration near enough for general purposes. It should be remembered that the larger the pro- portion of carbohydrates and fat, the wider the ration. If you wish to make the ration narrower take a food that pos- sesses little carbohydrates and fat; bran, for instance, is one of the best of foods, but too bulky and indigestible for use except with a more concentrated food. In this connection we must warn the reader to use very little, if any, cottonseed meal. We have before informed readers that it is very indigestible. Linseed meal is more easily digested, but it, too, should be used sparingly. _ Remember to give the chickens all the green food they need. There is nothing better for them than clover, lettuce or cabbage. From the age of three weeks or a month to the age of two months, nearly any grain may be fed that is suitable in size; that is, anything except whole corn. I generally feed hulled oats, finely cracked corn, millet and wheat, the greater the variety the better. If the fowls are on a good sized range they will provide themselves with nearly enough animal food. At this period the basis of the ration is wheat. I feed as much wheat as all the other grains combined. Ration for Growthy Youngsters Early hatched birds cause little worry, little trouble, and it is-a pleasure to see them grow. An extensive run where shade is available is desirable. A grass run, an alfalfa patch, a clover or cornfield are alike ideal poultry runs and provide an abundance of insects that coax the rangy youngsters to exercise while furnishing them * with a substitute for meat. Chickens from two to five months old gain size and health under such conditions. If they are on a farm where range is unlimited they need only a little additional food morning and evening, the variety depending upon what the fields afford. Where the range is less extensive it provides fewer insects and little or no grain. We will assume that green food is plentiful. Of what then shall the ration consist? Such foods as promote the formation of muscle and bone,—that means size; flesh and fat—that means vigor. What shall the foundation of the ration be now? Oats. “But oats are so seldom fed,” you say, ‘particularly in sections where corn is plentifully grown.” Where oats have been tried they are seldom discarded. They are the best grain I know to put size on a fowl, and they have formed the foundation of my ration for growing stock for many years, and my strain is noted for its size. To form feathers which are continually being renewed in fowls of this age we require more animal matter than can be secured on the range. It is better to give more rather than less at such a stage and a ration of about one part pro- tein to four parts carbohydrates is none too narrow. It may Ea B An Open Roosting Coop for Warm Weather. be composed of the following each day: One feed of oats, one feed of wheat and one of meat or cut bone and corn. For the purpose of forming the ration we will take one pound of each with exception of meat and corn, of which we give half pound each. More or less than these quantities may be used, depending upon the number of fowls to be fed, but the proportion will be the same. Upon examination of the list of foods given herewith we find that in a pound of oats there is .092 protein and .532 carbohydrates and fat; in a pound of wheat .075 and .700 re- spectively; in a half pound of corn .035 and .392, and in a half pound of beef scraps .225 and .235 respectively. To illustrate, we will add these quantities: Protein Carbohydrates and Fats One pound oats-_..2....2...2ceeeeeeeeeeeee eee .092 - 5382 One pound wheat-.. -. O75 -700 One-half pound corn_--....... - .035 - 392 One-half pound beef scraps--................ -225 235 .427 1.859 Upon dividing the carbohydrates and fat by the protein we find the proportion of these important constituents to be one part protein to 4.35 parts carbohydrates and fat. This is a little wider than we intended, but it is near enough for all practical purposes, even if we did not consider the green food and insects secured in the run during the day. The addition of these will bring the ration down to the desired point. The foods composing the ration will be changed fre- quently with the exception of the oats. We will use oats 56 CHICK BOOK every day. Sometimes we may substitute buckwheat for wheat or corn, at other times barley, etc., etc. Occasionally we fed a mash in which we use considerable bran. This will assist in keeping the daily ration narrow even though we may feel it wise to give a feed of peas or barley or an extra supply or corn (these grains containing large propor- tions of carbohydrates and fat). With the example and analysis of foods here given there will be no difficulty forming a ration from such foods as are plentiful. Prices vary, as we have said, and the variation should be accepted as a hint to change the food. The fowls will not object. During the month immediately preceding a show the birds may be fed as suggested for late hatched chickens, but unless they are under weight there will be no necessity for feeding them after the usual evening meal, which is given before sundown. Forcing Late Hatched Chicks for Show f Both the fancier and the breeder of poultry for market are well on the way to successful feeding when they have realized that different foods produce different conditions and. have decided to select such foods as will aid them in secur- ing the condition desired. It is clear that a change of food is necessary when the chick merges from its babyhood, takes on a new suit of feathers and becomes a full-fledged young- ster. Every poultryman we believe sees the necessity for a change of food at that period, but the majority are governed simply by the knowledge that the chicken is then equipped with better means of digestion and can do with less costly and more bulky food. True it is that in most cases the breeder desires rapid growth and generally provides, or at least intends to provide, that which will induce it. Is it not in addition necessary to consider what requirement the fowl is intended to fulfill? Take the exhibitor, for instance. His fowls are destined for the show room, yet this does not mean that they shall all be fed alike or in equal quantities. Some must be prepared for the early fall and winter shows; others for the later winter shows. If the exhibitor is blessed with incubators to hatch early chicks, brooders to accommodate them, and experience that enables him to carry them health- ily through the early spring when conditions are unnatural, then indeed he will feed his fall exhibits as he will his later show birds, because there is little or no necessity for forcing them; but if his chicks are late hatched, he must adopt heroic measures to “bring them along’ if he would gain a place among the successful exhibitors. These late hatched, forced youngsters seldom attain the size of those which are fed for growth and vigor and allowed to develop size before putting on the gloss and finish for the show room. What method of feeding is practiced to hurry these young candidates along? A ration composed of animal matter supplemented by fat forming foods; and during the closing stage the addition of foods known to contain considerable oil. The first is in- tended to hasten maturity; the