• • THE . • 
 
 CHICK BOOK 
 
 FROM THE BREEDING PEN THROUGH THE SHELL TO 
 
 MATURITY 
 
 Contains the Experience of ttie World's Leading Pouitrymen 
 and All the Latest and Most Trustworthy Information About 
 Hatching, Rearing, Fattening and Marketing Chickens 
 
 PRICE, FIFTY CENTS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 KKr.IABLE POVLTRY JOURNAL PlTBLISHlNG COMPANY 
 ''' QUINCY, iLLrNOIS 
 
UBRARYol OONGHESS 
 (wo Copies rteceivod 
 
 MAY 15 1905 
 
 ^^ Jouyrium tnir> j. 
 Class a-- AXc. N« 
 COPY 6. 
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 ikELiABLE Poultry Journal Publishing Company 
 
 QuiNCY, Illinois 
 
 1905 
 
 -^ 
 
 <^t^ 
 
4 SUCGESTlOy OF PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 
 
THE CHICK BOOK-INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 SucceMS In Hatching and Rearing the Chicks Is a Chief Essential to Profitable Poultry Keeping— How to Obtain 
 the Knowledge Required for Success and How to Apply that Knowledge, 
 
 HE poultryman's profit depends in a great meas- 
 ure upon his success in rearing the chiclis. Suc- 
 cess is attained only by intelligent use of cor- 
 rect methods. If the incubation, growth and 
 development of the chicle are not attended by 
 such conditions as produce and maintain the good health 
 necessary for building a vigorous body and strong consti- 
 tution, the grown bird does not have the power to produce, 
 or earn, more than a nominal profit for its owner, however 
 well it is housed and cared for. Nor does the negative ef- 
 fect 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 abso- 
 lutely unprofitable 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 iu 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 painstaking effort is not lessened, if indeed it is not in- 
 crease<l. 
 
 The chick destined for the market must make .t very 
 rapid growth; not so much of bone and muscle, as of flesh 
 and fat, and to do this in the least tim^ assures the great- 
 est 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 necessary 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 physical faculties. 
 
 That a large per cent of all strong chicks hatched can 
 be raised to the age tor maketing. or to maturity, is not 
 disputed. The present-day appliances greatly facilitate the 
 work, and prepared foods, selling at reasonable prices, 
 simplify 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 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 com- 
 petitors, securing 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 purchases; 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 com- 
 mands its own price. 
 
 How Knowledge Is Obtained. 
 
 There are two ways of acquiring this knowledge: by 
 years of costly experience and by carefui 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 jour- 
 ney 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 cress lots to success with money in his pocket. 
 
 The printed wisdom of poultry .-ulture 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 
 success in the business and who are specially fitted to write 
 upon the subjects assigned them. 
 
 Such information, though difficult and expensive to 
 obtain, is valuable almost beyond estimating. It consists 
 not in dry rules and dogmatically expressed theories, but 
 in the live expeiience of men in the field, with the whys 
 and wherefores for every step and dependable guidance at 
 every turn. It is information that can be trusted to the 
 letter. Bv following it the mistakes of the novice can be 
 avoided and the methods of 'he 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 ditii- 
 cult. Any pouitryman worthy the name selects each sea- 
 son birds having the development and style that denote 
 vigor and constitution while selecting the shape re- 
 quired 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 noi-mal condition of flesh 
 
6 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 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. Sup- 
 ply 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 well 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 avail- 
 able, so that a little experience and intelligent obsei-vation 
 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 inde- 
 pendent requires no argtiment. Good eggs and proper hand- 
 ling by the operator will assure good hatches of vigorous 
 chicks. An understanding of the machine and how to con- 
 trol it, with some knowledge of how to treat eggs during 
 the period of incubation and of the essentials of correct 
 environments, 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 
 atmosphere is damp and laden with germs of decay and dis- 
 ease. 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 combus- 
 tion. 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, tailing, denounce the 
 machine and artificial incubation. How to provide the 
 proper environment 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 tor 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 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 is supplied, for enfeebled constitutions are as fre- 
 quently 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 black- 
 smith'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 myrials of lite-giving blood 
 corpuscles and the digestive organs are made capable of 
 converting to the body's use all the nutriment the food con- 
 tains. 
 
 Hatching and Raising With Hens. 
 
 There are more than a tew who, though, they admit 
 the practical worth of artificial methods, still cleave to the 
 ways of their grandparents and find satisfaction and profit 
 in so doing. 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 forefathers allowed 
 the old hen to have pretty much her own way and she, 
 taking 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 day- 
 time, searching 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 suc- 
 cessful raisers approximate these conditions as closely as 
 the circumstances permit. 
 
 Maturing the Flock. 
 
 A chick well started is half raised; but it must be well 
 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 seams 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 given 
 in detail in this book and we recommend their articles to 
 the reader with full assurance that their advice may be 
 taken for its face value. H. A. NOURSE. 
 
OPERATING AN INCUBATOR, 
 
 Hints on Buying the Incubator and Becoming Acquainted with Its Use— The Advantages of Testing the Eggs— Why Pure 
 Air Is ISecessary—The Difficulties of Late Hatching— The Importance of Good, Hatchable Eggs. 
 
 ByA.F. Hunter. 
 
 ANY people are intending to buy an incubator and 
 brooder, and some suggestions io tiiat end will be 
 timely. Do not put off buying too long. Do not 
 wait until you need to begin hitcinug. There are 
 very manifest advantages in getting the incubator into your 
 possession, and becoming to a certain exteijt familiar with 
 it. We know a man who intended l.o buy an incubator, but 
 put it off, for one reason or another, until it was time to 
 begin hatching, and, indeed, he had actually begun saving 
 eggs for hatching. He then sent the money for the incuba- 
 tor and asked the manufacturers to "please hurry it along." 
 They shipped it at cnce, but he, aftar waiting some ten days, 
 wrote to know why his incubator had not arrived. As it 
 was on the way, all the manufacturers could do was to start 
 a "tracer" after it, and the incubator and tracer reached the 
 man's railway station practically togethf^r ■— the incubator 
 having been thirteen days on the road. 
 
 While such a delay may be unusual, still, there are pos- 
 sible delays, owing to the transfer of the machine from one 
 r.'^ilway to another at a junction, and that ineans unloading 
 it onto one platform, trundling it to another platform and 
 loading on another car, etc., etc., etc.; my one who is ac- 
 quainted with freight shipments knows the vexatious delays 
 that are possible. Therefore, we say buy your machine in 
 good time so as to avoid the possible misfortune of delay 
 in transportation. Another point is that you get an oppor- 
 tunity to get the machine set up at a time when you have 
 plenty of leisure to do it right and get the conditions right; 
 you can also take time to get acquainted v.-ith the machine 
 so as to run it to the best advantage and greatest conven- 
 ience to yourself. That point of getting acquainted with 
 the machine is a most important one. 
 
 We have a letter from a lady in Montana who says that 
 she bought an incubator last spring, got it home lo her 
 house about noon, went to work uncrating it and setting it 
 up as soon as she had eaten her dinner, and at 5 o'clock in 
 the afternoon put the eggs Into it. A littls consideration of 
 the risks those eggs were subjected to will illustrate the 
 point. She had never seen an incubator before and had no 
 idea of running one excepting what she got in the directions 
 sent with the Incubator. As fortune favored her, she got a 
 good hatch, but ihe chances were certainly very much 
 against it; and it is very foolish to take chances when we 
 can avoid them by taking time by the forelock. It is good, 
 sound advice to take three or four days in which to gradu- 
 ally warm up the machine to the desired temperature, see 
 
 that the regulation is properly adjusted to tae desired point, 
 become familiar with the individuality of the lamp so that 
 the flame can be set at pretty nearly the same point after 
 each filling and trimming,— in fact, become "familiar" with 
 the methods of operating the incubator. This is purely ele- 
 mentary advice, but the great bulk of incubator buyers are 
 iVmateurs, and very many of them have never operated In- 
 cubators before, hence these same "A, B, C" points have to 
 be gone over every season in order to be.'^t help those who 
 are just starting with incubators. 
 
 Test the Eggs. 
 
 A not uncommon fault of inexperienceii incubator oper- 
 ators is to neglect testing the eggs. This is a mistake (or 
 several reasons. First, there is always a proportion of eggs 
 that are absolutely clear, running usually from 10 to 25 or 
 30 per cent, and those clear eggs are perfectly good for cook- 
 ing. They are not quite fresh, of course, since the six or 
 seven days that they have been in the machine have 
 "staled" them to a certain extent, but no more than if they 
 
 had lain on the counter of a country store for a few weeks 
 
 as is very frequently the case. Large operators usually sell 
 those infertile eggs to bakers and confectioners, and they 
 are used up in making cakes, pies, custards, etc 
 
 A decided advantage in removing from the trays those 
 clear eggs is that there is more room for the fertile eggs in 
 the trays, and they can be turned and handled more easily; 
 even if no second test is made, a first test, to take out the 
 clear eggs, certainly should be made. 
 
 A second test about the fourteenth or nfteenth day, to 
 remove germs that have died since the first test, is a help 
 to a good hatch. Those dead eggs usually throw off slight 
 odors or deleterious matter, hence a good hatch is promoted 
 by getting them out of the machine. Another argument for 
 testing eggs is that it increases one's knowledge of embry- 
 onic life and development, and enhances the interest of 
 artificial incubation. A good tester is sent out with every 
 incubator sold and we strongly urge the buyer to start 
 right.— and learning to test his eggs is an important part of 
 that start. 
 
 Dark shelled and thick shelled eggs are more difficult 
 for an amateur to test than are the more common white- 
 shelled eggs, for the reason that the light does not shine 
 through them so well, and even an experienced tester may 
 mistake a clear egg for a probable germ; that is, the yolk 
 may throw a shadow that will have the appearance of a 
 good, strong germ. 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 It is well in learning to test to break a few eggs that 
 one is doubtful of and learn the appearance of clear eggs, 
 dead germs, strong-living germs, etc. Do not be afraid to 
 sacrifice a dozen or two of eggs in the interesi. of gaining 
 knowledge — it is a good investment in the long run. 
 Supply Fresh Air. 
 
 Be certain that there is an abundant supply of fresh air 
 in the incubator room at all times. A serious mistake of 
 beginners is being afraid that a little fresh air will jeopard- 
 ize the hatch. It is important to remember that if you 
 have 150 living germs in an incubator all of those 150 living 
 organisms are consuming oxygen jvcry day .and every min- 
 ute of the day, hence it is important that they be abundantly 
 supplied with that life-giving element. If the ineubf-lor is 
 in a moderately warm place, say about 60 degrees, more air 
 
 or soft-roasters early in the spring. Having the incubator 
 and brooder equipment and the winter season being a time 
 when the farm work does not crowd so hard, it is natural 
 to think of having some chickens to bring forward to mar- 
 ket; the cash received from selling them is always welcome. 
 A most important point in starting the incubators is that 
 they be carefully and thoroughly cieauod up, especially on 
 the inside where the actual work of incubating is done. It 
 is not so well known as it should be tha. disease germs 
 lurk in iincleaned incubators and brooi'ors and that not a 
 small proportion of the mortality of baby chicks is due to 
 the unsanitary condition of incubators and brooders. A few 
 years ago the Rhode Island Experiment St.ition was much 
 troubled with this mortality of baby chicks, and some hun- 
 dreds of cases were carefully examined for the purpose of 
 
 An Incubator Mouse Banked with tiarlh to Protect It Against Changes of Tempen tare. 
 
 can be admitted to the machine and the eggs can bo cooled 
 and aired a longer time than if the machine is in a consider- 
 ably colder place. This means that cooling and airing the 
 eggs should be much less in coid weather than in mild, 
 spring weather; then, too, you can do decidedly more cool- 
 ing and airing the last third of the hatch than earlier, and 
 the living embryos will be the better for i;. The practice 
 of operators varies considerably, some cooling and airing 
 the eggs a great deal after the flr.<!C week and there are some 
 who cool and air from the very start almost. Generally 
 speaking, however, if the incubator i.^- in a cool place it 
 will be found that the eggs get sufficiently cooled and aired 
 at the daily turning the first week, then a few minutes a day 
 the second week, and the last week (up to the time of pip- 
 ping) five to ten minutes a day is none too much. In- 
 deed, if the animal heat in the eggs is strong and the tem- 
 perature of the incubator room is 60 degrees or aliove. quite 
 a long airing daily will be beneficial.. 
 
 Some of the Difficulties of Late Hatching. 
 Some poultry raisers start hatching in the fall, with 
 the purpose to have broiler chickens to sell in the winter 
 
 locating the cause, and one of the causes given in the report 
 is: "Imperfect sanitation; lack of ventilation, sunlight, 
 etc., e. g., tuberculosis flourishes in dark, poor'y ventilated 
 brooders; 15.1 per cent of the post-mortems showed more or 
 less evidence of tuberculosis." A similar case was reported 
 as afflicting several practical poultry farms last winter and 
 so serious did the trouble become that an expert on poultry 
 diseases was called in to carefully examine a lot of the dead 
 chicks to see if he could locate the cause. He hadn't pro- 
 ceeded far when he located tuberculosis as being the princi- 
 pal cause; a thorough cleaning up and disinfecting of incu- 
 bators and brooders was prescribe! and within a week the 
 deaths practically ceased. 
 
 "Prevention" is so very much better, simpler and easier 
 than cure! How much of both pecuniary loss and trouble 
 those poultrymen would have saved if they had simply 
 cleaned up and disinfected the incubators and brooders be- 
 fore commencing operations in the fall. Improper feeding 
 and overcrowding f;re also prominent causes of the loss of 
 baby chicks, but those are easily preventable causes; any 
 one Insing chicks from those causes has only himself to 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 9 
 
 blame for it! And the disease germs also are easily prevent- 
 able; cleanliness and disinfecting will down them and keep 
 them down; hence any one who allows them to breed in his 
 incubators and brooders and pounce upon his baby chicks 
 has only himself to blame for it. 
 
 Getting Good, Hatchable Eggs. 
 Another difl'iculty to overco}ne in hatching fall and 
 ■winter chickens is getting good, hatchable eggs, but practi- 
 cal market poultry raisers overcome this diffculty, as is 
 proved by the fact that they hatch and raise fail and winter 
 chickens. Eggs of all kinds are very scarce in the fall and 
 early winter, and to get good, full-bodied eggs, eggs that 
 will produce a fair proportion of strong, healthy chicks, is 
 the problem If pullets have now begun to lay, their eggs 
 are rather small in size, and, as a rule, if they are used 
 for hatching the chicks one gets are likely to be small and 
 weak. Eggs from mature hens are the beat, out they are 
 mostly just recovering from the molt and lay few, if any, 
 eggs. Hens can be induced to molt in summer and be 
 wholly recovered from it and in f.ill lay asain by October 
 if handled for that object, and if one has eggs from such 
 hens of his own. or can get a supply from farmei neighbors, 
 he is fortunate and can hatch winter chick.s. 
 