second to put on weight, and the third to put on the finishing touches—the gloss to the feathers. Bulky vegetable food is added to keep the diges- tive organs in good working order, and frequently condi- ments are given to coax the fowl to eat more and more of the concentrated food. Frequent change of food is neces- sary so that the fowl shall not go “off its feed.” Few foods are too expensive to be procured at this season, for winning in the fall means sales for the winter shows. In the days when the writer was exhibiting—where the winters stole well into the spring and the big fall show seemed to advance to meet the summer—the principal event being held in August—many were the rations tried, and .feeding sometimes extended well into the evening hours. “Little and often’’ was found to be a good motto, and only ° at the last meal (about 9 p. m.) were the fowls coaxéd to eat more than they wanted, then they got the tempting tit-bits which had been saved for the last moment—scraps of meat green cut bone, bits of bread, oatmeal porridge (well sugared), cooked rice, cooked potatoes—fed by lamplight. Result: Winners at the fall shows; delicate birds later on. These fowls were not allowed extensive range. They- were confined in yards about eight by fifty feet, in flocks of eight .or ten. Their roosting pens were kept scrupulously clean; wooden floors well sprinkled with sand every week, and droppings raked every day. They were confined to the house during inclement weather. Tame? Sure! A little training in good sized coops built upon the walls above the roosts—handling every day— induced a confidence in their attendants that made all the difference during show week. The daily food during these forcing days consisted of mash early in the morning (a small amount), wheat, oats or barley or buckwheat in litter at about ten a. m. and two p. m. and corn at six p.m. . Sunflower seeds were frequently given in place of the barley, wheat or oats, and during the two weeks preceding the show, hemp seed was provided, or linseed meal mixed with the mash. Cabbage was hung in the pens continually; grit of course always before them— sometimes put in their mash; and they had all the milk they could drink. We are enabled to present analyses of foods that have been made by experiment stations throughout the country. First it must be understood that analyses differ slightly be- cause the foods analyzed differ in composition. It would be extremely difficult to procure two samples of wheat that contain exactly equal proportions of protein, carbohydrates and fat; similarly with regard to other vegetable formation. This applies also to animal matter. The quantities given therefore are usually average quantities, yet are sufficiently exact for practical purposes. Proportion of Protein and Carbohydrates and Fat in Foods Used by Poultrymen Digestible Matter in One Pound. a eee are Nise eee es a LQ, 2 e digestibility is estimated |Zm@s| -3 Sea = sg from that of other similar feed- BA 28 2 2 Sey s a3 ing stuffs). a g.8 a bea a Bm a a GRAINS ‘ (075) } (.700) | .775 | (1:9.3) . .070 784 -854 | 1:11,2 : -092 -532 .624 | 1:5.8 5 -087 962 79 1:8.0 3 (.078) | (.548) {678} (1:7.0) . (.064) | (.703) | (.767) | (1:11.0) e -188 535 -723 | 1:2.8 Sorghum Seed- 873 |) (.054) | (.668) | (.722) |(1:13.3) BRANS, MIDDL pres Lt aa eke a 1 454 574 | 1:3.8 ran (rye) eu. i 115 488 6 24. Middlings (wheat)... .879 CS a (693) ae Middlings (buckwheat). 868 | (.237) | (505) | (.742) |(1:2.1 Shorts (wheat). 892 122 586 708 | 1:4.8 Corn Meal..... .850 .055 711 -766 { 1:12.9 Corn and Co 849 .044 665 -709 | 1:15.1 Barley Meal..... .881 .074 .668 :762 | 1:9.3 ea, Meal....... 095 -168 531 699 | 1:3.2 Linseed Meal... 899 289 449 .738 | 1:1.6 Cotton Seed Meal. 918 372 437 809 | 1:1.2 Ee MAvETACTUAap FEEDS ai en Feed. _ 194 633 82 :3. Gluten Meal. 922 823 725 1845 133 Hominy, Cho i 889 | (.071) | (.795) | (866) (1:11.2) Brewers’ Grains pated 917 -168 A471 639 | 1:2.8 Brewers’ Grains (wet)... .243 | 043 | 1128 | 1171 | 1:3:0 Malt Sprouts_ 898 186 403 589 | 1:2.2 z eee VEGETABLE FOODS Sik ‘0 : .009 .157 -166 | 1:17.4 Carrots. -114 | (.009) } (.089) | (.098) | 1:9.9 Beets (Sug 135 .016 109 125 | 1:6.8 Mangel-Wurzels.. .091 O11 054 065 | 1:4.9 Rutabagas._. *114 -010 085 095 o| 1:8.5 Turnips....... .095 -010 .077 -087 | 1:7.7 280 | (.028) | (.153) | (.181) |(1:5.5) 916 104 -430 534 | 1:4.1 082 .028 -050 .078 iL, .127 .031 .137 -168 et .095 035 .057 092 | 1:1.6 .070 -008 -059 067 | 1:7.4 ADVOCATES HOPPER FEEDING RECOMMENDS FEEDING YOUNG, OLD AND LAYING STOCK BY MEANS OF HOPPER, AS HE BELIEVES IT TO BE THE CHEAPEST, CLEANEST, EASIEST AND BEST WAY TO FEED POULTRY—DIRECTIONS FOR BUILDING HOPPER CHARLES WALKER F I were to enumerate the many advantages of feeding with hoppers it would take more time and space than I intend this article to occupy. Having read so much about hopper feeding, I came to the conclusion that I should try it for myself and I may say, right now, that I have changed into a hopper feeding advocate. The first thing to do is to get a good hopper, which is not so easy a thing as some would have you believe. I saw some hoppers that they use in the east and read about others, but I could not find any that just met my-requirements. I wanted a hopper that you could leave inside or out of doors if one wanted to do so, therefore, I made one which, to my notion, just about filled the bill. It is rain, dirt and waste proof. In using hoppers you save time in feeding. All you have to do is to fill up your hopper once a tes week or so, according to the size of the flock which ccc is feeding from one hopper. It is a money saver because there is no possible chance for the grain to be wasted, nor can the chickens walk and jump around on.the food as they now do when the grain or mash is fed on the ground or in troughs. This is quite an item as most poultrymen buy their grain and grain costs money. A hopper is always clean and on the job and you can sleep longer in the morning and feel assured that your chick- ens are having their food. They do not have to wait for you to feed them as in the old way. You keep water before them constantly and they drink only what they need. Why should we not keep food before them all the time? It seems to me that with hopper feeding the chicks do not eat so much as in the old way, because now every kernel of grain is used (eaten) and there is no waste. How to Make a Hopper To make the hopper take three boards eight or nine inches wide and thirty inches long, one-half inch thick, and two boards ten inches long, same width as the thirty inch boards, and one inch thick, as these two must stand the most strain. Saw to a point on one end to make the roof FEED HOPPER READY FOR USE . fit. To support the floor of hopper take two strips, same width, about 1 by 1 by 8 and nail one inch from the straight end of the boards which you have cut to a point. Take one of the large boards and nail it on the strips you nailed to the end boards. You now have the floor of the hopper, also roof ends. 2 aS em TO FILL _-LIFT ROOF WHICH IS DETACHABLE View 1—The hopper as it appears when completed and filled with grain or any other food waich is to be fed dry. Take the two remaining thirty inch boards and nail together, forming a half square, which is your roof. Now take four strips