 There is great difference in eggs, and marketmen speak 
 of the best as being "full-bodied and strong;" others are 
 classed as "weak and watery." It is only the best "full- 
 
 bodied and strong" eggs that will hatch strong, vigorous 
 chicks; it is well kuov/n that eggs whicli are weak and 
 watery cannot produce strong chicks. The food and bodily 
 condition of the fowls control the quality oi the eggs, hence 
 the hatchability of the eggs is largely in the control of the 
 manager of the fowls. The West Virginia Experiment Sta- 
 tion has recently reported some tests of "mash feeding com- 
 pared with whole grain, and heavy feeding compared with 
 light feeding as affecting the number of eggs laid and their 
 hatchability;" also, "beef scraps, ground fresh meat and 
 bone, and milk albumen as affecting tho hatchability of 
 eggs." The conclusion of the first scries of experiments 
 says: "It is seen that the eggs from the fowls fed liberally 
 hatched better than those from the fowls fed scantily;" 
 also, "The results from these two tests should be construed 
 as indicating that when the conditions are favorable for 
 normal egg production, then the eggs will hatch liptter than 
 when the conditions are unfavorable." It is Quite possible 
 that the above tells us nothing new, but it is a restatement 
 of an important truth which we need to have frequently 
 put up to us. The liberal feeding is Important. Ii'it the 
 good care, right sanitary condition?:, fre=h a)" and sufficient 
 exercise for good health are 'jqually importanl factors for 
 the production of good, hatchabl-; eggs, of eggs that are 
 "full, strong bodied," well shelled, and ail right in every 
 way. A. F. HUNTER. 
 
 THE ENVIRONMENT FOR INCUBATORS. 
 
 Fresh Air and Sunlight are as Essential for the Processes of Incubation as the Correct Degree of Neat. 
 
 By H. 4, Nourse. 
 
 THERE is no Questijn but we have good incubulors — 
 machines that will do their part if the operator will 
 provide proper environmeucs, .give them necessary 
 care and furnish good eggs. The fact that any 
 hatch at all is secured where the operators are careless of 
 everything but the machine itself, is a telling recommenda- 
 tion of the present day hatchers. 
 
 Aside from the proper control of heat in the machine, 
 nothing is of greater importance than b. favorable condition 
 of the surrounding air. Oxygen is a necessary factor in 
 success and must be provided. To shut an incubator in a 
 small, dark room where to confine the heat every door and 
 window is shut tightly, or to place it in a dark, musty cellar, 
 where but little fresh air enters from autumn to spring, is 
 to deprive yourself of its benefits. 
 
 Sunlight is one of the best air purifiers and germ de- 
 stroyers, but should not be allowed to shine through the 
 glass doors of the machine. For this reason few cellars are 
 fit for incubator rooms; yet. when one has ventilation suffi- 
 cient to keep the air pure at all times and windows above 
 ground through which the sunlight may shine, it is the very 
 best location for a machine, because the temperature wiU be 
 less variable than in a room or building that is wholly 
 above ground. In the absence of these conditions an ordi- 
 nary room in a dwelling, without heat, will be found best 
 adapted to the requirements of those who do not need or 
 cannot afford a building especially for this purpose. 
 
 Ventilation may be secured and controlled by dropping 
 the windows at the top and raising them at the bottom, pre- 
 
 venting a draught in severe or rough weather by inserting 
 cloth-covered frames in the open spaces. By having these 
 frames in two or three sizes and one or more windows the 
 situation may be thoroughly mastered. 
 
 It is a fact that small buildings designed for the pur- 
 pose do not, .as a rule, provide the favorable conditions de- 
 scribed, therefore are not very satisfactory. Of those above 
 ground few are well enough built to protect the machines in 
 severe weather without closing every source of fresh air, 
 in which case that confined in the building, usually of small 
 contents, is soon impoverished by the lamps, which abstract 
 the oxygen, leaving unhealthy gases in its place. Houses 
 partly or wholly below ground to the eaves almost invari- 
 ably lack sufficient ventilation, because it is more difficult 
 to introduce fresh air. The best room of this kind is one hav- 
 ing a building above to temper the heat in summer and the 
 cold in winter; walls extending five feet below the ground, 
 and two feet above; one-flfth of this exposed area of walls 
 being of glass. Good ventilation necessitates a constant 
 changing of the air by bringing in fresh air from without 
 the building and removing the air which has become laden 
 with impurities. To accomplish this, fresh air must be in- 
 troduced near the ceiling of the room, preferably through a 
 cloth diaphram. and the foul air drawn out from near the 
 floor by means of tubes extending from within one foot 
 thereof, up through the highest point in the roof of the 
 building. In this manner the room may be freed from 
 all gases without the aid of direct draughts and the chicks- 
 will be strong and healthy, if other conditions are favorable. 
 
 H. A. NOURSE. 
 
VENTILATION AND MOISTURE IN INCUBATORS, 
 
 The Greatest Problem in Successful Artificial Incubation Is In Ventilation and Moisture — The Egg Contains a Proper 
 Proportion of Elements to Build Up the Embryonic Structure — Death of the Embryo 
 Follows Abuse of Nature's Laws, 
 
 By H. E. Moss 
 
 NK of the auomalies in the incubator business of to- 
 day is the diversity of treatment to which eggs are 
 'required to be subjected under the instructions 
 of the makers of the various machines now on the 
 market and Iheir ability to furnish pages of testimonials in 
 support of their claims of the merits of their particular 
 machine. There can be but one correct process or method 
 of incubation, and that is nature's method. If we would 
 duplicate nature we must conform to her method. I have 
 before me thirty catalogues from as many different incuba- 
 tor manufacturers. I have been examining these books and 
 comparing the claims and theories of the different makers 
 
 Two Incubator Houses In Use on an English Poultry Farm. 
 
 so far as they pertain to the essential requirements of a suc- 
 cessful hatcher. There is but one point upon which they 
 all agree, and thar is the proper incubating temperature. 
 The ease with which this fact can be determined accounts 
 for this, but there are other conditions besides temperature 
 upon which successful hatching depends, and in these they 
 not only advance contrary theories, but in some instances 
 proclaim them as self-evident truths. Turning and cooling 
 the eggs are provided for In various ways, some even going 
 so far as to furnish a cooling schedule for each day of the 
 hatch, each one differing from the other. It is not with this 
 question, however, that I propose to deal at this time, but 
 the one embraced in ventilation and moisture. 
 
 We are told very emphatically by some that at the end 
 of a certain day the egg must show an air space to corre- 
 spond with a given diagram, and at the end of certain other 
 days it must show certain other fixed lines of air space, 
 and that it the eggs are placed in warm water on a certain 
 day and they float with an exposed surface equal to a silver 
 ■quarter in size, the evaporation is right. Now this may all 
 
 be approximately correct and agree with normal conditions, 
 but they go further and say that if they are found deficient 
 the ventilation must be increased and if excessive it must be 
 diminished and moisture introduced. 
 
 This sounds very plausible to the unthinking or those 
 who jump at conclusions. That all eggs lose a certain 
 amount of moisture during incubation is very apparent, but 
 the question is how do they lose it? From the rules they 
 lay down for the purpose of increasing or diminishing the 
 air space, we must assume their hypothesis to be that there 
 is a certain amount of water created in the egg that does 
 not belong there and that the Creator made the incubating 
 body a party to the reproductive process, and did not create 
 a perfect egg in a perfect condition to reproduce the species 
 without the intervention of this outside agency to rear- 
 range, as it were, its contents. 
 
 The absurdity of such an hypothesis is apparent. 
 
 Can we imagine for one moment that in His infinite 
 wisdom He would establish any incomplete or imperfect 
 thing, or law, as must be interred in this case, whereby 
 some species are taught to deposit their eggs in suitable 
 locations and never see them afterward, and that such eggs 
 should not contain the proper proportions of all the ele- 
 ments necessary to build up the embryonic structure? No, 
 we cannot conceive of any such condition. We must assume 
 that whatever is placed within the egg is necessary to the 
 perfect development of its germ, and that if we wish to incu- 
 bate it successfully we must not rob it of any one element 
 or any part of one, and that It we do It suffers in conse- 
 quence and in proportion to the degree of abuse to which we 
 subject it. 
 
 It has taken a number of years for incubator makers 
 and operators to correct their ventilation. Carbon dioxide 
 has been a bugbear. They find they need no longer tear 
 this. They now unintentionally cease robbing the egg of Its 
 moisture and realize the fact that under the new conditions 
 the hatches approximate natural methods. The moisture 
 pan is now a back number. The only benefit it ever worked 
 was to partially equalize the aqueous tension between the 
 inner and outer air, a condition which need not exist in a 
 modern incubator. A current of cold air drawn in through 
 the ventilating flues increases its capacity for moisture in 
 proportion to the increase in its temperature. Its relative 
 humidity being lower than the outer air, it gathers mois- 
 ture from the eggs in sufficient quantity to restore the equi- 
 librium. The allantois is robbed of its fluid and the mem- 
 brane becomes dry, destroying its function as a respiratory 
 organ, and death of the embryo follows. The greatest mor- 
 tality from this cause occurs during the third week. 
 
 The ventilating flues and forced drafts with which many 
 machines of to-day are equipped are wrong in principle, al- 
 though it is possible to operate fairly well with them, pro- 
 vided the apertures are reduced to the minimum and em- 
 ployed solely for the purpose of maintaining the air pure In 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 11 
 
 the egg chamber. Natural variations in the atmospheric 
 humidity exert no influence, provided the aqueous tension 
 is held the same within the egg chamber as without, and 
 this is attainable in very few machines. 
 
 From the hour the egg reaches the incubating tempera- 
 ture there is a condition present within it which I have 
 never seen noticed or described by any investigator. It is 
 what might be termed a partial vacuum, a tension, or a ten- 
 dency to shrinkage or contraction, which would naturally 
 cause the absorption of oxygen to be more rapid than If 
 it were compelled to depend upon diffusion only. This ten- 
 sion is more apparent on about the fourteenth day than at 
 any other period. It seems to be rythmic or Intermittent 
 and is suggestive of the process of breathing as we perform 
 it, except that its operation is so slight as to be impercep- 
 tible except under certain conditions. 
 
 Every atom of water contained in the egg is intended to 
 pass through the circulation of the embryo in combination 
 with the other elements, and is absolutely essential to the 
 perfecting of the structure, and after having been so util- 
 ized it is, as with any other elements that have beeen chem- 
 ically transformed and served their purpose, thrown off 
 as waste matter in the form of gases or urates. A weak 
 germ, and by that I mean one that has not had a strong 
 vitality, or life principle or impulse, implanted in it by the 
 parent, or that has been reduced to this state by abuse, is 
 retarded in its development. The impulse has either been 
 checked or was weak to begin with. The normal diminution 
 of the contents is checked or ceases entirely. The operator 
 Is told that he is using too much moisture and not ventilat- 
 ing enough, so out come the water pans and open go the 
 slides, and at the same time an examination of all the eggs 
 would perhaps show many at the normal stage. A strong 
 current of air is now driven through the machine under the 
 delusion that all that is necessary to make these weak 
 germs hatch is by some means to extract the surplus mois- 
 
 ture they seem to contain and increase the air space, and I 
 have no doubt but some would be tempted to draw it out 
 with a hypodermic syringe if it were contained in a pocket 
 in the egg and they were not convinced by actual experience 
 that a rupture of the membranes would be fatal. 
 
 I would suggest to any who have doubts on this ques- 
 tion to select a tray or a machine full of eggs showing small 
 air spaces, say about the tenth to the fourteenth day, place 
 them in a machine by themselves, take out all the water 
 pans, open wide all ventilators, force all the air you can 
 through the machine, and if you wish drive a warm blast 
 through it by a fan motor, and see how many of them will 
 come to exclusion. You can evaporate them fast enough 
 and the faster, the quicker and surer the death. 
 
 There are some things about incubation we can never 
 know. The life principle or impulse is beyond the grasp of 
 finite minds. Starting with germs that in every living thing 
 are identical in structure and appearance, and developing 
 them from one plane to another until they reach the limit 
 to which their impulse carries them, they become men, birds 
 or fish, and thus perpetuate their species, the fittest always 
 surviving. We mortals may speculate and theorize upon It, 
 but we cannot fathom iu 
 
 Our hypothesis is that the Creator placed in the normal 
 egg just what is needed there — no more, no less— and that 
 if we can duplicate natural conditions we can successfully 
 incubate them artificially, presuming that the parent bird 
 in the incubating process contributes nothing but heat. It 
 we can do this, and at the same time furnish oxygen suf- 
 ficient to sustain the process we will succeed, but it must 
 be just enough — no more, no less. The right amount to 
 gauge the machines for, varies with the outer temperature, 
 the stage of hatch and the machine used, as all vary In 
 their power to induce currents — some are forced, others are 
 natural. All these points must be taken into consideration. 
 
 H. E. MOSS. 
 
 4 Substantial, Practical Brooding House la Use at White Leghorn Poultry Yards, 
 
CARE or BROODER CHICKS, 
 
 The Brooder Chick from Egg to Maturity — Ventilation, Moisture, Temperature and Floor Space Discussed by Breeders 
 
 Who Know the Requirements of Brooder Chicks — Brooding Houses and Coops — Foods 
 
 and Feeding— General Advice on Management, 
 
 [This sj mposium is devoted to brooder chicks exclusively. To hatch chicks in an incubator is comparatively easy, and may be 
 done bv a novice, but to raise the chicks after they .are removed to the brooder requires a knowledge which does not stop at a 
 thorough understanding of brooder operation. The movements and appearance of the chicks inform an experienced observer what is 
 necessary for their well-being. To cbtain the greatest .growth in the shortest time, chicks must be healthy, comfortable and always 
 on the jump for food. Improper conditions result in death. It is from men who are competent to raise brooder chicks with the 
 lowest possible mortalit>' that we have obtained the foll.iwing useful information for our readers. — Editor.] 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF BROODER RAISED CHICKS- 
 RATIONS AND CARE. 
 
 , NE of the most necessary appliances connected with 
 the poultry industry is an A No. 1 brooder, even 
 though a hatcher is not in use. It is an easy mat- 
 ter to find a number of sitting hens, and by placing in the 
 brooder the chicks hatched by them, you avoid feeding the 
 chick's food to the hens, and they will soon begin laying. 
 The chicks -can be cared for and reared safely, no matter 
 what weather prevails outside the brooder. They are free 
 from vermin and if the brooder is kept clean they will not 
 -be troubled with lice. There is no need of losing a chick if 
 properly cared for. They will be much more tame and 
 more easily handled than those reared by hens. 
 
 F'or from fifty to seventy-five chicks a run of twenty feet 
 is sufficient for one to two weeks, after which the chicks 
 should be placed in a larger inclosure or allowed to run at 
 large. I believe in plenty of range, as chicks confined to 
 small inclosures very seldom develop well, but often do de- 
 velop off colored feathers in plumage, which nature provides 
 against it they have large range. The run may be made of 
 boa.rds twelve inches high, a portion of which may be cov- 
 ered with cheese-cloth. This will afford protection from 
 winds and storms, also from sun. 
 
 Chicks when first out of the shell can have no better 
 food than bread for two or three days, then a mixture of 
 'cornmeal and bran (half and half in bulk), to which add a 
 small quantity of bone meal, about one part to eight of the 
 mixture of meal and bran. Wet this with water and it 
 makes an excellent food for morning and noon. At night 
 good, clean wheat and cracked corn, with oat flakes or hulled 
 
 oats is unsurpassed. Milk is very beneficial if placed where 
 fowls or chicks can drink it. but should not be mixed with 
 the food. 
 
 A good brooder, an abundance of the right kind of food, 
 coupled witli a (air amount of common sense, will bring 
 goDd results. W. F. BRACE. 
 
 A Croup ol Fast Crowing Chicks. 
 
 LESSONS FROM NATURE— INTERESTING EXPERI- 
 ENCES—LIMIT THE FOOD SUPPLY. 
 
 While we have most of our chicks raised with hens on 
 farms we still raise some in brooders. We allow the chicks 
 to remain in the incubator from ten to twelve hours after 
 they are all hatched; then we put them into a warmed 
 brooder with the floor covered two inches thick with wheat 
 bran. .A.fter they have been in the brooder two days we 
 scatter a little millet seed in the bran, but not much for a 
 wee'k. This season we have used a prepared chick food al- 
 ternately with millet and have had success. When a few 
 weeks old we feed cracked corn and whole wheat, in fact 
 anything the chicks will eat, as great a variety as possible, 
 and not too much at a time, keeping them in good appetite 
 all the time, so they will take plenty of exercise. It is well 
 lo have plenty of chaff or cut straw, hayseed or anything of 
 that kind to scatter their grain food in to make them v.-ork, 
 not forgetting grit and green food. 
 
 Use only a brooder so constructed that the chicks can 
 get any degree of heat they want, and one that allows the 
 chicks to get away as far from the heat as they want to, and 
 they will take care of themselves. 
 
 One thing in raising brooder cliicks seems to us to be of 
 more importance than anything else, and that is the feed- 
 ing of the chick the first week of its existence. When a 
 chick is hatched nature has supplied it with enough food 
 so it can easily do without eating or drinking for a week or 
 over. We will give one instance that will prove this with- 
 out a doubt. 
 
 A few years ago we had a hen that would fly through a 
 ventilator and get above a board ceiling in one of our 
 chicken houses; there she laid a lot of eggs and hatched a 
 dozen chicks. Judging from the looks of the chicks when 
 we first found them they were about ten days old. and dur- 
 ing that time they had neither food nor water. A stronger 
 lot of chicks I never saw and they were as wild as deer. 
 
 In 1890 we took two hens with fifteen chicks each and 
 put them into a cornfield a quarter of a mile from our build- 
 ings and left them to hunt their living as best they could. 
 The chicks had no water or food, except what the hen found 
 for them. After they wei'e ten days old we went to see them 
 and note results. We found the heris had not been ten yards 
 from the place we put them, and such a sleek, healihy and 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 VS. 
 
 vigorous lot of chicks we never saw. Being satisfied with 
 results so far, we ieft them another week, but when we went 
 to see them we only found a few feathers from the hens, as 
 a pack of dogs had put a stop to our experiments, but we 
 learned this one fact, that very little, if any food should be 
 given to newly hatched chicks for the first three or four days 
 at least, and we believe there are more chicks killed by 
 overfeeding in the first ten days of their lives than at any 
 other time. This hardly ever affects the chicks until about 
 the seventh day, when they get diarrhoea and stand around 
 with full crops and soon die from indigestion, caused by 
 strong food and feeding. We al! know what a hen that 
 steals her nest does after her chicks are hatched. She does 
 nothing the first few days but brood her chicks, then after 
 they are three or four days old she will commence to scratch 
 for them, but very little do they get for the first ten days. 
 They secure a few small seeds at a time, and as they grow, 
 and their digestive organs get strength they find more food, 
 and most -jf the chicks live and grow to maturity; they de- 
 velop very fast, too. Let us watch the old hen and learn 
 lessons that will help us much in raising chicks with 
 brooders. 
 
 We think exercise is of great importance, and if one is 
 so situated as to allow the chicks a good run it will be found 
 very beneficial. If the room is limited use plenty of litter 
 with dry food scattered through it. Avoid sloppy food. 
 Remember dry food is nature's food and always remember, 
 too, that little food is far better than too much. 
 
 AUG. D. ARNOLD. 
 
 ON BROODERS AND BREEDING. 
 
 Four years of experience with artificial incubating and 
 brooding has settled definitely in my mind the fact that 
 with it we can raise "better poultry and more of it." I 
 mean by this, that we cannot only raise a larger quantity, 
 but a better quality. This is from the standpoint of a fan- 
 cier as well as a marketman. 
 
 In my hands brooder raised chicks are superior in 
 growth and development, shape and plumage to those raised 
 by hens. There are many reasons why this should be so, 
 and these will be apparent to the unprejudiced poultrymen. 
 My exhibition specimens have invariably been brooder 
 raised. 
 
 If I could have but one I would prefer a brooder to an 
 incubator. I do not think an incubator superior to a hen 
 for hatching, but I do think a brooder superior to her for 
 raising chicks. To be successful the floor of the brooder 
 should be built as near the ground as possilile, should be 
 capable of generating sufficient heat, and should have a 
 regulator that will maintain the correct temperature. I 
 believe a regulator on a brooder in which you expect to 
 place newly hatched chicks is as important as that on an 
 incubator. The heat should come from above, with just 
 sufficient bottom heat to keep the floor dry. The tempera- 
 ture under the hover should be ninety degrees Fahrenheit 
 for the first two weeks, with a gradual lowering from that 
 on. Overheating is just as injurious and will cause bowel 
 trouble just as quickly as will a chilly atmosphere. 
 
 Let me caution readers against buying cheap brooders, 
 for they prove very expensive in the end. Out of the many 
 brooders made and advertised, there should be no trouble 
 to select a good one. Buy the best or none at all. 
 
 I have absolutely no use for an outdoor brooder, unless 
 it is to be used indoors, and then I prefer an indoor brooder. 
 Imagine shutting up fifty to two hundred chicks in a brood- 
 er three by four feet for two whole days when the weather 
 is stormy, and expecting them to do well. 
 
 I have made small houses, six by eight feet, with a 
 window and door in front. In a corner of this house 1 place 
 
 A Vigorous Brood and Their Brooder, 
 
 tho brooder, and after the chicks are three days old I give 
 them the run of the house. On pleasant days the door to 
 this house is left open and the chicks are given the run of 
 the yard. In stormy weather they are kept in the house. 
 On the floor of this house is four to six inches of chaff and 
 into this the food is placed. At the end of eight or ten 
 weeks the brooders are removed and roosts are put in their 
 place. The young are left here until placed in winter 
 quarters. 
 
 For food for the first tour weeks I use bread soaked in 
 milk, squeezed dry as possible, millet seed, cracked wheat, 
 and cat groats. After the fourth week cut green bone is 
 fed twice a week in place of bread and milk, and cracked 
 corn alone for night food. Chick grit, granulated bone and 
 dry bran is kept before them at all times. Be careful and do 
 not overfeed. Small chicks will commence to scratch as 
 soon as hungry, and they should be kept at it. 
 
 It is needless to say attention to details is necessary to 
 success. Clean the brooder frequently and keep the sur- 
 roundings in a sanitary condition. 
 
 Fresh, pure water should be kept before them. Get the 
 chicks out on the ground as soon as possible, if but for a few 
 minutes every day. 
 
 With me the brooder chicks and their care are a source' 
 of pleasure, and their attention means a friendship between 
 us which is noticeable when they become adult fowls. 
 
 DR. 0. P. BENNETT. 
 
 THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BROODER IS OF FIRST 
 IMPORTANCE. 
 
 We have been raising chicks since 1893 and with the- 
 exception of the first year we have raised nearly all of them 
 in brooders. We have at times raised nearly every chick: 
 put into them, and again, we have lost every solitary one, 
 with many varied and interesting experiences between the 
 two extremes, bui the method with which we have had the 
 best success is that which we here describe. 
 
 When the chicks are hatched we have the brooders all 
 ready and warmed to a temperature of ninety degrees, which 
 we consider nearly a perfect temperature (that is ninety 
 degrees in the coolest part of the hover and not exceeding 
 one hundred degrees in the warmest.) We place the chicks 
 under the hover and for one week keep the temperature at, 
 or as near ninety degrees as it is possible to keep it. The 
 second week, if all has gone well, we reduce the temperature 
 to eighty degrees, and after the second week and for as long 
 as the chicks need the heat in a brooder we run it at seventy 
 to eighty degrees, or at whatever temperature the chicks 
 seem to be contented. We consider the heating part of this 
 brooder business of more importance than the method of 
 
14 
 
 THE CHICK COOK 
 
 feeding, as too much or too little heat will wipe out a whole 
 brooderful of chiciis before one is aware anything has gone 
 wrong. Another thing — in the night when there is a change 
 In the weather from one extreme to the other, cue will, 
 many a time, save a bunch of chicks by going out and 
 changing the lamp flame, either up or down, as may be 
 necessary. No matter if you arc sleepy, if you wish to 
 raise the greatest number of chicks, you must attend to this 
 duty. 
 
 As to feeding, we have wheat, oats and corn, equal parts 
 of each ground together, and, with one-third its bulk in 
 bran mixed with water to a stiff mass, a litMe soda added, 
 and sometimes two or three eggs to a gallon of the food. 
 This we put in a deep ___^_^^ 
 pan and bake thor- "^ "^\ 
 oughly for two hours in 
 a good hot oven. We usf 
 this food crumbled fine 
 with a little more dry 
 •bran added for the first 
 four days and feed three 
 times a day just what 
 they will eat up clean. 
 At noon, after the fifth 
 day, we feed a little 
 wheat, cracked corn and 
 millet seed until they 
 can eat cracked wheat, 
 oata and corn, when we 
 feed equal parts of 
 wheat and oats, but 
 only half as much corn. 
 After the first week we 
 add a small quantity of 
 green cut bone every 
 week day in the evening 
 food. When they are 
 five weeks old we feed 
 whole grain morning 
 and noon and soft food 
 (not cooked) and green 
 bone at night, until they 
 are nearly matured, 
 when we omit the noon 
 feed entirely. 
 
 We keep them in their 
 regular brooders until 
 they can do without the 
 heat; then they are 
 changed to a cold brood- 
 er for a week or ten 
 days, and from there to 
 
 our open front roosting coops. They remain in these coops 
 until they become troublesome to the smaller ones, when we 
 put the first hatched lot in our large pens, separating the 
 males and females. 
 
 We give our young chicks unlimited range of an old 
 orchard, except duriniiB'.:e first two weeks, when we use a 
 small pen ten feet scjfetr© around each brooder for fifty 
 chicks. We never put more than that number In one 
 brooder. 
 
 For our early chicks, for green food, we use a small 
 amount of clover meal in their food. Young chicks should 
 be placed on the ground just as early as possible after the 
 second or third day. The little chicks in cool weather 
 should be placed in a sunny spot and in extremely Lot 
 weather in the shade. Close attention to details and all ef- 
 forts to make the chicks comfortable are well repaid by 
 faster, better growth. CLARK & TROLL. 
 
 The heater which feeds the Pipe Systems In a New Jersey Brooding House. 
 
 KEEP THE BROODEB CLEAN— WHAT TO FEED- 
 HENS BRING LICE. 
 Yes, I have had some experience raising chicks with 
 brooders. As to the number of chicks to a brooder, I have 
 yet to find one that would accommodate more than thirty or 
 forty chicks for me. There is much danger of over-crowd- 
 ing where more than forty are placed in the same brooder. 
 Special care is needed to keep the chicks very clean, and 
 the fresher and cleaner the surroundings of the chicks the 
 less liable one is to lose them. 
 
 In regard to feeding— I like pin-head oatmeal or rolled 
 oats for the first four or five weeks, with a change to bread 
 and milk or Spratt's patent chick food. An excellent change 
 
 also and one that pro- 
 duces growth Is flue 
 cut green bone. As to 
 the quantity, I give 
 them what they will eat 
 up clean. I would much 
 rather keep them a little 
 hungry than have them 
 stuffed with food. 
 
 I feed about five times 
 a day the first week; 
 after that four times a 
 day till they are near- 
 ly grown. Cracked corn, 
 w h e a; t, buckwheat, 
 ground oats and green 
 cut bone is what I give 
 them from six weeks 
 old upwards. I keep 
 plenty of grit before 
 them, also plenty of 
 fresh water in clean 
 fountains or dishes. 
 
 When weather per- 
 mits I allow them to 
 run at will, giving them 
 practically free range. I 
 have five acres devoted 
 exclusively to White 
 Wyandottes and raise 
 about two hundred 
 chicks on the home 
 place. I farm out extra 
 ones on different farms. 
 I find that they do much 
 better in small num- 
 bers. It is not how 
 many I try to raise, but 
 how many good ones. 
 I raise some by natural way, but have to be on the alert for 
 fear of lice. But frequent use of lice killing powders and 
 lice killing paints will keep them down and out. All my 
 wesned cliickens are quartered in roosting coops where they 
 get plenty of air and grow fast. 
 
 C. S. WETMORE. 
 
 FIVE DOLLARS AN HOUR EARNED BY RAISING 400 
 BROODER CHICKS. 
 
 I had a little experience a few years ago which I think 
 will illustrate the possibilities of chicken growing on a lim- 
 ited area and may interest and benefit some of your readers. 
 
 During the latter part of March I got out a hatch of 
 Light Brahma chicks, four hundred and one in number. I 
 kept them in the brooder house for a few days, then, being 
 short of room, put them outside in two outdoor brooders. 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 15 
 
 inclosing them in a little space of six square rods, inside a 
 -wire fence one foot high. I think I have never suffered so 
 «mall a mortality in all my experience with chicks, losing 
 but three of the whole number and one of those killed by a 
 dog. Those chicks commenced growing from the first and 
 in three weeks' time began to hop over the wire. I hastily 
 placed a four-foot wire around the pen, intending to move 
 them to different quarters when convenient, but they made 
 such a remarkable growth and seemed so healthy, I thought 
 I would see how long they could be kept growing in that 
 limited space. I attended them myself. The yard was 
 swept every day with scrupulous care and the excrements 
 removed. The birds were fed systematically and always 
 kept a little hungry. They never left that yard till they 
 went to market, then weighing from five to six pounds each, 
 dressed, and there was not a cull in the lot. Their plumage 
 
 In fact nothing came amiss; they greedily devoured every- 
 thing I gave them and appeared to have every confidence In 
 my judgment. They brought thirty cents per pound in Boa- 
 ton market, aggregating nearly six hundred dollars, thus 
 paying me for all food consumed and nearly five dollars an 
 hour for all time In caring for them and had they been 
 hatched two weeks earlier they would have brought thirty- 
 five cents per pound. With one exception, this was my 
 most successful experience with chickens. 
 
 JAMES RANKIN. 
 
 BAISING CHICKS IN BROODERS. 
 We use both indoor piped sectional and outdoor hot-air 
 brooders. To begin with, our chicks are well hatched and 
 come out strong, plump and active. Very early in the sea- 
 son, when the weather is still cold and frosty and no grass 
 
 view Showing the Location of Hovers end Other Interior Fixtures In a New Jersey Brooding House. 
 
 ■was glossy and fine. The birds were gentle and could bo 
 taken up at will. 
 
 When a little over four months old and about ready for 
 market, I notified Mr. Hunter, then of Farm Poultry, that 
 I had a show for him. He came out the next day and when 
 he saw those chicks he would not believe that they had been 
 grown in that yard, as there appeared to be but little more 
 than standing room for them. He asked my men If I was 
 not hoaxing with him, and he finally acknowledged that 
 they were the finest lot of chicks he ever saw together. 
 
 They were fed four times per day till a month old, after 
 that three times. They were started in with bread crumbs 
 and hard boiled eggs chopped fine. One part egg to five 
 parts crumbs and plenty of grit mixed in. After three days 
 their food was equal quantities of wheat bran and cornmeal 
 with a little fine beef scraps, and I gave them one feed each 
 day of rolled oats and cracked corn. As they grew older 
 they had a bucket of clotted milk each day, boiled potatoes 
 and green grass. Toward the last, one feed of whole com 
 and over one-half busbel of finely cut corn fodder per day. 
 
 growing, we use the indoor brooders. These machines are 
 set up, thoroughly warmed and tested before the chicks are 
 put in. The brooder floors are sanded and the house floor 
 covered with chaff or cut straw. During the first few weeks 
 we keep the hovers very warm and if the chicks are too 
 warm they crawl out where it Is cooler. At night in par- 
 ticular we are careful to have a good surplus of heat, so 
 that the chicks lie partly outside the hovers, as from mid- 
 night to morning the temperature of the room will lower 
 considerably, so the chicks will go under the hover and be 
 very comfortable. Were it not for this surplus of heat 
 when left at night the chicks might be chilled before morn- 
 ing and then bowel trouble would make its appearance and 
 many chicks die. Each room is sixteen by twenty feet and 
 not usually over four hundred chicks to each brooder. 
 