two inches wide and thirty inches long and nail two to the top just under ‘the roof and two even with the floor of the hopper. This will keep the grain from falling out and also gives something to which to fasten the up and down strips, through which the chickens stick their heads to eat. You can nail strips as close or as far apart as you wish. J nail mine three-fourths of an inch apart, which seems about the right size for small chicks, and one and one-fourth inches for older stock. Your hopper is about ready except the in- side boards or self-feeder. By studying view No. 2 you can nail in two boards on a slant so they will reach to about three- fourths of an inch from the floor of the hopper and be about one-fourth inch apart at bottom, and your hopper is com- plete. Use only hardwood lumber if obtainable, as it is less liable to warp. By using a coat of paint the hopper will last for years. ° i The hopper will be so that the chickens can eat from either side if built according to directions and it will feed your flock until it is empty. You have no waste, no worry, no ex- penditure of time and the food is dry and clean all the time. This hopper may be left outside or anywhere you care to put it. “I believe that the sooner you begin to use a hopper the : better it will be for you and that you will never regret making the change. It goes without saying that you want sa" SIDE VIEW END VIEW View 2—The end view shows the feeding boards as they are in the hopper. the feeding boards are put in place. i the best, cheapest, cleanest and easi- est way to feed. My advice to all is: Use hoppers in feeding your young, old and laying stock. Side view before 58 CHICK BOOK FORMULAS FOR DRY MASHES We give below some of the best grain mixtures or dry mashes which have been used and found satisfactory by men of experience. These are to be fed in hoppers and the fowls should also be given grain thrown in the litter to be scratched for so as to induce exercise. Dr. Woods’ Mash for Leghorns 20 ibs. 10 ibs. 10 ibs. 10 tbs. 20 ibs. 5 ibs. 10 Ibs. wheat bran wheat middlings corn meal : gluten feed best cut clover old process linseed meal good beef scrap. The A. F. Hunter Dry Mash for Rocks and Wyandottes 200 ibs. 100 tbs. 100 ibs. 100 ibs. 100 tbs. wheat bran corn meal wheat middlings beef scrap gluten meal. Halbach Mash for White Rocks 50% corn meal 20% bran 20% middlings 10% beef scrap. FRONT SIDE SECTION VIEW Diagram of Mr, H. Heidenhain’s food hopper made from five gallon oil can. Another Mash for American Varieties 15 tbs. 20 Ibs. 20 Ibs. 10 Ibs. 20 Ibs. 5 Ibs. corn meal wheat bran wheat middlings good beef scrap best cut clover or alfalfa meal oil meal. Dr. Woods Dry Mash for Chicks Equal parts by measure of Wheat bran Corn meal Leaves sifted from cut clover Fancy wheat middlings. To this mixture, one-half pound fine ground best quality beef scrap. Be sure the scrap is pure and sweet. Cheap, poor scrap is dangerous and will cause bowel trouble. If ge er rz | | | I I ' I | ! B 1 ‘ 1 I 5 --- coc cc roo ee ve | a 7 1 ! “ a he -H9§--- Le 4 982 9). ¥ . ‘ y not sure it is fresh, omit it and feed two or three times a week, a little fresh beef scraped from bone. Keep the mash in front of them at all times and feed chick feed in litter. Also keep charcoal, grit and fresh water before them. Dry Mash for Chicks Eight Weeks Old 200 ibs. coarse wheat bran 100 tbs. fancy wheat middlings 200 tbs. best dry cut clover 100 ibs. yellow gluten feed 100 Ibs. yellow corn meal 50 tbs. linseed meal (old process) 100 ibs. best fine-ground beef scrap. Dump all of above on clean board floor and thoroughly mix with scoop shovel. Keep in sacks or bins and feed in food hopper to growing stock or laying hens. CORNELL FEEDING RATIONS AS GIVEN BY PROF. RICE Grain Mixture for Laying Hens and Growing Pullets 100 tbs. oats 200 ibs. corn 200 tbs. wheat. Fattening Mash 30 ibs. 100 tbs. 100 tbs. 100 ibs. beef scrap corn meal oatmeal ground buckwheat. Dry Mash Mixture for Laying Hens and Growing Pullets 25 tbs. oil meal 125 tbs. beef scrap 150 tbs. wheat middlings 150 tbs. corn meal 75 Tbs. bran. Grain Mixture: for Chicks 100 tbs. oatmeal 200 tbs. cracked corn (fine) 300 tbs. cracked wheat. Dry Mash Mixture for Chicks 100 tbs. wheat middlings , 100 tbs. corn meal 100 tbs. beef scrap 200 ibs. bran. Prof. Rice claims that oyster shell is very essential for laying hens. A PLAIN BALANCED FOOD MANY POULTRY KEEPERS, VETERANS AS WELL AS NOVICES, WILL BE PLEASED TO READ “UNCLE IKE'S"”’ PLAIN DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING AND FEEDING BALANCED POULTRY RATION I. K. FELCH LL statistics relating to grain are based on one hun- A dred pounds, the per cent of ash, protein, carbo- hydrates and fat being computed on the one hun- dred pounds of grain. Many hundreds of people who keep fowls do not under- stand what this means. What they want first to know is the proper kind of food to give the best result in egg pro- duction. A generous egg production is a sure sign that the fowls are in a most favorable and healthy condition. A balanced ration is one that contains one and one-half to two per cent of ash, which is the bone forming agent, twenty- one per cent protein, which is the muscle growing and egg producing agent, sixty per cent of carbohydrates and twenty per cent of fat, these last two being the material on which CARE AND FOOD 59 the fowl lives while she produces the eggs, and the waste material. We cannot manage to obtain this combination in grains alone, but have to feed meat and vegetable matter in con- junction with the grain to balance our ration. How to do this with corn, wheat, oats and barley, with beef scrap, potatoes, cabbage and mangle wurzel beets, is what nine-tenths of those who are getting a living from hens care to know. Let me tell you in a nutshell how to do it. A Morning Mash Take twenty pounds of corn, twenty pounds of wheat bran, twenty pounds first-class oats and ten pounds of bar- ley and have it ground into a fine meal. To this add twenty pounds of best ground beef scrap or dried blood. Mix the whole well and use it for the morning mash. Pour scalding water on it at night and keep it covered until morning. If it is then wet and soggy add wheat bran until it is a warm crumbly mash. Give to the birds what they will eat up clean. Its warming influence will send the females to the nest and nine-tenths of the eggs will be secured before noon. Hang cabbages and mangle wurzel beets up in the coops to provide the vegetable substance for the fowls and to give them something to work on during the day. It is an excellent thing to throw a handful of millet seed into the scratching material in their open sheds to keep them busy until nearly 4 o’clock, then open your dry-mash feed boxes which should be filled with a mixture of cracked corn, oats and barley and let them fill their crops for the night. Keep before them all the time charcoal, grit and seashells so they may help themselves as they please. In the absence of cabbage and beets in the winter time, give steamed alfalfa or clover meal; in the summer when the birds have the run of the fields they get all the vegetable matter they need and if there are not too many of them to the acre they get a large share of the necessary animal food, in the shape of worms and insects, and you can, therefore, feed less of the ground scraps. Give the birds plenty of fresh air, free from direct drafts, and success will reward your labor and care. THE REARING OF CHICKS IS CONSIDERED BY PROF. BROWN IN THIS ARTICLE, GIVING AN ENGLISHMAN’S IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICAN AND CANADIAN POULTRY PLANTS AND POULTRY METHODS—PLANS OF BROODING, WITH SUGGESTIONS EDWARD BROWN, F. L. S. HON. SECRETARY OF THE NATIONAL POULTRY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, LECTURER ON AVICULTURE AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING, ENGLAND [NOTE:—Proj. Brown visited the United States and Canada for the purpose of inspecting well known poultry plants and investigating American and Canadian poultry methods, In this article, written exclusively for the Reliable Poultry Journal, he tells of what he saw and learned and makes comparison with English or European methods employed in the successful production of poultry and eggs along practical lines.