 The first few days the chicks are fed granulated oat- 
 m.eal only, with clean water (not too cold) for drink, and 
 some good, sharp grit before them constantly. The first 
 week we feed four times daily and but little at a meal. Wo 
 then begin gradually working them on to a diet of cake. 
 
Hi 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 varied with tracl<ed wheat. The calie is made of ground 
 oats (hulls sifted out), cornmeal and best coarse wheat bran, 
 about equal parts by bulk, with a very little high grade beef 
 scraps mixed in wliile dry. The mixture is then moistened 
 with some milk or buttermilk, salted as for the table, leav- 
 ened with soda, and baked. 
 
 The baking tins should not be quite full, as when the 
 bread is done we turn it upside down on a board so the crust 
 will be softened by the steam. As the chicks grow older 
 the amount of beef scraps is gradually increased. This 
 feeding goes on until the chicks are five to six weeks old. 
 when a warm mash of about the same material as the cake 
 is fed once a day. and whole wheat and cracked corn twice. 
 This mash is moistened with warm water -.vith a little salt 
 dissolved. 
 
 Just as soon as we can get fresh clover or grass it is fed 
 daily, cut in one-eighth-inch lengths. Chard, lettuce, beet 
 tops or any such gieen stuff is also good. The hard grains 
 are fed in the litter to induce exercise after the chicks are 
 older and strong enough to work it out. 
 
 When the chicks are ten days to two weeks old and the 
 weather is suitable they are let out in yards about fifty by 
 two hundred feet in size, care being taken that they can 
 find their way to the house when stormy. When they are 
 about eight weeks old the yards are opened and the birds 
 given free range. 
 
 When the chicks show a disposition to roost on top in- 
 stead of inside the brooder, roosts are placed back of the 
 brooder and the chicks encouraged to occupy them, when in 
 a short time the brooder can be removed. 
 
 Just as soon as grass starts in spring, we begin putting 
 chicks in the outdoor brooders, and when they are four to 
 six days old we let them out on the ground in small yards 
 in front of the brooder. As soon as they get familiar with 
 going in and out and learn to go inside when the weather 
 is stormy we give larger yards, running entirely around the 
 brooder, and finally when the chicks are three or four weeks 
 old we allow them free range. These chicks are fed same 
 as in the indoor brooders, except that cut grass is omitted, 
 as they help themselves to the fresh, growing article, and 
 the exercise they get in pulling it off and running around 
 the yards is a wonderful aid to growth. 
 
 In my opinion an outdoor brooder should have a light, 
 cool chamber attached, where the chicks can feed and exer- 
 cis'3 when very young, or when the weather is bad, and into 
 which they can retreat in ease the brooder chamber should 
 become overheated. Outdoor brooders have some advan- 
 tages over those indoor, but they require more watchful 
 care. Their greate.st point of superiority is that the chicks 
 can be got out on the ground at a much earlier age, and in 
 running about their yard, picking the fresh grass, etc., get 
 much healthful exercise. When the weather gets very hot 
 the outdoor brooder should be placed in the shade, and a 
 shady run provided for the chicks when very young, as the 
 intense heat of the sun kills a great many. When running 
 at large the chicks will seek shade of their own accord. 
 
 We like both kinds of brooders, use both, and would not 
 wish to be deprived of either. H. J. BLANCHARD. 
 
 THE BROODER CHICK FROM EGG TO MATURITY. 
 
 Early in our experience of artificial brooding we became 
 convinced of the fact that the foundation of successful 
 brooding was laid months before the chick was hatched. By 
 thi.s we mean that unless the breeding stock is in the best 
 of physical health we cannot hope for the best results in 
 raising our young stock. Too many of the reasons assigned 
 for the large mortality among chicks are, to say the least, 
 of very uncertain signification, and not enough attention 
 is paid to the poor condition of the breeding stock, which 
 
 is, to our way of thinking, the main reason why a larger 
 percentage of chicks do not reach maturity. 
 
 Our first attempt at brooding chickens artificially re- 
 sulted in disastrous failure, but by close observation and 
 many costly experiments, we finally adopted a method 
 which is giving us gratifying results, and we feel sure that 
 tho?p who will try it will be pleased with it. 
 
 It goes without saying that the eggs must be well incu- 
 bated, and every attention given them while under process 
 of incubation. We leave the chicks in the incubator forty- 
 eight hours after they come out of the shell. The morning 
 of the third day we take them out of the incubator and carry 
 them to the brooders, which have been previously warmed 
 for their reception. We then give them their first feed, 
 which consists of whole wheat bread, moistened with milk. 
 We never place more than fifty chicks in each brooder, 
 sometimes only forty. The temperature of the brooders is 
 regulated by the disposition of the chicks on the brooder 
 floor; if well spread out, we know they have sufficient heat, 
 if all crowded in a corner we know they need more heat. 
 That is our thermometer, and a reliable one. 
 
 We wish here to relate an experiment we made in order 
 to determine the length of time chicks can be left in ihe in- 
 cubator without food. Five chicks were left in the machine, 
 the ventilators wide open, and the heat regulated to 100 de- 
 grees. At first it was our intention to leave them in until 
 they showed signs of weakness, but on the fourth day our 
 courage weakened, and we fed them. They had up to this 
 time showed no other signs but that of being very hungry, 
 running to the glass front of the machine upon hearing the 
 least noise. We marked these chicks and let them run with 
 the rest. At maturity two of the cockerels weighed eight 
 and three-quarter pounds each; three of the pullets six 
 pounds, six and one-quarter pounds, and six and one-half 
 pounds respectively. All of them lived to maturity and 
 were always bright. Since then we always left our chicks 
 forty-eight hours without food and believe this to be the 
 very best way to start chickens growing. 
 
 Our brooders ".re placed inside of a house eight by ten 
 feet, with yards eight by twenty-five feet, each brooder oc- 
 cupying a separate house. The floor of the brooder is car- 
 peted with cut clover, but the brooder house is filled in to 
 above the sills with clean, sharp sand. The chicks are left 
 in the brooder for two days, tiien let out into the house for 
 three or four days, then the slide door to the yard is left 
 opjn and they are given the run of their yards. When the 
 chicks are six weeks old we take away the fence to the yards 
 and give them thn free run of the farm. 
 
 For the first ten days of their lives our chicks are fed 
 only whole wheat bread moistened in milk every four hours. 
 Water (warmed in cold weather) is always before them from 
 the start, and is renewed twice or four times a day accord- 
 ing to the weather. When the chicks are ten days old we 
 still continue the vvfheat bread morning and night, the other 
 two feeds are made up of the following mixed giains: 
 Cracked wheat, 50 pounds; coarse oatmeal, 25 pounds; 
 cracked corn, 10 pounds; millet seed, 5 pounds; fine meat 
 scraps, 10 pounds. When fine meat scraps are not procur- 
 able, boil some liver, chop it up into fine pieces, and use 
 that instead. Some heresy hunters will prick up their ears 
 upon reading this and criticise us for giving meat to our 
 young chicks, especially when given free range, but we 
 know that it is impossilile to grow the finest chicks without 
 the free use of meat, but it must be used with judgment 
 and be of good quality. 
 
 At six weeks old we make the mixture of whole grains 
 instead of cracked, still feeding it twice a day, but at this 
 age the bread is replaced by a mash fed morning and night, 
 composed as follows: Wheat, 50 pounds; shelled oats, 25 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 17 
 
 pounds; pearled bailey, 15 pounds; corn, 10 pounds. We buy 
 the grains whole and have them ground up together into 
 a meal. To every 100 pounds of this meal we add 10 pounds 
 of the finest quality meat scraps. We continue to feed our 
 chicks four times a day until three months old, then we drop 
 one meal, and feed only three times a day, mixed grains in 
 the morning and noon, and mash at night. We aim to feed 
 all they will eat at each meal, without overfeeding. Now 
 and again when they do not appear hungry we drop a meal, 
 and they are benefited by it. 
 
 At three months old we separate the sexes, giving the 
 cockerels one part of the farm, the pullets the other. 
 
 We have said nothing about charcoal, dry bran, tonics 
 and condition powders, simply because they are unneces- 
 sary. Grit of course we use and find we cannot get along 
 without it. 
 
 While we are painfully aware that our method is not 
 perfect, we cannot overlook the fact that by following it as 
 hero described, we have succeeded in bringing to maturity 
 over ninety per cent of all chicks put in the brooders. Our 
 chicks grow steadily from the shell up, our pullets begin 
 laying at six months old always. They have produced two 
 hundred eggs in one year. A good deal of this large egg 
 yield was due to the care given the pullets while growing 
 and after they began to lay, but had they not been bred 
 frorj layers we could not have reached these results. If only 
 those who decry the practice of breeding layers by the indi- 
 vidual record system would try it, they would soon become 
 converts to it. However, the proof of the pudding is the 
 eating of it; give our way a trial before you condemn it, 
 you will be pleased with the results. C. BRICAULT. 
 
 FOOD AND CARE GIVEN FLOCKS OF BROODER 
 CHICKS. 
 
 As our present plan of feeding is giving sucli good re- 
 sults we will here give you a description of the care and iood 
 given our chicks. We leave the chicks in the machines until 
 the morning of the twenty-second day, taking out the trays 
 the night of the twenty-first day, thus giving the chicks 
 more room and light. 
 
 The morning of the twenty-third day the chicks are 
 taken out and put into outdoor brooders and given a break- 
 fast of dry rolled oats, which we feed for a week or ten days. 
 A little chopped lettuce is much relished by the chicks also. 
 From rolled oats we go to a mixed food consisting of a pre- 
 pared poultry food with a little more rolled oats and meat 
 meal added to it. This we mix up with curdled milk until 
 it will crumble in the hand. This we feed until it is time 
 for whole grain and cracked corn, and we find it is giving 
 grand results. We neglected to slate at the beginning that 
 first and foremost the chicks are given plenty of fresh water 
 as well as good food, all of which make chicks grow and 
 keep them growing. Charcoal and fine grit are also among 
 the necessities of proper feeding. 
 
 Great care should be taken to keep the brooders cleaned 
 at least once a week, and aired every day. 
 
 Our predecessor always used indoor brooders, but he 
 always had a great deal of trouble in keeping the chicks 
 warm early in the season and cool as the season advanced, 
 and the result was the loss of chicks. There is one point 
 in favor of indoor brooders, and that is in rainy weather 
 the chicks have more room, but with the style of brooders 
 we have now in use we have had no trouble on this score, 
 as we only put seventy-five into each brooder, which is but 
 half their capacity, thus giving the chicks plenty of room 
 for different kinds of weather. 
 
 Attached to each brooder is a small wire run, where the 
 chicks are let out for a week or ten days, until they get used 
 to going in and out of the brooder, then the fence is removed 
 
 and the chicks have free range every pleasant day until 
 they are separated and put in the brooder house and taught 
 to go onto the roost. 
 
 We think we have the best plan for young chick roosts 
 we have seen. We use four saw-horses placed at even dis- 
 tances apart. On these we have eleven roosts, four inches 
 wide by twenty feet long, placed about two inches apart. 
 Those are fastened to the end horses by boring holes 
 through the slats and horses and putting spikes through 
 both, thus holding them all in position. We find them easy 
 to build, easy to clean and easy to take down and store. 
 These eleven roosts will accommodate from three to four 
 hundred half-grown chicks. Our brooder house is situated 
 in a large pear orchard covering about eight acres; the soil 
 is gravel and sand and is seeded to clover. We also have 
 two living springs, so our stock get plenty of good pure 
 water, lots of shade, ample range, with plenty of insects 
 to keep them busy between meals. GRAY & STORKE. 
 
 BROODER CHICKS AND GROWING STOCK— CARE 
 AND FOOD. 
 
 It is a delightfully easy thing to tell how to raise chick- 
 ens. It is not quite so easy to successfully raise them. 
 There is little need for any extended directions for raising 
 chickens by the natural method other than in the points of 
 food and cleanliness, with some little attention to the de- 
 tails of housing and shade. With artificial hatching the 
 business takes on a development and calls for much greater 
 care and decidedly more attention to food and management. 
 
 Little need be said of the hatching, except that the best 
 incubators should be used; the second rate cheaper machines 
 being generally unworthy of confidence; that is, the prob- 
 lem of hatching is of sufficient importance that only the 
 very best means to this end should be accepted. 
 
 In producing eggs for hatching the very best attention 
 must be given to the breeding stock, and if good results are 
 to be had the birds must be the product of several genera- 
 tions of hardy, vigorous stock. 
 
 The strongest emphasis may be placed upon the fact 
 that it is much easier to hatch chickens than it is to raise 
 them after they are hatched, and the first two weeks In the 
 little bird's life is a crucial period, and under some condi- 
 tions the second two weeks is harder to tide over than the 
 first fortnight, yet with due care and proper attention to 
 the warmth and food they may be and are successfully car- 
 ried to an age after which death is generally the result of 
 accident rather than ailment or disease. 
 
 What they shall be fed when taken from the machine 
 at the expiration of twenty-four or thirty-six hours is a 
 question which has exercised the mind of every producer 
 of chickens. Every conceivable sort of food has been sug- 
 gested, recommended and tried in more or less cases. We 
 believe that the simpler the ration the better the chicken 
 and the surer the success in its raising. All fancy mixtures 
 and fussy feeding notions may safely be eliminated. The 
 oldtime mixture of boiled eggs and cracker crumbs is now- 
 a-days pretty generally neglected. In some instances breed- 
 ers are using this mixture successfully, but in more cases 
 they are killing their chickens apparently by its use. We 
 have tried practically every system from the egg and crumb 
 diet to that of dry food alone, including baked cakes, bread 
 crumbs and various oat foods and so on, et cetera, et cetera, 
 and have gradually simmered down to the point where we 
 now feed exclusively for the first two days a mixture of two- 
 thirds wheat bran and one-third Indian meal moistened 
 with milk, and to this we add about five per cent of fine 
 gravel or grit. The chickens are fed all they can eat, in 
 fact it is before them practically all the time for the first 
 forty-eight hours, and from then until a week or two of age 
 
18 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 there is very little of the time when food is not within 
 reach. After the first two or three days they are fed in ad- 
 dition finely sifted cracked corn and rolled oats, chopped 
 oats, cracked wheat or, in fact, any grain or food which 
 they will eat. We conclude it makes very little difference 
 so long as they have a fair proportion of animal food, 
 which, with us, is in the form of ground beef scraps, and it 
 may be just as well or better in the form of milk, either 
 sweet or sour, skimmed or whole. When milk is fed to very 
 small chickens it is better to moisten their food with it than 
 that they have it to drink. If they have it as a drink they 
 are quite apt to smear themselves with it, making them 
 sticky and dirty, and both Ill-feeling and ill-looking. After 
 the first three or four days the grit is left out of the food, 
 a supply being kept constantly within reach, which they 
 eat as they require it. The warmth in the hover is started 
 at ninety-five degrees, with the chickens all in. From that 
 it is gradually lowered, more attention being paid to the 
 action of the chicken than to the temperature as registered 
 by the mercury. When the chickens are comfortable and 
 settle down contentedly without over-crowding or pushing 
 too much to the outside, it is concluded that the conditions 
 are right and they are doing well. When, on the other 
 hand, they crowd and cry, not enough heat is supplied, and 
 we give them more. It is impossible to give small chick- 
 ens a satisfactory treatment where the brooders are run 
 altogether by the thermometer, regardless of the outside 
 weather conditions, and the indications of comfort, which 
 may be observed from the chickens themselves. The brood- 
 er floors and pens should be scattered with chaff or covered 
 with sand to induce action and exercise through scratching 
 and working for particles of dry food, which may be thrown 
 about in the litter. The one thing essential to the health 
 of the chicken is abundant exercise. Without this they will 
 not thrive, and success cannot be attained. In order to get 
 the necessary exercise it is imperative that they have an 
 abundant supply of fresh air and an outdoor run at all sea- 
 sons of the year. A few minutes in the open air will do th« 
 smallest chicken good, and after they are a week or ten 
 days old they may be trusted to run back and forth in pleas- 
 ant weather almost regardless of how cold the outside tem- 
 perature may be. Fussy coddling and over-heated compart- 
 ments have been responsible for the death of more chickens 
 
 i0^^ 
 
 V' '-''■'■ 
 
 INI4 
 
 An Even half Dozen— Just Out. 
 
 An Ideal Place for Urooder Chicks on the Hlont of Mrs. h. W. Hand. 
 
 than any other cause. Whenever trouble appears in a flock 
 of chickens the first question with the average beginner, 
 and sometimes with the more experienced person, is what 
 their food has been. The attention and investigation is 
 generally directed toward the food. The facts are that the 
 
 strong, healthy chickens having abundant exercise and a 
 good supply of fresh air will stand almost any sort of food 
 without taking harm. The main thing is to get the exer- 
 cise. It perhaps might be noted here that this is practically 
 the secret of success in managing breeding stock as well as 
 chickens. 
 
 Clean water should be always within reach of the chick- 
 ens, and it should be kept in some such fountain as will 
 make it im- 
 possible for 
 the little 
 birds to get 
 into it. This 
 will save 
 f r e quent 
 drenchi n g 
 and ocea- 
 s i o u a 1 
 deaths b y 
 drown i n g. 
 
 In extremely cold weather it is better that newly 
 hatched chickens should have luke-warm water than that 
 it should be given to them icy cold. Many breeders do not 
 give the little chickens any water until several days old, 
 some even keeping them several weeks without it. We have 
 not thought it the best way, and we give water from the 
 first. From their very evident pleasure in drinking, it must 
 taste good to them, and we doubt any possibility of harm 
 from drinking over much clean, pure water. 
 
 There is a good deal of question what the limit is in 
 the numbers that may be kept together safely. Many advo- 
 cate fifty as the best limit, while others keep from one hun- 
 dred to two hundred in the same pens and under the same 
 hovers. There is little doubt that for the beginner, at least, 
 flocks of fifty or sixty will do better, and there will be a 
 lower death rate than in flocks of one hundred and upward. 
 We have built our brooder building with the pens three by 
 ten feet, which are designed to accommodate from fifty to 
 seventy-five small chickens. They will easily hold fifty 
 chickens until six weeks of age if the chickens have an out- 
 door run. They are then put in a pen four by ten feet and 
 kept until feathered out, when they are removed to colony 
 houses of one description or another. Of course the early 
 hatched and winter chickens must have 
 heat practically throughout the winter. 
 Late birds do very well without arti- 
 ficial heat after the last of March, and 
 may be safely colonized in suitable 
 coops at a few weeks of age — almost 
 every kind of coop is used for this 
 purpose, and it really matters very lit- 
 tle what the style of the structure be 
 so long as it conserves the essential 
 features, which are dryness and free- 
 dom from direct draught. For some 
 years open front and bottomless roost- 
 ing coops have been strongly advo- 
 cated as being the best fitted for grow- 
 ing chickens colonized in groups of 
 from thirty to fifty. Our experience 
 has led us to do away altogether with 
 open fronts and coops without bot- 
 toms. There is a constant trouble from 
 colds caused either by driving rains or 
 bunching up on the ground, thus drawing up the dampness, 
 which ends in running nostrils, wheezing and general de- 
 bility. 
 
 As the chickens grow older they are fed rather differ- 
 ently. They have their regular morning feed, with one at 
 
 
 ^.^^..^--^ 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 1^ 
 
 lir 
 
 noon and another at night. Generally the morning and the 
 night feed are mashes composed of bran and meal of about 
 €qual parts, with from ten per cent to fifteen per cent of 
 beef scraps added. Oyster shell and grit are always by 
 them, and green food is supplied as abundantly as is conven- 
 ient. Where the runs are large enough so that the green 
 food is not eaten down, no other need be 
 given, but in yards devoid of grass some sub- 
 stitute will have to be added to the grain ra- 
 tions. In addition to these regular feeds 
 three times a day many of the most prac- 
 tical and successful poultrymen keep a box 
 of cracked corn open to them, from which 
 they may eat at pleasure. Many also keep 
 a box of coarsely ground scrap, which is kept 
 constantly filled and which may be had at all 
 times. 
 
 As the chickens gain in size and the 
 ■cockerels mature they are separated from 
 the pullets, leaving from twenty-five to 
 thirty-five or forty pullets in a flock. The 
 cockerels are removed to another yard and, 
 if designed for market birds, are fed all the 
 fattening food which they will take, and as 
 fast as they are in fit condition they are sent to market. 
 The earlier hatched pullets should not be fed quite so much 
 meat or animal food as the later hatched ones, or they will 
 begin laying too early and will molt out in the fall, thus 
 jeopardizing the supply of winter eggs. It is possible by 
 forced feeding of animal food to induce very early laying, 
 and we this season, without extra heavy strain, have started 
 our Wyandotte pullets to laying at four and one-half 
 months, which is too early to get the best size on the birds 
 or the best results in constant egg production. Too early 
 maturity is as much to be avoided as too late, that is, the 
 pullet which grows along freely and gets a suitable frame 
 and size before beginning to lay will make the strongest 
 and most vigorous breeding bird and will in the end prove 
 the most profitable. 
 
 We feed very little whole corn, as the cracked corn gives 
 them more exercise in scratching and feeding, and does not 
 pack so closely together in the crop. Considerable shelled 
 and whole oats are fed, together with some wheat; the 
 wheat, however, is more sparingly fed on account of the 
 «xtra cost. We are able to get the same growing value 
 from wheat bran and beef scrap at a much less cost 
 
 very little difference and that the chicken thait is properly 
 fed and is in the right condition will be good to kill for 
 broilers without any extra preparation, and chickens which 
 are good broilers will, if kept, mature into good roasters. 
 One of the really necessary things to do is to get rid of 
 about nine-tenths of all the accumulated wisdom which has 
 
 Making a Good Start. 
 
 than we can get it from wheat, of which the best grades 
 only should be fed. Smoked and damaged grains, such as 
 are commonly on sale for poultry, are unfit for this piirpose. 
 Very many fancy formulas are to be had for broiler 
 feeding as distinct from roasters. We believe there is really 
 
 A Flock of Future Money Makers, 
 
 been loaded on to the chicken business, in many cases until 
 it has nearly swamped it, and to get back to a few very 
 plain principles. These briefly stated would be, sufficient 
 warmth, cleanliness, plain food, and plenty of it; these, to- 
 gether with a good range, will produce chickens at a satis- 
 factory profit, if the breeding stock has been properly se- 
 lected and bred. 
 
 One of the very necessary points is good shade, and it 
 must be had in some way, either by trees, boards or brush 
 sheds or otherwise. We have killed two birds with one 
 stone, or rather saved several birds with one idea by build- 
 ing a number of houses on posts, which leaves them ele- 
 vated about twelve inches or fifteen inches from the ground. 
 These coops are floored, which keeps the birds high and 
 dry and free from dampness, and at the same time allows 
 them sufficient shelter from the sun and the draught 
 which is generally found nearest the ground, and 
 on rainy days they bunch together under the buildings and 
 enjoy themselves much better than they would were they 
 obliged to stay inside. A board runway leads from the 
 chicken door to the ground, giving them convenient pas- 
 sage to and from the inside. Since we have adopted this 
 method of keeping the chickens we have 
 had very much less trouble from colds and 
 greater thrift than by the former method of 
 colonizing in open front coops without floors. 
 These coops are built four by eight feet and 
 are four and one-half feet high in front and 
 three feet at back, giving a sharp pitch to 
 the roof, which sheds the water readily. 
 They are covered with tarred paper and have 
 one sash, six lights, nine by twelve inches, 
 and a door twenty-four inches wide, and full 
 height of the building, which is fitted with 
 a screen for hot weather. The birds may be 
 carried in this building through the winter 
 if necessary, and before the chickens are 
 large enough in the spring to be placed in 
 them they are used for breeding pens 
 and are very convenient for this pur- 
 buildings are, as are all other quarters, 
 inhabited by chickens, thoroughly disinfected at frequent 
 intervals, with a solution of carbolic acid and water. Care 
 must be exercised that too much carbolic acid is not used 
 immediately before the chickens are shut in for any length 
 
 pose. These 
 
20 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 of time as too much acid is quite fatal to small chickens. 
 Any high grade disinfectant would answer the same pur- 
 pose, the idea being to keep the house free from disease 
 germs and to help the sanitary conditions. 
 
 G. H. POLLARD. 
 
 BBOODEB CHICKS— FEED AND CARE. 
 
 I want to tell you of my mode of feeding and caring for 
 chicks. After the chicks are hatched I leave them in the 
 machine at least twenty-four hours before placing them in 
 the brooder. This makes them strong and vigorous. As 
 soon as they are placed in the brooder I give them sand or 
 fine grit and water. I keep water by them all the time, good 
 clean, fresh water. 
 
 My first feed is hard boiled eggs chopped up fine. After 
 that I feed millet scattered among the chaff that is on the 
 bottom of the brooder and run. I feed both millet and hard 
 boiled eggs at intervals (just what they will clean up and 
 work for) for the first week, after that I give them a feed of 
 cooked rice (cooked dry) for a change, also cut oats and 
 corn bread. As the chicks grow older I add whole wheat 
 and also feed some mash with a little blood meal in it about 
 twice a week. One of the great points in feeding and care 
 of chicks is "common sense and judgment," Study your 
 brood and you can see at a glance how much and what to 
 feed to supply their wants. 
 
 I remember one season I tried not feeding any food or 
 water for the first forty-eight hours, etc. Weil, the result 
 was I lost all the chicks. As brooders (the leading machines) 
 are nearly .all properly constructed it remains for the oper- 
 ator to do his or her part, which if done there will be no 
 trouble. I rear and have raised by farmers from 1,000 to 
 2,000 White Plymouth Rocks every year, and must say if the 
 farmers follow tho above method of care and feed we lose 
 but few chirks. U. R. FISHEL. 
 
 THE VALUE OF EXERCISE, LIMITED FOOD AND 
 EVEN TEMPERATURE. 
 
 Our experience with brooders has been somewhat varied 
 and not all "clear sailing" by any means. We had seme 
 very disheartening times while we were getting our "ex- 
 perience." 
 
 The poultry journals are full of advice regarding the 
 operating of brooders. These methods sometimes seem di- 
 rectly opposed, and still, no doubt, they are the truthful ex- 
 perience of the writers. We believe that the greater num- 
 ber of failures with brooder chicks are caused by too much 
 heat and overfeeding. We do not believe that brooders can 
 be run successfully, generally, in cold weather without the 
 use of thermometers. Chicks taken directly from the incu- 
 bators and placed in the brooders will stand a far greater 
 amount of heat than is good for them. Consequently if we 
 judge altogether by their actions we may keep them at a 
 much higher temperature than is good for them. This is 
 reasonable, for we can so accustom a child to a high tem- 
 perature that it will be uncomfortable in a room under nine- 
 ty degrees, and none will deny that this amount of heat is 
 injurious to the child. Ninety degrees three inches from 
 the floor in the hover of the brooder is about right for the 
 first week. This should be reduced gradually to eighty-five 
 degrees the second week and to eighty by the end of the 
 third week. 
 
 We have killed a whole lot of chicks, both in brooders 
 and with hens, with kindness, i. e., with too much food. 
 Now, we never feed oftener than three times a day from the 
 
 very start, either with brooders or hens. This way works 
 well with us and we shall stick to it. The danger of over- 
 feeding with brooder chicks is especially great, as they do 
 not and cannot take as much exercise as those with hens. 
 Don't worry if they get hungry enough between meals to 
 scratch good and hard. This is the making of them. It will 
 help digest their food and ward off diarrhoea, which is only 
 the result of indigestion. 
 
 All brooders should have an open runway or yard, and 
 the chicks should be accustomed to running in this for at 
 least a short time from the very start. Give fresh water to 
 drink from the first. Keep fine grit in the brooders all the 
 time. Keep the temperature right; have them take plenty 
 of exercise; feed only three times a day, and "what you 
 feed" will not be so important. 
 
 We are very partial to millet seed. In fact we have said 
 that we could raise chicks on this alone, with water and 
 grit. Equal parts of corn meal, bran, shorts and clover meal, 
 baked with soda or baking powder, makes a good winter 
 feed. Stale bread, soaked soft and squeezed dry, is an ex- 
 cellent food for starting chicks. Put chaff In the yards or 
 runs and sprinkle just a little millet seed in it and watch 
 them scratch for it. This is our way, no theory, all practice. 
 If your way is different, and you are successful, stick to it. 
 
 W. B. GIBSON & SON. 
 
 FEEDING THE BROODER CHICKS. 
 
 1 have used several kinds of brooders. I first began with 
 outdoor brooders with bottom heat, but had little success, 
 but that was about twelve years ago, before brooders were 
 as well perfected as at the present time. For a while after 
 that I hatched with incubators and brooded with hens and 
 since have used top heat indoor brooders with success. 
 
 The brooder with which I have had the greatest success 
 is one having a hot water pipe system, and with this I can 
 raise a larger per cent of the chicks hatched than with hens, 
 and the same number with much less trouble and expense. 
 
 I feed chicks after they are about thirty-six hours old, 
 once every two hours through the day till about four weeks 
 old. No one need fear that any food is too fattening for 
 young chicks. They need carbonaceous or fattening food to 
 keep them warm while they are small and to sustain their 
 vigor during the period of rapid growth. There is no one 
 food which is as good as cornmeal, either in mush or bread, 
 but I think a variety of foods is better than any one alone. 
 A very excellent food for chickens is bread made from two 
 part? corn meal and one part wheat middlings, with two 
 tablespoonfuls of animal meal added to each quart of the 
 mixture; this stirred to a stiff batter with sour milk, in 
 which enough soda has been dissolved to make it light, and 
 baked in thin cakes to be fed warm or cold. This bread may 
 form the main food till the chicks are large enough to eat 
 cracked corn, broken rice and small grain and the bread 
 may be supplemented by hard boiled eggs chopped fine, and 
 other palatable foods. I save the infertile eggs from the 
 incubators to boil for the chicks. After they can eat small 
 grain foods I feed a mash once daily of the same meal mix- 
 ture as described for bread, and a variety of grain foods, 
 such as steamed rolled oats, wheat and creacked corn, plenty 
 of oyster shells and grit, and clean fresh water, give access 
 to a good grassy run, and a clean brooder. In short, to get 
 the best results, chicks should be kept steadily growing from 
 the time they leave the shell till they are fully matured. 
 As they grow older they require proportionately more of the 
 bone and muscle forming food and less of the more fatten- 
 ing materials. 
 
 The best way to care for the brooder is to clean it every 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 21 
 
 morning and put clean sand on the floor to absorb moisture 
 and to ease the chickens' tender feet from the hard floor. 
 