—Editor.] the same all the world over, and if we were content with that system, which probably would be the case if it were capable of meeting modern requirements, very little would need to be said. We could permit the hens to exercise their functions of hatching and rearing just as they thought fit, and would not need to take either the trouble or care involved when we introduce artificial methods. The fact is we cannot improve upon Nature, but unfortunately natural methods do not meet modern conditions. It is an arguable point whether we are altogether wise in making demands upon poultry which it was not intended they should meet, but there TT" method of rearing chickens by natural means is in America than is the case in older countries. The’ spirit of Americans to which I have already referred is to try new methods, but even in the States I found that the old ways were still followed, and in the lower part of Rhode Island it was a revelation after all that had been said with regard to American poultry-keeping to find the farmers of that section depending almost entirely upon hens for hatching and rearing. So far as I could learn there are very few incubators or brood- ers employed there, and I think that they are scarcely needed. The race of fowls which they keep, the Rhode Island Red, is an excellent sitter and mother. Hatching is merely to secure perpetuation of the race of egg layers, and there is no need to bring out the chickens is the fact. So far as this aspect of the question is concerned I saw nothing in America which was at all new nor did I expect to see anything. Perhaps there were slight differences to be found here and there in the arrangements for rearing the chickens in the shape of coops and in the systems of feeding, but generally speaking ‘there was nothing that we have not also followed in Europe, and tried with equal success. It was pretty evident, however, that taking the country ‘as a whole, prob- ably the natural meth- ods are less employed BROODER AT READING COLLEGE FARM, ENGLAND very early. Hence the fowls kept serve all require- ments, and when that is so there is no reason why the owners should alter their methods. Of course this system has its limitations. I am inclined to think, and there was plenty of proof in America to justify me in the belief, that the experience which we have had is also duplicated on your side, namely, that increased fecundity of hens tends to the reduction of the maternal instinct. I was told that Rhode Island Reds do not average more. than 100 eggs per annum. Probably it -would be found 60 CHICK BOOK that if the breeders of the Little Compton district by trap nesting or any other method increased the prolificacy of their hens by fifty per cent, they would be compelled to adopt artificial methods of hatching and rearing. So long as they do not interfere with things as they are they will probably have no need to purchase incubators and _brooders. Natural Methods Not Sufficient So much can be admitted, but we have now to face the question whether the system which is so successful in Rhode Island would meet the requirements for the supply of eggs and chickens. JI venture to say that it would be an utter failure if we had to depend upon it entirely, in fact modern development in poultry keeping would have been impossible had we been restricted to natural methods. In the first place we should have been compelled to maintain breeds of fowls which would be unsuitable under many circumstances, and could not attempt to meet the requirements of the market at several seasons of the year. Whether we like it or not, here is the fact that artificial systems have come to stay, and our object is not to go back to the natural methods, but to make the artificial as perfect as possible, even thought supple- mentary to the other. When incubators were first introduced into Britain there was a very common saying, namely, “Yes, you can hatch artificially, but can you rear?” and it is an undoubted fact that the artificial rearing of both chickens and ducklings was where the whole thing broke down in the early days. My own experience was that of many others. We might hatch a batch of chickens, but the number reared would be com- paratively small. At one time it seemed as if this could not be overcome, and it took many years before it was accomp- lished. The first brooder I worked was known as the old Ches- hire, and that is now thirty years ago. I give here.an illus- tration of it. It consisted of a low box sloping from front to back, about 3 ft. long and 21 in, wide. In this was in- serted a tank 1 in, in thickness, in which was placed, 9 in. from each side—the tank being 18 in. wide—a strip of tin the full length with perforations at each end to allow a proper circulation of water. At the back the tank was dropped to 3 in. in thickness, and in this a tunnel was made FRENCH FOSTER MOTHER AND PARK A—Park for chickens. B—Tap for emptying cistern. C—Tap for supplying water. D—Curtain to mother. F—Air hole. with two chimneys, 12 and 24 in, from the end. The tank itself was built into a cover of woodwork, and embedded with non-conducting material to conserve the heat. To prevent the backs of the chickens going against the metal a wooden frame was made to slide under, on which was tacked strong canvas to which were stitched pieces of flannel cut to repre- sent the feathers of a hen. The heat was obtained from a benzoline Jamp which had a tube about 20 in. long, and this was inserted in the tunnel referred to above. Such an appliance was only suitable for use under cover, and the trouble involved in preventing the lamp being blown out, in avoiding smoking, was very great indeed. Still it was a beginning, and in the first season when I used it I reared something like 90 per cent of chickens in it, but then I should hardly like to say how much trouble was involved. To the majority of poultry-keepers it was useless, as the labor was excessive for the results obtained. After that a brooder was introduced in France which consisted of a large tank of water placed in a wooden box, CHESHIRE FOSTER MOTHER and the birds nestled in the compartment below. This was certainly better, but this again was only suitable for use under cover, and on a limited scale. The heat was main- tained by drawing off a portion of the cooled water and re- placing it by hot water afterwards. That was very interest- ing to those who only wanted to rear a few chickens, but useless for larger operations. The next step was when what is called the ‘“‘Westmeria”’ brooder was introduced. This consisted of what was prac- tically a small house with wheels at one end and handles at the other. It was well built, had a sleeping compartment heated by a hurricane lamp, and a covered run, and it is not too much to say that the introduction of this machine solved the problem. The heat could be well maintained, and in spite of the fact that there was a certain amount of danger from fumes in the sleeping compartment, yet this was small when care was taken, and as it could be used in the open we then saw the possibilities of greater developments. From this last described type there have evolved most of the different forms of brooders now in use of English make, notably the ‘““Hearson’’ and others, which, whilst they may be an improvement in details are practically upon the same lines as the original ‘‘Westmeria.’’ Until the American ma- chine became known to us we had practically nothing new after the introduction of the ‘“‘Hearson,” but the “Cyphers” Style A brooders at once opened the way to a further develop- ment. Not that I think they were any better or in some cases as good as some of our English brooders, so far as the sleeping compartment was concerned, but there was a great advantage in the provision of a scratching section. My object is not, however, to give a history of this ques- tion, but to indicate briefly the steps of evolution. It must be remembered that success in rearing at once placed artifi- cial hatching upon a different plane. Until brooders could be made practical the demand for incubators was necessarily small. The moment the former proved a success, then the other followed as a matter of course. A further point is that the bringing of these appliances to a measure of per- fection led to a demand in America for bigger things, and one of the points which I looked forward to with great in- terest was the opportunity of inspecting some of the plants upon which continuous brooders are in operation. Individual Brooders a Success Both in America and England individual brooders have proved a great success, but this was not accomplished with- out overcoming many difficulties. Below I say something as to comparisons between the two systems, but it must be realized that at any rate in Europe we had to face a very CARE AND FOOD 61 serious condition of things ere even individual brooders at- tained their present satisfactory condition. It was all right as long as only two or three were used, but the moment we came to handle the operations upon a large scale the whole aspect of affairs was altered. I have practiced artificial rearing for more than thirty years, but until eight years ago upon a comparatively small scale. In the year 1898, when the College Poultry Farm was established at Theale, we commenced handling the work ‘upon a larger basis, building a brooder house which, whilst very much smaller than those now employed, especially in America, was an advance on anything, that had been done before. For the first three years the result was very unsatis- factory. We hatched a large number of chickens artificially, but the number which died was great indeed; in fact one year the loss during the first three weeks after hatehing amounted to no less than 45 per cent. At first it was assumed that this was due to neglect of even ordinary precautions, but after careful watching it was seen that such was not the case, and we could only come to the conclusion that the fault was in the system and not in its application. Foods of all kinds were tried, again without any improvement. On making inquiries elsewhere we found that our experience was by no means the worst, in fact in some cases the loss amounted birds do not make as much flesh as we require. I have given this short account because during my visit to America I found that it was supported by experience there. The spirit which is manifested in America has led to the handling of artificial rearing on bigger lines. From time to time we have seen records of huge plants, some of which appeared perfect on paper, and if fowls were as amen- able to control as minerals there ought to be no doubt as to their success. It was with a strong desire to see these personally that I visited America. It should be remem- bered ‘that, as already seen, our system has been almost entirely in the use of individual brooders. The method of raising chickens by means of pipes, known as continuous brooders, is practically unknown on this side the Atlantic. Ideally such a system has many attractions, but what is the fact? We often find that theory and practice do not work together. Under these circumstances one of the first points of interest was finding that some of the largest breeders have changed their opinion entirely with regard to continuous brooders. Amongst these Mr. Arthur Brown of Lakewood, New Jersey, is an example, but he is by no means isolated. Such opinion, however, was not that of all. On the Iona plant owned by Mr. L. H. Hallock, the continuous brooder system is fully adopted, but to something like 75 per cent. So disastrous were these re- sults that I was fast coming to the conclusion, in which others shared, that the ar- tificial rearing of chickens on a large scale was a failure. Finally, however, as the result of very exhaustive observations and careful in- quiry it was felt that the weakness of the whole sys- tem was not in the brood- ers themselves, but that the chickens raised by this method were too weak to withstand the changes of temperature which mark our English climate, and that his system is upon different lines from any I met with, in that by means of what is called the Davies & Rock system heated air, which can be controlled as to quantity is passed into the brooding chambers, and so far as it was possible to judge without actually operating such a system has distinct advantages over radiation by means of hot water or hot air pipes. Mr. Hallock claims that the system referred to has worked perfectly in his hands, and that there is a much greater amount of elasticity this difficulty could only be overcome by compelling the birds to take more exer- cise and thus strengthen the organs and muscles of the body. The only way in which exercise could be secured was by compelling them to work for their food. which is the natural method. Dry Feeding of Chicks Solved Problem The chickens, it may be explained, generally appeared perfectly healthy until they were about ten days to a fort- night old, when bowel troubles supervened and they died very rapidly. In order to test the matter we absolutely abandoned the old system of feeding and went in for the dry feeding system, that is the use of the smaller grains, scat- tering these amongst the litter and making the birds from the very start work for their food. The result was start- ling; it solved the problem. During the first year in which we adopted this plan we lost only 5 per cent, which result has been abundantly supported by the experience of others, so much so that the dry feeding system has led to an enor- mous growth of artificial rearing in this country, and prac- tically there is now no limit to its possibilities. It may be explained, however, that we find it necessary at the end of a month to give a proportion of moist food, otherwise the ¥ A Shelter That Can be Opened or Closed, as the Weather Requires than under the older methods. If this system fulfills all that is claimed for it, it may bring back the continuous brooder system into favor. I gathered, however, that at the present time it is regarded as by no means satisfactory, in fact in some cases the pipe system has been. given up entirely and individual brooders substi- tuted, but in- others the pipes have been removed to the back of the house so as to maintain a fairly equable tempera- ture, and thus avoid throwing undue strain upon the indivi- dual brooders. There can be no question that in theory the pipe system is very attractive, because it is supposed that the labor of attention is greatly simplified, and that instead of having a large number of separate lamps to fill and trim all that is requisite is the firing and regulation of one boiler. In prac- tice, however, this is not so easy as might have been antici- pated, and for that reason I think we on this side have been justified in regarding such a system with a considerable amount of suspicion. It must be remembered that the amount of heat required by birds when they are five to six weeks old is-very much less than during, say, the first week, and the pipe system does not appear to allow for changes to that extent. On some of the plants I visited the pipes have been abandoned, and individual brooders are entirely 62 CHICK BOOK used, because by so doing each brooder can be modified in accordance with the age and requirements of the chickens therein. I am inclined to think that in the future, unless the Davies & Rock system proves as flexible as is suggested, the tendency towards individual brooders will be largely increased, in spite of the greater amount of attention required. I was very glad indeed to see on some of the plants that attention is paid to the importance of fresh soil, ard in several cases double yards are used. The latter appear to me to be almost essential. We must remember that it is not only requisite to get rid of the manurial influence, but also to restore to the land elements which are lost by the keeping of birds thereon, and which can only be accomp- lished by cultivation. A FEEDING PEN FOR CHICKS By the use of such a pen mature fowls or large chickens are pre~ vented from eating special chick food. The slats are sufficiently far apart so that the young chicks can pass in and out of the pen. Portable Houses With Individual Brooders Some years ago I came across a portable poultry house in France which was very suggestive indeed. This con- sisted of an ordinary house upon wheels with a brooder fitting inside. That brooder could be removed when it was no longer required. This was an advance upon an older ‘system where to one side of a fixed house was fitted a brooder, so that the birds could either sleep in the brooder or in the house, they having to pass through the house to reach the brooder. That system has been modified in accordance with our requirements, and it was therefore interesting to see at several of the plants visited—notably at Cornell, Elma, Storrs, the Tillinghast Farm, and amongst the South Shore roaster men—that this system is growing in favor. It is not at all necessary that I sould go into details, because they have received attention from breeders through your pages or those of other papers. One of the most interesting of these houses was the de- sign of Professor Jas. E. Rice, of Cornell. Fixed at one end was a reservoir for gasoline, with a connecting pipe down to a burner in the brooder within the house, and it was claimed that the reservoir only needed refilling once in three weeks, and that it could be left a week without attention. I should have been glad to have seen it in operation, for that was practically the only new thing which I came across in this direction. The great advantage of these portable houses with brooders is that the birds can be scattered over the land, thus securing absolutely fresh ground, and, moreover, the position can be changed in accordance with the season of the year. In my judgment the future of artificial rearing will be more and more in that direction. Moreover, there is something to be said for the idea that chickens thrive better if they are not removed from their first house, and under these circumstances it is only necessary to take out the brooder after they have grown beyond the first stage. Of course in some cases portable or colony houses are pro- vided so that the chickens when taken from the brooder houses can be scattered more widely over the land. In conclusion a few suggestions may be of service. There is no doubt in my judgment that large houses on big plants are more convenient for the first few weeks of growth, but on smaller establishments where the houses can be moved about I think it would be more profitable if smaller houses were employéd. In either case it is important that the birds shall be got out of these cramped conditions as speedily as possible so as to give them plenty of room to grow. For that reason the colony house system for growing chickens is very valuable. I believe that it is important for chickens at different stages of development to have as much fresh air as possible, and I am glad to say that in the many houses I visited there appeared to be much more attention paid to this point than in the incubator cellars. Perhaps this is more due to chance than design, for the houses above ground lend themselves to ventilation to a greater extent than those underground. The weakness of the system, however, was in many cases a want of shade. I should have thought that in America, with its hot spring and summer, shade would have received much more attention than is the case. I was interested to note that on the Elma plant some thousands of fruit trees have been planted, but being small they were not of much service at the time of my visit. We should never forget that heated ground checks growth, and if such ground receives the direct rays of the sun it is heated, and both day and night the birds are under conditions unfavorable to development. They require moist conditions for growth, and I venture to submit that in many cases better results would be achieved, both as to size and quality of flesh, if greater attention were given in this direc- tion. : DRINKING FOUNTAIN DRINKING FOUNTAIN FOR CHICKS WARREN W. WOLFGANG I TAKE a Mason fruit jar and punch a one and one-half inch hole in the jar top, then I solder a notched tin ring two inches wide to the top of the jar. The notched side of the ring is then soldered to a five-inch tin pie pan. The illustration makes the pan look too large; there should not be much room allowed. The jar can be filled with water and the lid screwed on and when the pan is set on the floor or ground it makes a very acceptable drinking fountain. CHAPTER V JUNE HATCHED CHICKS MR. SEWELL RECALLS PROMINENT WINNERS THAT WERE HATCHED IN JUNE—TO PRODUCE THEM ONE MUST STUDY NATURE’S WHIMS AND PREPARE ALIKE FOR RAIN AND SHINE F. L, SEWELL E BELIEVE chicks come into the world with the best con- ditions for rapid growth at the