 GEORGE H. NORTHUP. 
 
 CARE OF BROODER CHICKS— COLONY COOPS AND 
 NEW GROUND. 
 
 After many years with Buff Cochins we have almost 
 adopted and believe the saying that, "If you hatch ten 
 Cochin chicks and a board does not fall on them, you are 
 almost sure to raise the whole ten." A good brooder, proper 
 food, pure water, plenty of shade and green grass, freedom 
 from lice, and the proper attention, will make Cochin rais- 
 ing the simplest thing in the world. 
 
 Our chicks are hatched both by hens and incubators, 
 and we find absolutely no difference in the chicks, with the 
 exception that those hatched by incubators are free from 
 lice. 
 
 It is almost impossible to raise to maturity chicks from 
 unhealthy and improperly cared for parents. It is equally 
 impossible to raise chicks that have been improperly incu- 
 bated, whether by hens or incubators. 
 
 It is just as probable that you will get improperly incu- 
 bated chicks from hens as from incubators; for how often 
 do you see a poor, run-down, emaciated hen bring into ex- 
 istence a flock of chicks when she is so weak, poor, and run- 
 down that she is barely able to stand. This is not the fault 
 of the hen, but of the failure of the proper attention having 
 been given her. One can readily understand how impossible 
 It would be to start and develop into active and vigorous 
 life chicks that have been brought into the world under such 
 unfavorable circumstances. Therefore, our first aim is to 
 get our chicks from healthy, well cared for parents, and then 
 to have them hatched under the most favorable conditions. 
 When the chicks are hatched we leave them under the 
 hen or in the Incubator at least twenty-four hours. If they 
 are taken out sooner than this, they are not so strong, and 
 the chance of raising them is much lessened. They are then 
 given a thorough dusting of Persian insect powder. This is 
 very important, as they cannot thrive when lice are present. 
 We raise our chicks in outdoor brooders, using two hun- 
 dred chick size, and put from forty to fifty chicks in each 
 brooder. The brooder is gotten clean and is heated to ninety 
 degrees the day the chicks are due to hatch, so that every- 
 thing Is in readiness for them. They are given plenty of 
 water at once, and their first food consists of fine dry rolled 
 oats. During the first ten days they are fed exclusively on 
 rolled oats and millet seed. They are fed six times a day, 
 alternating with rolled oats and millet. On the tenth day, 
 they are given in addition to the rolled oats and millet, well 
 baked corn cakes, chopped fine. If they become droopy we 
 add to and mix thoroughly with the corn cakes some finely 
 ground prepared grit. This is the only medicine little 
 chicks need. It is surprising to note how quickly they 
 brighten up on this treatment. When three weeks old we 
 gradually add to their rations cracked wheat and finely 
 cracked corn, cutting out the rolled oats. We continue to 
 feed the millet and corn cakes in conjunction with the 
 cracked corn and cracked wheat until they are six weeks 
 old. We then cut out the millet and corn cakes and substi- 
 tute hulled oats and American poultry food. The American 
 poultry food is given at noon, and to this is added twice a 
 week fresh ground green bone. 
 
 We believe in feeding frequently and in small quanti- 
 ties at a time, as overfeeding is sure to make chicks dull 
 and stupid and eventually bring on indigestion and inflam- 
 mation of the crop. In giving the different rations we alter- 
 nate and change as much as possible in order to keep them 
 from tiring of any one ration. We give them fresh water 
 
 twice a day, being very careful to keep the same in the 
 shade. As we use outdoor brooders we are able to have 
 them constantly on the move and thereby give the chicks 
 pure fresh earth and grass. 
 
 It is very important to provide plenty of shade in sum- 
 mer. It is equally important to place the brooder for one 
 hour each day, while open, where it will be subjected to the 
 direct rays of sunlight, as this method and cleanliness are 
 the only means of preventing the origin and spreading of 
 tuberculosis, which is sure to occur in a close, crowded 
 brooder, especially if dark and damp. 
 
 When the chicks are first put into the brooder they are 
 confined for from one to three days, the length of time de- 
 pending on the state of the weather. The brooders being 
 placed on a nice green grass plat, we then provide for each 
 brooder, one hundred yards of wire netting, one foot wide, 
 with one inch mesh. When the chicks are first liberated 
 from the brooder we drive stakes into the ground and make 
 a coil enclosing about three square feet of space. As the 
 chicks become more active, and readily cover this space, it 
 is gradually enlarged from week to week, until the whole 
 hundred yards are in use. This method has saved us lots 
 of worry and trouble, for when the chicks are young and are 
 first liberated, if given too much space they are almost cer- 
 tain to stay away from the brooder, and it is very difficult 
 to teach them to return to it. Then again, brooder raised 
 chicks have no mother to look after them and in case of a 
 storm they can be very readily found and driven to a place 
 of shelter. We have found that it is not so much the size 
 of the run that makes healthy chicks, but it is the frequency 
 with which they are changed from old to new quarters. 
 
 When they weigh about one and a half pounds or are 
 nicely feathered, we divide them into lots of twelve each, 
 being careful to have each lot the same size and develop- 
 ment. These are placed in colonies, each colony being all 
 cockerels or pullets. Each colony is provided with a coop 
 four by five feet, three feet high in front and two feet in the 
 rear. These coops are provided with a storm door, and also 
 with another door covered with fine mesh screen. This lat- 
 ter door is used on warm nights, and protects the chicks 
 from vermin, etc., and the outer door, which is hinged at 
 the top, is lowered about one-third, which protects the 
 chicks in case of storms during the night. The bottoms of 
 these coops are covered with a thick bed of straw. This is 
 to prevent the breast bones of the chicks from becoming 
 crooked, which is very prone to occur with Cochins. We 
 never provide them with roosts until they are one year old. 
 When they are eight months old they are provided with 
 more commodious quarters, and those showing promise of 
 becoming choice exhibition specimens are cooped either in 
 pairs or singly with the object of preserving their massive 
 foot and leg feathering. A. W. RUDY & SON. 
 
 LIMIT THE NUMBER OF CHICKS IN BROODERS. 
 
 The most successful way that I have found to raise 
 chicks in brooders is the following: Build a brooder house 
 for each brooder, say about six by eight feet, with a door 
 and a window to the south. Have these brooder houses 
 scattered about the orchard, about one hundred feet or more 
 apart, each house to be furnished with a one hundred-chick 
 brooder. In this put from fifty to seventy-five chicks. It 
 is not advisable to put more than seventy-five chicks in any 
 brooder, fifty would be better, as I find that I usually can 
 raise more of the chicks when I only put fifty chicks in a 
 brooder than when I put in seventy-five or one hundred, be- 
 sides you will have stronger and healthier chicks at matur- 
 ity. I have no yard for the chicks, but give them free 
 range. I do not let them run out until about a week old. 
 
22 
 
 THF CHICK BOOK 
 
 after which 1 let them run out on all fine days, but always 
 keep them in until the dew is off the grass, at least until 
 they are well feathered. If this is done you will not have 
 much trouble with gapes. Begin feeding when chicks are 
 about twenty-four hours old. For the first few feeds I find 
 nothing better than bread crumbs. Feed the first week 
 about four times a day with bread crumbs and oatmeal. 
 After the first week, when I let them run out, I feed three 
 times a day, soft food in the morning and either oatmeal, 
 cracked wheat, cracked corn or millet at noon and evening. 
 Change about from one kind to the other and then the 
 chicks will always have an appetite. When chicks are four 
 or five weeks old I feed only twice a day. Feed whole wheat 
 and corn just as soon as they can eat it. Always have plenty 
 of grit standing around for them, and give them fresh drink- 
 ing water. Keep the brooders and brooder houses clean and 
 look for mites each time you clean brooders. Saturate the 
 sides and bottom of the brooders with coal oil once in two 
 weeks, and then the mites will not trouble you. 
 
 The foregoing is for chicks raised on a farm where there 
 is plenty of range. I also find that farm raised chicks, as 
 a rule, make stronger and healthier chicks at maturity and 
 ought to be sold at better prices than those raised on small 
 city or town lots, but they seldom are. You find that city 
 breeders always ask double the price for their inferior stock, 
 although it is no better than that raised on the farm. The 
 best chickens for either the show room or for business are 
 those that are raised on the farm which have unlimited 
 range. EMANUEL SCHEIBER. 
 
 BROODING AND FEEDING CHICKS. 
 
 In raising chicks in brooders the first thing to be con- 
 sidered is the brooder. A brooder should be used that will 
 give the chicks plenty of warm fresh air. Some people have 
 the erroneous idea that air must be cold in order to be fresh, 
 which of course is false. A brooder may be so ventilated 
 that the outside air is sufficiently warmed before reaching 
 the chicks. Due attention should be given to see that it is 
 kept at the right temperature, for if the temperature be 
 kept too low or too high for a considerable length of time 
 the result will be an unnatural growth of wings, and weak 
 and sickly chicks. The chicks should be kept so that they 
 will lie down and go to sleep and not be obliged to huddle 
 together to keep warm, neither be forced to the coldest cor- 
 ner of the brooder to cool off. 
 
 Another thing to be considered is the number to be 
 placed in one brooder. The brooders that I use are two and 
 one-half by three feet, placed in one end of coops, which are 
 three by six feet. Such a brooder will accommodate seventy- 
 five chicks nicely; we have raised more than that, but that 
 number or less is better. 
 
 After the right brooder, with the right temperature and 
 the right number of chicks, is obtained, the next thing to 
 be thought of is the food and drink. 
 
 There are many different methods of feeding, many of 
 which we have tried with good results, but perhaps as good, 
 if not the best method of feeding, for the first four or five 
 days is oat flake and millet, with a few bread crumbs fed 
 four times a day. After that gradually work them on to a 
 mixture of cornmeal, wheat middlings, and wheat bran, with 
 a few beef scraps for their mixed food, and cracked corn and 
 wheat, -which should be given after they have eaten their 
 mixed food. Close attention should be given to the drop- 
 pings, and if they do not become hard in two or three days 
 a, little black pepper may be mixed with bread crumbs mois- 
 tened. Care must be taken that none of their mixed food be 
 sticky or gummy. 
 
 Another and perhaps one of the most important things 
 
 to be looked after in raising chicks is their drink. They 
 shoiiid have fresh water placed in clean drinking fountains. 
 A fountain that cannot be opened and cleaned never should 
 be used, for a slimy substance will form on the inside of the 
 fountain and unless removed will surely cause bowel trouble. 
 Many persons have lost nearly all their chickens from this 
 cause and then wondered why they are not successful. If 
 by reading these suggestions some of your readers are 
 helped in their struggle to make poultry pay I shall feel 
 repaid for my effort. A. A. HARTSHORN. 
 
 BETTER TOO MUCH HEAT THAN TOO LITTLE. 
 
 How easy to rear young chicks if we only knew what to 
 feed, how to feed, when to feed, and how much to feed, and 
 a thousand other hows, ifs and ands. 
 
 In our years of experience in rearing chicks in brooders 
 and by mother hens we find the results about the same in 
 regard to the number raised and cost of food. But chicks 
 reared in brooders are more peaceable and quiet and much 
 more easily handled, hence make better show birds. We also 
 find that we are not troubled so much with lice and disease, 
 for the simple reason that remedies are more easily applied. 
 Again, we have the use of the hen in the breeding yard, and 
 save the food which she would eat if left with the chicks. 
 This is a large gain in rearing thousands of chicks per year, 
 as the food for young chicks is quite costly. 
 
 Our method of raising chicks in brooders is as follows: 
 After leaving chicks in the incubator or under the hen until 
 twelve or thirty hours old, we place them in the heated 
 brooder, with the thermometer registering ninety degrees, 
 allowing the temperature to fall until the chicks are three 
 weeks old, after which we use no artificial heat. 
 
 In regard to pen room, I have raised as high as two 
 hundred chicks in brooders four by eight feet, and one hun- 
 dred and sixty-five chicks in brooder three and a half by 
 six feet, and lost only one chick (and that one in the small 
 brooder) this season. We never have had as good results 
 with small brooders. We leave our chicks in brooders the 
 first two or three weeks according to the weather, and give 
 them a run in the yard ten by twenty feet, until six to eight 
 weeks old, after which we place them on the farm. After 
 trying many experiences with good as well as poor results, 
 we find this the most successful of all, with no extra trouble 
 or expense. Any one can rear a brood of chicks in this way. 
 
 We offer a few suggestions in regard to feed and heat 
 while chicks are in brooders and small yards. If you wish 
 to avoid bowel trouble, give clabber milk once a day. We 
 have learned this rule: Better have chicks two degrees too 
 warm than one too cold. When chicks are too warm they 
 will scatter over brooder and when too cold will crowd over 
 one another, smothering weaker chicks. 
 
 We always feed one teaspoonful of sulphur in food to 
 fifty chicks, twice per week during dry weather. This we 
 think aids the feathering. IRA T. MATTESON. 
 
 HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY RAISE BROODER CHICKS. 
 
 One 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 abundant exercise 
 to insure fertile eggs and strong chicks. A first-class incu- 
 bator 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 sti"ong chicks that will live if properly cared for. 
 The next thing to be selected is a brooder, and this Is equal- 
 ly 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 chicke to crowd in, and one 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 23 
 
 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 the start, gradually 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 
 ehort 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 ruils 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 
 scratch for every meal but that given at night. We feed 
 prepared dry chick food morning and night. At ten and 
 two o'clock we feed millet seed, pinhead oatmeal and 
 cracked wheat. We keep them well bedded with cut clover 
 two or three inches deep, and throw all their food in this. 
 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 out 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 morn- 
 ing 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. EDGAR BRIGGS. 
 
 PRINCIPALLY A QUESTION OF MOISTURE. 
 
 "I can hatch the chicks easily enough, but to raise them 
 is the question." This expression is very frequently heard 
 from those raising poultry by artificial methods 
 
 I have done a great deal of experimenting along this 
 line during the past eight years. Some seven years ago I 
 thought I had struck the right idea for brooding young 
 chicks when flrst hatched. I had three separate houses, 
 7x12. I built flues on each of these houses and put indoor 
 brooders in them, also a small stove. Now, for the results. 
 The chicks did fine for about a week and I thought now I 
 am on the road to success, but, lo! I went to feed them one 
 morning and a number of them looked like big toads swol- 
 len to nearly double size. I removed the stoves and the 
 trouble stopped. I then worked along a few years with in- 
 
 door brooders and cool, dry houses with varied success. In 
 18!)9 I commenced with outdoor brooders. This season I 
 have used nine of them, raising some broods nearly to a 
 chicken, while losing some broods almost entirely — all losses 
 except a few with the universal disease, bowel trouble. 
 Those brooded with hens occasionally died in same propor- 
 tion. I concluded from observation that it was moisture 
 and not the food that caused the trouble, as I noticed if the 
 weather was dry whether the temperature was high or low 
 I raised about all the chicks, and also if I got them by the 
 first ten days without bowel trouble they were all right. 
 To satisfy myself that it was moisture the first week or ten 
 days that gave them bowel trouble I put several hens with 
 chicks up in a loft for a week. It was perfectly dry in this 
 loft and I never lost a strong chick after this experiment. 
 From this experience I shall construct a room in the loft of 
 some of my buildings next season with plenty of light and 
 ventilation without fire except in the brooder and keep all 
 incubator chicks up above the ground for the first ten days. 
 