time of fruit blossoming. That is about the middle of May in this latitude—but in seasons as backward as some are, June is not a bad month in which to start. Rearers of pheasants look to this month as their best season for hatch- ing—when the season is well settled and rains are not too frequent. The haying season is the time when the quail hatches her first broods. The June hatched Mediterraneans, Games, Hamburgs and some others will require no special urging to bring them into fine form and feather for the early winter shows. Our ambitious fanciers who are not content with any but the very large breeds, weighing eight to twelve pounds, must remember that they are handling races develop- ed through artful selection and most advantageous environ- ment. The fancier who sets out to win in the present day com- petition at our best shows and reaps the high prices that are paid for the prize-takers will keep in mind that every day must bring gain in growth to his June chicks; he will see that they have everything that adds to their comfort and are well protected from all that retards their growth or ‘spoils their general condition and plumage. No doubt at the winter show you have stood admiring ‘some splendid specimen in the American classes or even of the grand Asiatics and a proud owner assured you that the bird was ‘only a baby—a June hatched chick,” and you wondered how he produced such freshness of feather—such perfection of bloom; and a question brought the reply, ‘““Why he has not had time to lose it—he just seemed to grow every day from the time he was hatched until now.” Therein lies success—not an hour’s neglect when natural, healthful development could lag. Many of the finest show birds we have seen at the great eastern shows of New York and Bos- ton we have known to be June hatched. It is an old saying among the fanciers that pullets appear at their finest just ‘the few weeks prior to laying their first egg, and if the show birds can just reach maturity on show week they will ap- pear in the pink of condition—with vigor at its height and the plumage at its finest. We mentioned the settled condition of June weather as being favorable; however, a protracted dry season may be far from beneficial, when a liberal supply of green and insect food cannot be obtained. No birds can grow well without them. Between a season of continued droughts and exces- sive rains we would choose a season where the birds had proper protection—dry coops and covered runs attached for wet days. Between showers the birds will find abundance of green food, insects and worms, while in the season of drought they are apt to lack for both these. It is always a safe provision to have a patch of young clover or some good crop for green food. We know of nothing better than a small field of white clover that can be watered and kept green (a part to be cut for winter use) for thé birds to for- age over. During continued dry weather when the surface of the soil seems to present no insects or worms a strip can be occasionally plowed up, giving a fair supply of worms and bugs. A pile of small chips and partially decayed leaves will afford excellent scratching, especially if partially in the shade. Insects are constantly gathering in such a place. The perfectly clean swept poultry yard may look to some eyes most tidy, but to the chicks that hanker for a hunting ground where they may stir up bugs or worms such a place without its rubbish pile is a mockery to their nature. A few wagonloads of old rotten wood and leaves from the forest present a constant picnic to the chicks in summer. Place the pile partly in the shade. The frequent visits to it by the chicks will prove their appreciation of it. The exercise taken in scratching for the insects will in- duce thrift and add to the strength of the birds. Have you not frequently received among your purchases, birds seem- ingly lacking in all thrifty habits actually spoiled in their bringing up? Some breeds, notably those nearest the orig- inal type of the wild Bankiva fowl, hunt all day, turning over the leaves as they search about, while others seem to care for nothing beyond the dooryard and the granary. This disposition and habit can be largely due to the methods em- ployed in feeding while the chicks-are growing up. A cer- tain amount of range, encouraging the chicks to hunt and scratch for at least a part of their food, will add value to the birds in healthy and thrifty foraging habits. These last remarks apply especially to chicks leaving the brooder or hen in a dry season when the natural food may be scarce and the temptation strongest to depend entirely upon the feed bucket. We learned through sad experience not to allow chicks to nestle or roost upon the bare ground. There’ should always be a board platform raised a few inches above the earth, keeping the birds dry under foot at all seasons. We note that small, movable coops for weaned chicks are rapidly growing popular, a number of very practical patterns now being made to take down and ship in a small space. We know that the value of these movable coops can hardly be estimated. With such well planned and conven- ient coops the chicks can be constantly on clean, fresh ground and with the movable covered runs attached the long rainy days are not nearly as much to be dreaded by those ambitious to see their birds growing every day. Much of the failure to succeed with young turkeys and pheasants during the last two seasons is due to the lack of this kind of protection. The fine young chicks can be weathered through many a wet week to our entire satisfaction and the coops made to pay their way many times over in the saving they will be to young stock, among which we look for our next winter’s prize winners. ; With vigorous parent stock we always expect to pro- duce rapid growing chicks, and with constant attention to securing for them the best foods and giving them protection from vermin and ill weather we look for many of the most perfectly conditioned show birds to come out of these June hatched broods. MID-SUMMER AND FALL WORK CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG AND OLD STOCK, IN AUGUST, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER—PREPARATION OF WINTER QUARTERS—THE MOST UP-TO-DATE AND EFFECTIVE METHOD OF FUMIGATING THE POULTRY HOUSES IN SUMMER P. T. WOODS, M. D. IDSUMMER with its extreme hot weather is often M a trying time for both young and old stock. It is of the utmost importance at this time to keep the house open and cool, all quarters and yards clean, and to supply an abundance of shade and shelter from sudden showers. _Overcrowding must be avoided, as crowding and filth in poorly ventilated coops or houses is always dangerous and almost certain to result in heavy losses. Diarrhoea is one of the most common hot weather troubles in poultry of all ages. When it first makes its appearance, charcoal freely fed may check or control the disorder. The diarrhoea may be due to food or drinking water being foul with droppings or other filth; to feeding impure, musty and mouldy food; ‘to overheating; to feeding in dusty, musty or mouldy litter; to unclean quarters and dampness; .to overfeeding on meat food or feeding spoiled meat; to eating poisonous substances or to indigestion from any cause. The first thing to do