 A good many perusing this article will say, "He has 
 not said a word about food." I don't expect to say much 
 about food, as it is immaterial what you feed if you solve 
 the moisture problem. I can raise every chick hatched, as 
 I have done it, on the same food I feed old fowls when there 
 is no moisture to contend with. Give the chicks plenty of 
 grit and clean water, a little green food and you can safely 
 feed them any food you may have, if you keep them free 
 from moisture the first two weeks of their lives. 
 
 As to space required for brooder chicks, of course the 
 more the better. With my outdoor brooder chicks I use 
 three boards, making a triangular yard, the sharp angle 
 coming up to the brooder, using two sixteen and one twelve- 
 foot boards one foot wide. I keep them in this yard with 
 plenty of chaff to scratch in until they get large enough to 
 fly over the board. Then I cut small openings in the boards 
 for them to go out and in at will. If you have limited space 
 this yard will accommodate probably forty until near frying 
 size if you are careful about sanitary conditions. I am en- 
 abled to put forty to sixty in brooders three feet square, and 
 keep them in these at night until frying size is reached. I 
 then cull and run them in a movable brood house until four 
 or five months old, gradually moving the brood hou«e 
 nearer to permanent house, and finally moving brood house 
 away. 0. E. SKINNER. 
 
 CARE OF BROODER CHICKS. 
 
 It might be of some advantage to some of the readers 
 of this book to know how we raise brooder chicks. While 
 I have never raised brooder chicks extensively I have been 
 very successful, raising from 75 per cent to almost every 
 chick. At one time, out of a hatch of seventy-nine chicks, 
 I raised seventy-seven to maturity. 
 
 These birds were brooded in a home-made brooder 
 heated with hot water put in gallon jugs, using two of them. 
 I used flannel strips tacked to common laths resting at each 
 end on a cleat nailed to the side of the hover. I use a broad 
 board for a partition dividing the brooder into two com- 
 partments, cutting a small opening in the partition board 
 for a passway for the chicks to the run. This part of the 
 brooder has a glass in the top about 16x24. 
 
 These birds were hatched about March 1st. The flrst 
 thing we do with our chicks after hatching them is to place 
 them in small baskets with some flannel cloths in them, 
 wrapping up good and warm — keeping them in that way 
 until twenty-four hours old. By that time I have some 
 fresh corn bread baked just as we use it for our table. Be- 
 fore feeding them I place them in the brooder, which Is now 
 heated up to a temperature of about 85 or 90 degrees. The 
 
3-1 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 bottom o£ the brooder is covered with coarse sand, which I 
 allow them to work in about an hour or two before feed- 
 ing — then I feed them the corn bread crumbled up fine, put- 
 ting it on the floor in the sand. By this time the little fel- 
 lows are getting hungry (having absorbed all the egg food 
 that nature has left for them from the egg) and they begin 
 to eat the little bread crumbs and sand with a pretty good 
 appetite. Only feed them a little. In about two hours or 
 more I put in a little more of the corn bread, and so on, 
 feeding four or five times the first few days. When they 
 are three days old I give them a little warm water to drink, 
 but not much. After drinking I take out the little water 
 pan, and again in the afternoon give them a little more. 
 When three days old, I boil an egg thoroughly done until 
 the yolk crumbles and feed them that, changing oft with 
 the bread crumbs. After four or five days old I begin to 
 feed them a little rolled oats or fine cut oatmeal and some 
 small bits of meat reduced small enough so they can eat it. 
 Now I vary feed quite a little. Feed boiled potatoes, oat 
 meal, corn bread, chopped onions and potatoes, ground corn 
 and whole wheat. When two weeks old I feed them ground 
 corn mixed with bran and shorts, one part corn to two parts 
 bran and shorts. I pour hot water over the mixture, scald- 
 ing it, but only enough to mix it in a stiff or crumbly mass 
 and feed when cool. 1 never feed wet and sloppy food, as it 
 creates bowel trouble. We aim to keep our chicks In 
 medium small runs until feathered out, then we give them a 
 good deal of range until about half grown, and then I turn 
 them out to all th^ range they want, allowing them to go 
 at will over the farm. 
 
 After chicks leave the brooder I divide them into broods 
 of fifteen to twenty to each coop, giving them plenty of 
 fresh air at night, except when it is cold, then close brood 
 coops up so as not to chill them. There are lots of good 
 brooders made, and if properly run they are a success. 
 
 There is a great deal in keeping the proper heat for the 
 little fellows, and proper food and regular attention. Never 
 allow your chicks to get chilled if you can help it, and after 
 the second week don't let the heat In the brooder run over 
 80 degrees, and at night always see that the little fellows 
 are snug under the hover, and when you feed always leave 
 them a little bit hungry, and the next time you come to 
 feed them they will all be glad to see you. 
 
 C. B. SAYERS. 
 
 BROOD COOPS AND METHODS OF BROODING. 
 
 In answer to your letter asking me to give my experi- 
 ence in raising chicks with incubators and brooders and my 
 
 way of feeding 
 young chicks, I may 
 say that I have had 
 experience with in- 
 cubators and brood- 
 ers in a small way 
 only, as it is qual- 
 i t y not quantity 
 that I have been 
 striving for the last 
 fifteen years. I try- 
 to mature only 
 about five hundred 
 birds each year, and 
 those as good as 
 possible. 
 The first forty chicks I hatched I put in a brood house 
 nine by sixteen feet, with a partition across the center, giv- 
 ing them one-half of the house. Attached to this house I 
 have two yards, one for each part of the house. These yards 
 are nine by sixteen feet each, and I keep them dug up for 
 
 tlome-mide Brood Box, 
 
 home-made Brooder Coop. 
 
 the chicks to scratch in. Next to these yards I have a grass 
 run, and as soon as the chicks have been in the house a few 
 days I give them full range, always feeding and watering 
 them in the yard or house. They soon get used to the place 
 and will go in and out themselves. In this house I place a 
 home made brood 
 box about three by 
 three feet, and two 
 feet high. At the 
 side of the box down 
 near the bottom I 
 make a small door 
 for the chicks to run 
 in and out. The top 
 I use as a door, hung 
 on leather hinges, 
 with a small pane of 
 glass in it to admit 
 light. This lid I raise 
 and lower for venti- 
 lation. In the center 
 of the box I place a 
 wire screen about the size of a peck measure, and the first 
 night or two, or any night that the weather should be cold, 
 so that there might be danger of the chicks crouching or 
 piling up, I place a lantern in this center screen. 
 
 When my second hatch of one hundred and one chicks 
 were three weeks old I took them out of my brooder again 
 to make room for the third hatch, which I found this time 
 to be one hundred and two chicks from one hundred and 
 nineteen eggs. The second hatch of one hundred and one I 
 put in the other half of the brood house and handled them 
 the same as the first lot. I found when I took the second 
 lot to the brood house at three weeks old that I had lost 
 two chicks, leaving ninety-nine strong, healthy chicks. The 
 two hatches that I put in the brood house ware put in the 
 last of April and the first of May, and until the time of this 
 writing (July 12th) I have lost but one chick. 
 
 The third hatch of one hundred and two chicks at three 
 weeks old I took out of the brooder again to make room for 
 the fourth hatch, which proved to be one hundred chicks 
 from one hundred and twenty eggs. 
 
 The third hatch of one hundred and two and all chicks 
 hatched at this time of year at three weeks old I put out- 
 side in a home-made brood coop made three feet wide, five 
 feet long, four feet high on high side and two and one-halt 
 feet high on low side. The whole top I hang on hinges, 
 and use it for a lid or door. In the center of high side I 
 place a pane of glass so as to open and shut, with a wire 
 screen over the inside of opening. In each end of the coop 
 up near the top I leave an opening covered on inside with 
 wire screen. Over these openings on the outside I hang a 
 lid to open and shut for ventilation, which, when open, 
 forms a roof to keep out the storm. In one end of coop 
 down at the bottom I make a small door for the chicks to 
 go in and out, and in the other end of coop I place a brood 
 box made the same as the one described for the brood house, 
 and when the chicks are old enough I take out the brood 
 box and put in place of it a roosting rack made out of slats 
 placed a little way apart, so as to admit air from the bottom. 
 This rack is made so as to fit in one end of the brood coop 
 on cleats nailed to sides of coop ten inches from bottom, so 
 that I can take the rack out to clean it. In front of this 
 rack and hinged to it I place a slat gate which drops down 
 from rack to fioor, forming a gate to keep the chicks from 
 i-unning under the roosting rack and also forming a ladder 
 for the chicks to run up and down on. 
 
 I put these brood coops around in different parts of the 
 yard under trees, placed so that the morning sun will strike 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 25 
 
 one end of coop and so that it will be in the shade through 
 the middle of the day. In front of these coops I place a 
 small yard in which I shut the chicks for the first two or 
 three days, till they get used to their new quarters, then I 
 open the yards and let them have full range, always feeding 
 and watering in or near the coops. In this way of brooding 
 I have had the greatest success raising chicks. 
 
 My experience has taught me that it is almost impossi- 
 ble to raise chicks that are not properly incubated, when 
 the weather gets real warm I find it necessary to cool the 
 eggs for a long time. I leave them out of the incubator 
 and leave the door open from an hour to an hour and a half 
 till they are thoroughly cooled, and then the chicks will 
 hatch out strong and quick and are easily raised. 
 
 I find it best not to put more than fifty chicks in one 
 brood coop, as they will do much better than though there 
 
 were more in one coop. Fifty chicks In a coop the size that 
 I have described will do well and grow one-third faster than 
 one hundred in the same coop; even if you make the coop 
 twice the size, the fifty will do far better than one hundred 
 or more in one lot. 
 
 My method of feeding young chicks is as follows: For 
 the first five days I give them nothing but steel cut oats 
 and dry wheat bran, keeping grit and fresh water before 
 them at all times. For the next five days I feed much the 
 same with a little variety added, such as cornbread made 
 out of corn meal and wheat bran. I also feed a little 
 cracked wheat. After they are ten days or two weeks old 
 I begin to feed cracked corn, whole wheat, a little millet and 
 sugar cane seed, green cut bone twice a week and later on 
 a few sunflower seeds. Chicks are like Yankees, they like 
 a varietv. WILLIAM WEBB. 
 
 HATCH I IMG AND RAISING THE CHICKS. 
 
 A Discussion of Simple, Practical Methods of Hatching, Brooding, Growing, Fattening and Maturing Chicks, Wherein 
 
 Exercise and Pure Air Play Prominent Parts. 
 
 By H.A. Nourse. 
 
 Ml 
 
 AN has invented and built machines to supplant the 
 
 hen in the motherly functions of hatching and 
 
 raising, but the old hen still has a monopoly of the 
 
 egg producing branch of the business. Still she 
 
 can supply such eggs as hatch strong, vigorous chicks only 
 
 when she is well taken care of. 
 
 The matter of conditioning the breeding stock is not a 
 difficult or intricate proposition. If the birds are kept in 
 good flesh, not fat, and have plenty of good food, fresh air 
 and exercise, there will be no trouble getting fertile eggs 
 that will hatch. Eggs with weak germs will sometimes 
 hatch well, but the chicks will not be worth the trouble. 
 
 Eggs intended for hatching should not be chilled, but in 
 cold weather should be collected very frequently and placed 
 In a dry room where the temperature is about stationary at 
 45 degrees. Although it is desirable to set all eggs as soon 
 as possible after they are collected, they may be held for 
 two weeks without much deterioration if the above condi- 
 tions prevail. Cases are recorded where eggs have been 
 kept four and even six weeks, and have hatched. Only such 
 eggs should be selected for incubation as are of medium size 
 and good shape, with perfect or nearly perfect shells. Small 
 or extra large eggs seldom give good results and porous 
 shells allow too rapid evaporation or too rapid absorption, 
 as the condition of the surrounding air varies. 
 
 From Shell to Brooder. 
 
 It is not difficult to secure good hatches from good eggs; 
 almost any one having a good machine can obtain a satis- 
 factory hatch. Authorities differ somewhat as to the bene- 
 fits derived from cooling the eggs and a few deny that any 
 good can come of the practice; but the consensus of opinion 
 seems to be that reasonable cooling is decidedly beneficial. 
 In cold weather the best hatches seem to be secured from 
 eggs which are cooled slightly the twelfth day and for an 
 increasing period each day until the eighteenth, inclusive, 
 when they are allowed to remain out of the machine until 
 the shells feel but slightly warm to the touch; but in warm 
 weather they are cooled a few minutes on the fifth and the 
 time increased daily up to the eighteenth day, after which 
 they should not be touched again. On this day they remain 
 
 out fifteen or twenty minutes and sometimes, on a very 
 warm day, for a half hour. Cooling should be done when 
 turning the eggs at evening. Do not disturb the trays from 
 this time until the hatch is complete. When all the chicks 
 appear to be pretty well dried, open the machine, remove 
 the trays and closing the door, except a minute crack for 
 better ventilation, leave the little fellows in the egg chamber 
 for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, gradually decreasing 
 the temperature until the thermometer registers ninety-five 
 at the end of twenty-four hours. As the thermometer hangs 
 above the chicks, it is probably a degree less at the chicks' 
 heads. I have found this plan to work very satisfactorily. 
 The chicks go into the brooder accustomed to a lower tem- 
 perature and ready to eat anything that they can find. I 
 believe that most machines do not furnish enough fresh air 
 for the little chreks after they are well dried off and open 
 the door just a little that they may be supplied. 
 
 The temperature of the brooder should be fixed at nine- 
 ty before the chicks are put in, as its complement of chicks 
 adds two to five degrees when they are under the hover. 
 Feeding the Little Chicks. 
 
 So many different methods of feeding brooder chirks are 
 advised by people whose experience and success entitle 
 them to consideration, that what one man says should be 
 taken merely as an opinion until one tries it and finds it 
 satisfactory for his own use. For years I believed that 
 nothing could equal the time honored corn meal cake baked 
 hard and fed dry to the baby chicks. I doubt if anything 
 can beat it much to-day, but the prepared chick feeds, now 
 on the market, offer a well balanced ration of dry grains 
 with the proper allowance of beef scrap, grit, charcoal, etc., 
 in a convenient form and at a reasonable price. . 
 
 I believe that chicks often get too much food when they 
 are first placed in the brooder and that heavy losses fre- 
 quently occur from that cause alone. The best results have 
 been obtained when the chicks were left in the incubator for 
 a day and a half without food after the hatch has been com- 
 pleted, and when placed in the brooder fed one light feed 
 the first day, two the second and three the third. Beginning 
 on the fourth day five feeds may be fed daily; but they 
 
26 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 should be very light and never more than enough to satisfy 
 the chicks for the time. 
 
 Exercise Necessary for Health. 
 Every inducement should be offered the youngsters to 
 scratch and dig and the exercising apartment in the brooder 
 and the adjacent pen in the house should be thickly carpeted 
 with some good scratching material to that end. Hay chaff 
 is one of the best things for this purpose and can be easily 
 obtained. Any one who stores or feeds hay has more or 
 less of it and is usually glad to get rid of it. It contains 
 many small seeds and bits of clover, which the little fellows 
 make good use of and for which they will search diligently 
 if healthy and not too well supplied by the attendant. The 
 temperature of the brooder house should not be too high. 
 Some will deny that it is well to heat the house at all, and 
 many, either from preference or lack of equipment, supply 
 no heat to the house e-xcept that which escapes from the 
 brooders. When the chicks are small, however, I believe 
 
 chick, and the science of feeding will be wonderfully sim- 
 plified. 
 
 Pure, fresh water should be always accessible if a dry 
 grain ration Is fed. Opinions differ as to the advisability of 
 supplying water when feeding a mash ration and some poul- 
 trymen seem to have greater success when giving water and 
 others when withholding it. The writer's opinion is that 
 no water need be given for the first two or three weeks 
 when feeding a moist mash, and that chicks will do well 
 without it. 
 