when diarrhoea makes it appear- ance is to find the cause and remove it. Drinking from filthy pools in unclean runs after a sudden shower, or drinking barn-yard seepage is a common. cause of diarrhoea (‘‘bowel trouble’) in hot weather. If after removing the cause, char- coal fails to remedy the trouble try the following treatment: For Young Chicks Withhold all food for twenty-four to forty-eight hours and give only scalded sweet milk thickened to the consistency of cream with well-boiled bread flour. This is to be lightly seasoned with salt, ginger and nutmeg. Let them have all they will drink. Return to the regular ration gradually, making sure that the food given is pure and sweet. Provide if possible, a good, clean, bright, grass run. For Adult Stock When diarrhoea makes its appearance in adult birds in warm weather remove the sick birds at once to hospital quarters. If any of them are passing a blue-grass-green dis- charge they should be given at once a one to three drop dose of creolin in a tablespoonful of water. Clean up and disinfect all droppings. Add five drops of creolin to each pint of drinking water allowed the sick birds. If the diar- rhoea persists, and becomes greenish-yellow, yellowish or blood-streaked, obtain from the nearest homeopathic phy- sician or pharmacy some trituration tablets of mercury bichlorid 1-1000 of a grain drug strength each (3x). In severe cases one of these tablets may be given to the sick bird morning and night. For flock treatment dissolve twelve of these tablets in a pint of drinking water and allow the sick birds no other drink. For the first few days while under treatment, feed only easily digested soft food. Fresh, bright, succulent green food should be fed freely. White of eggs may be given in severe cases, but meat should not be fed to fowls having diarrhoea. Work With Adult Stock If you have not already done so, it is time now to care- fully cull your adult breeding stock. Females, which you intend to keep over another winter A desirable type of portable, apex, colony house, for growing chicks. admirably suited for moving about orchards. It has a board floor and is should be given open-air quarters with a good sized, well shaded, green grassrange. Do not allow any male birds to run with them. They need a rest. Choose only the best year-old, and in some cases two- year-old, stock that is in good order—sound, healthy and vigorous. Male birds which you intend to keep over, you should give small colony coops and runs on grass land. Do not hold over any males unless you are sure that you wish to breed them another season. All adult stock Which is culled out and which you do notintend to keep should be sold according to quality either as breeding stock or as market poultry, making sure to dispose of them before the birds begin to moult. Be sure the adult birds in summer quarters are not too heavily fed. A light diet of the best heavy white oats, whole or cracked corn and wheat with a very little beef scrap and an abundance of green food usually makes the best ration. Pure clean water in a clean foun- SUMMER AND WINTER CARE 65 tain (earthen ware or galvanized iron) should be supplied in a cool, shady place. Renew the water as often as con- venient, daily, if the weather is very hot. Be sure that the poultry house is wide open, and keep the drop-boards clean. Filthy accumulations of droppings in hot weather are liable to cause trouble. There is less danger from this source if the birds have free range. sand. All old litter should be removed and burned. All nest boxes should be cleaned, and all old nesting material removed and burned. If the house has a wooden or cement floor it should be first scraped and swept,!then sprinkled thoroughly with strong creolin disinfectant solu- tion, mentioned above; scraped again and then white-washed. All dust and cobwebs ought to be swept out of the house be- Care of the Growing Stock Growing stock intended for breeders should have ample, well shaded, green grass range. An orchard makes an ideal summer run. Care should be taken not to allow too many birds to run in one flock. They should be housed in small, open-air, colony coops, and must not be allowed to crowd at night. When it is possible to-do so, separate the cockerels from the pul- lets and give them different runs. Usually twenty-five young birds is a sufficient number to feed in one flock, and often twelve or fifteen will do better than twenty-five. It is not necessary to yard in each colony house. The colony houses should be located at convenient distances apart. When the young birds are first placed in them, they should be confined to the house by means of portable fencing, for a few days. Five or six days yarding in this man- ner will be sufficient to get them wonted to the new quarters. The yards may then be taken away and the young birds allowed free range. If proper care is taken at first to accustom the birds to their new home the different flocks will give very little trouble by mixing up at night. It is always well to make the rounds of the chicken coops at night and make sure that none of the houses is crowded. Coops with board floors and no roosts in a dry location usually give the best results, if the fronts are not open at the floor level. An apex house, such as is shown in the accompanying illustration, ‘makes an admirable home for growing chicks. Where entirely open-front, colony houses ure used, it is well to provide roosts in the rear part of the buildings. The same care should be taken to supply young birds with pure food, water, grit, shell, charcoal and green bone as is taken with adult stock. we Care of the Poultry Houses and Fixtures It is time now to clean up and disinfect and store away the sitters’ nests, brood-coops, brooders and chick shelters used for the earlier flocks. Do it now! 4 Do not put them away dirty. Brooders should be clean- ed with a strong solution of creolin, napcreol, carbonol, or sulphonaphthol. Use one gill of the disinfectant fluid mixed with one gallon soft water. After cleaning the brooder, brood box or coop, spray the interior with the disinfectant ‘solution. Nest boxes or brood coops may be white-washed and then placed in the sun to dry. Store them where they will be convenient to get at when you want them next spring. There is no time like the present for thoroughly renovat- ing and disinfecting the breeding and laying quarters. If your houses have earth floors,.six to ten inches of the top earth should be removed and replaced with clean gravel or * Apex colony house of fresh-air type as designed and used by Mr. J. H. Curtiss, Assinippi Mass. It has a°board floor but no roosts and makes an excellent home for either young or old stock. fore cleansing the floor. Clean the windows, too, while you are about it. Bear in mind that this is the annual house- cleaning. Take the nest boxes, food hoppers, or other fur- nishings out and give them a good coat of whitewash. The interior of the buildings may be whitewashed with the aid of ‘an automatic spray pump, if so desired, and the house then fumigated while the whitewash is still wet. (See “Method of Fumigating.’”’ described on page 72.) If the yards are small and bare, scrape them and remove the top crust to the manure pile or garden. Then spade them up or plow and stir the soil until it