 From the Fourth to the Eighth Week. 
 
 Whatever method of feeding is employed for the first 
 three or four weeks, the scheme to be followed for a few 
 succeeding weeks may be the same. 
 
 The degree of heat will have been gradually reduced to 
 eighty at the end of four weeks and may be further reduced 
 to seventy at the end of six weeks, where it may remain so- 
 long as the chicks need a hover. No more heat is needed In 
 
 nil, rior Wew of Brooder House, uiih Pipe System, Hovers on White Leghorn Poulln )«ri/.5. 
 
 that a moderate degree of heat, about sixty degrees, is desir- 
 able in cold weather in that it enables the chicks to spend 
 more time on the floor of the pen getting up their muscle. 
 It should be remembered that sixty degrees recorded when 
 the thermometer is three feet above the floor is not sixty 
 degrees down where the chicks are. Place the thermometer 
 within a few inches of the floor. 
 
 The best manner of feeding is the one that will best 
 promote exercise. If dry food in the form of grain is given 
 it is best, especially in cold weather, when the little birds 
 cannot get outdoors to exercise, to mix this in the litter 
 and compel them to scratch it out. 
 
 Pure Air of First Importance. 
 
 In rearing chicks pure air is a very important factor 
 that seldom gets due recognition. Cheap as it is, and neces- 
 sary for the vital processes concerned in maintaining and 
 •developing all forms of energy, it is not unusual to find 
 brooder houses with no provision for any where near an 
 adequate supply. Brooder stoves and heaters are burning 
 out what little oxygen there is while owners and managers 
 are wildly endeavoring to figure out some intricately bal- 
 anced ration to reduce the frightful mortality. Provide plenty 
 of good air under the hovers and wherever else there is a 
 
 the house than is necessary to remove the chill in the air lu 
 cold weather. 
 
 A gradual change from the baby food of the first four 
 weeks to the more substantial diet of mash, cracked corn 
 and wheat should be accomplished in ten days or two weeks. 
 This is a period of growth; and the chicks should have all 
 the food they can make use of. More fresh air, exercise, 
 and as much outside run as possible are potent factors in 
 their development. Green food must be furnished. If in 
 spring and the grass has started, fresh short grass cut in 
 the fields when the dew is on, is the best to be had, next to 
 that obtained by free range. But if nothing green is growing 
 a supply of cabbage, mangel wurzels, and clover meal for 
 the mash (one or all three) is the best that can be offered 
 and is of substantial value. 
 
 I have had success feeding a simple mash of two-thirds 
 wheat bran, one-third corn meal, with ten per cent of beef 
 scraps added, fed three times a day — morning, noon and 
 night, with an allowance of wheat at mid-forenoon and of 
 cracked corn at mid-afternoon. Grit and charcoal should be 
 kept in the pen, preferably in a hopper where it will be clean. 
 
 No more food should be given at any time than will be 
 consumed at once and if any mash is left it should be taken 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 27 
 
 up when the attendant takes up and cleans the troughs or 
 boards, as he ought to do after each meal. 
 
 It is understood, of course, that the grain is fed in litter 
 on the floor of the pen and of sufficient quantity to induce 
 vigorous scratching, but no more. 
 
 After the Eighth Week. 
 
 From the eighth week forward different treatment must 
 be accorded those intended for stock purposes or large roast- 
 ers and those intended for broilers; only the broilers-to-be 
 should remain longer in the brooder house. The others 
 should be placed out in the field in roosting coops if the 
 weather is warm or housed in warm (not necessarily heated) 
 quarters if the weather is still severe. Occasionally broiler 
 chicks may advantageously be placed outside, especially if 
 errors or carelessness in feeding have noticeably reduced 
 their vitality or if, in the latter part of the season, it is im- 
 possible to maintain a temperate heat in the brooder house. 
 Usually it is best to keep them in the house where they will 
 take but a moderate exercise and will lay on flesh and fat 
 without the toughening of the muscles which takes place 
 when they have free range in the fields. 
 
 From the eighth week to killing time plenty of green 
 food should be supplied every morning; the grain should be 
 fed as before and the mash materially strengthened. Three 
 parts corn meal, one part wheat bran and one part first 
 quality beef scraps makes a simple and effective fattening 
 food, which if fed to chicks in good health, supplemented by 
 green stuff, fresh water, grit and charcoal, as directed, will 
 make a full fleshed, fat broiler of unbeaten quality. One of 
 the most important points to remember is that no mash nor 
 troughs must, be allowed in the pens except during the few 
 minutes when the chicks are eating. No other than freshly 
 
 mixed mash should be fed, and any that remains when the 
 troughs are removed should be taken away and may be fed 
 to old birds. 
 
 A potent cause of trouble is overheating in the hovers. 
 When the older chicks, from eight weeks forward, are al- 
 lowed hovers they will frequently crowd into them at even- 
 ing, cause a high temperature and lose in the night all the 
 flesh they have gained in the day time. If they have access 
 to hovers sufficient ventilation must be provided to keep 
 down the heat. Always look through the brooders before re- 
 tiring and arrange for the comfort of the occupants during 
 the night. Much can be done to that end after the chicks 
 have settled down. 
 
 For chicks intended for roasters no change in composi- 
 tion of the ration need be made except that a larger propor- 
 tion of hard grain and less of mash should be fed and the 
 number of meals reduced to three per day. Mash may be 
 fed at morning and noon or only in the morning as best 
 suits the judgment and convenience of the feeder, the re- 
 maining feeds being of grain, principally corn, wheat and 
 oats. 
 
 When it becomes necessary to fatten roasting chickens, 
 they may be confined in yards of moderate area and fed the 
 same as advised for fattening broilers. Occasionally it may 
 be advisable to place some of the quarrelsome males in 
 a room which may be darkened except when they are eating. 
 
 The hatching and raising of chickens, while requiring 
 constant and painstaking attention, is by no means a diffi- 
 cult proposition or one beyond the ability of the man or 
 woman of average intelligence, and the application of com- 
 mon sense will produce satisfactory and profitable results. 
 
 H. A. NOURSB. 
 
 REARING BROODER CHICKS IIS FLORIDA. 
 
 Good Foods, Good Brooders and Love for the Work Produce the Same Results In the South as In the North, 
 
 By H. Friedlander. 
 
 D SHALL not attempt to give the readers of this 
 book points on a subject on which so much has 
 been written, and by so able and experienced 
 writers, but X simply wish to give an account of 
 my success in raising chickens by artificial means. 
 I used to raise chickens in Ohio for pleasure. Fif- 
 teen years ago I lost my health and was given up by physi- 
 cians as a hopeless case of consumption. But I came to 
 Florida, and among the pines I regained my health, and to- 
 day I feel much better than I did fifteen or twenty years 
 ago. Two years ago after losing my orange trees by freezes 
 I took a notion to raise a few chickens. I started with a 
 pen of ten hens and one cock from Ohio. That spring I 
 raised two hundred chickens and sold twenty sittings of 
 eggs, but I found it was such a trouble to raise them by 
 hens that I bought a small incubator the following fall. I 
 did not, however, depend on the incubator to hatch all my 
 early chickens, but had some of my neighbors hatch some, 
 and as soon as they were hatched and delivered to me, I 
 put them in the brooders. 
 
 Of course the climate here and in Illinois is quite dif- 
 ferent, and whai I did here will not do there. I kept the 
 brooder outdoors, and at a temperature of 80 degrees. When 
 
 the sun was warm enough I let the chickens out in the sand, 
 making a square yard about a foot high around the brooder. 
 I think between incubator and brooder the latter is as im- 
 portant as the incubator. But whatever you do in the poul- 
 try business, incubator or brooder, you must have your 
 whole mind on it, and love it. Many times I got up in the 
 night to see if everything were all right, and often it was 
 not. 
 
 I feed the first day toasted and ground up bread; a few 
 days later fine cracked corn, then some wheat. Sometimes 
 I make bread out of cracked corn and sour milk. Occasion- 
 ally I give them dog meat, that is, not the meat of a dog, 
 but meat that only dogs will eat, of which we have plenty 
 in Florida. This meat I grind up with a meat grinder. I 
 feed as often as possible — six times a day at first. Every 
 time I look at the chicks I give them something. I had 
 chickens nine weeks old weighing one and one-half pounds 
 and when I left Florida for the north (May 1) I had three 
 hundred chicks and had not lost a single one. By May 1st 
 I had sold 2,100 eggs for hatching and 1,000 more during the 
 summer, and all out of forty-five pullets. This year I have 
 seventy hens and pullets, and expect to raise at least 500 
 chicks on a lot 100x400 feet. H. FRIEDLANDER. 
 
BROODER CHICKS, THEIR FEED AISD CARE, 
 
 One Who Has Raised Flocks of Incubator hatched Chicks Without Loss Tells How to Feed and Care for Them— Bowel 
 Trouble a Result of Careless Feeding — Regularity In Feeding Desirable. 
 
 By Mrs. Bert H. White. 
 
 'HERE can one make a beginning in this never 
 ending, inexhaustible subject? I consider the 
 feeding of little chicks the most important part 
 of poultry raising. The welfare not only of the 
 chicks themselves, but of future generations of chicks de- 
 pends upon how we feed and care for the young. "The hand 
 that rocks the cradle is the hand that moves the world" 
 holds good in poultry as well as with humans, and the hand 
 that has fed the little chicks and fed them right this year, 
 is the hand that will move the poultry interest in the coming 
 years. 
 
 I raised two hatches last year, one of seventy-nine, the 
 other of sixty-three chicks, and did not lose a single one. 
 This fact has given me the presumption to venture to let 
 others know how I did it. We hatch our chicks with incu- 
 bators and hens — when the hens will sit. I am a great 
 friend of the incubator, and while I have just as much re- 
 Bpect now for the old biddies as I ever had, I have less con- 
 fidence in them. I feed the incubator hatched chicks just 
 the same as I do the chicks hatched by the hen-mother. I 
 •do not think there is quite as much danger from over-feeding 
 the chicks with the hen, as they are less liable to lack the 
 proper exercise. After the hatch is over I remove the chicks 
 to the nursery brooder, which is heated and prepared for 
 them, and feed. We read so much in the various poultry 
 Journals about not feeding chicks until they are twenty-four 
 to thirty-six hours old. I do not believe you could make a 
 chick eat before it is ready to eat, and that is when it is 
 strong enough. 
 
 The first food consists of hard-boiled eggs, cracker or 
 bread crumbs, and grit, made very fine. This is in propor- 
 tion of two parts of the crumbs to one of egg, and a little 
 grit mixed in. There are several kinds of grit for little 
 chicks, but I prefer the shell grit and roll it fine myself. 
 If this food is prepared right it will be a crumbly dry mix- 
 ture. That is always the first food, and I remove all they 
 do not eat. This, with a little pin-head oatmeal and rolled 
 oats, and a little millet seed sprinkled in the litter in the 
 bottom of the brooder, is the first three or four days' bill 
 of fare. I give water on the second day and after that sweet 
 milk once a day. On the fifth day I add baked corn bread 
 to this bill of fare. And this is how I make it— two parts 
 coarse cornmeal, one part prepared poultry food, oie part 
 bran (counting quarts as parts), a small handful of salt, 
 and a tablespoonful of soda. I prefer to bake it in one large 
 pan rather than several small ones, as there is not so much 
 crust. Bake it until it is thoroughly done, and if it is just 
 right it will be dry and crumble fine and not stick to the 
 hand. This I always keep on hand, and it is one of the 
 principal meals of the day until the chicks are old enough to 
 eat wheat and cracked corn. I always mix a little grit in 
 one of the feeds of the day. 
 
 After the chicks are two weeks old I feed some coarse 
 cornmeal moistened with sweet milk, and it can be made just 
 moist enough so that it will be mealy. I know it is right 
 -when I take a handful and squeeze it and no moisture sticks 
 to the hand. If it is mealy and not sloppy there will be no 
 
 danger from bowel trouble. Feed this sparingly at first, aa 
 well as any other change in food. I always feed five times 
 a day until after the third week, and then only three times a 
 day. Great care must be exercised in order not to over-feed. 
 I believe a great many chicks die from over-feeding, and 
 those that do survive over-feeding are stunted. I think one 
 must always govern the amount of food by the number of 
 chicks in a brood, and no particular amount can be specified 
 for each meal. All conditions being equal, just what they 
 will clean up each time, and no more, is about the proper 
 amount. 
 
 I begin to feed a little wheat and cracked corn at the 
 eud of the third week, and when the chicks are four or five 
 weeks old I feed wheat in the morning and cracked corn at 
 night, with oats for variety. I think oats is a splendid food 
 for growing chicks, but I never have dared to feed it with- 
 out first boiling it. It takes some time to teach them to 
 like oats, but after a time they will relish it as much as they 
 do wheat and corn. I think that chickens of all ages are 
 fed loo much corn. Wheat and oats are the best grains 
 for chicks. I like to feed a little millet seed wherever the 
 chicks are in the habit of scratching. It makes a nice little 
 lunch for them at noon — just a few handfuls sprinkled 
 around the brooders, so that they will find it when they 
 come back for a drink and a rest at noon. Once or twice a 
 week I boil the wheat for their breakfast. I boll it the 
 evening before and let it stay on the stove until morning 
 and it is just warm enough to feed. I do not pretend to 
 say that all this is strictly necessary for the successful rais- 
 ing of chicks, but I have tried it and have had good results. 
 
 Variety in feeding forms an important item. 1 never 
 mix the grains for variety's sake. Try feeding the same 
 kind of grain every night for four or five nights without any 
 change, and the chicks will not seem to care whether they 
 eat or not. They seem to say to me — "That old stuff again!" 
 It may be partly imagination, but I believe that variety ia 
 necessary to keep their appetites in good condition. I al- 
 ways keep a box of oyster shell and grit near each brooder. 
 
 Hatch your chicks early, "the quicker the sooner," as 
 David Harum would say. Spring is the only nesting time 
 for wild birds and it is the only good time for domestic 
 breeds. If by any mischance or continued spell of damp 
 weather, any bowel trouble may result, the feeding of boiled 
 rice or scalded sweet milk will very soon adjust that trouble. 
 I never feed any condition powder, pepper or any of the 
 poultry cures advertised, but I use plenty of prevention, and 
 never need any cures. Regularity in feeding is a very im- 
 portant matter in successful poultry culture. Have a regu- 
 lar time for each meal and do not vary from it. The first 
 meal should be at daylight, and the last as late as possible 
 before the chicks go to roost. Chicks are early risers and 
 should be let out of the brooder as soon as it is daylight. 
 I always build an enclosure around each brooder, and do 
 not let them out of the brooder, and do not let them out of 
 this enclosure until after the dew is dried off, or on cold 
 windy mornings I can keep them there and put them back 
 in the brooder to keep them from getting chilled. It Is a 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 29 
 
 great mistake to allow too many chicks to run 
 together in a brood. Scatter them and have 
 brooders enough so that not over forty chicks 
 are brooding together in the same brooder. I 
 think thirty about the right number. Familiar- 
 ity breeds worse than contempt with chick- 
 ens, it breeds lice and disease. 
 
 The care of the brooder is very important. 
 I exercise great care In keeping the nursery 
 and brooders clean. How the chicks do enjoy 
 clean quarters, and how they always begin 
 scratching and working, with their little song 
 of "weeting" all the while. If that does not re- 
 pay you, you have not that love for the work 
 that is necessary for successful poultry culture. 
 The first week I clean the brooder twice, and 
 after that usually give it some attention every 
 day. I put dry sand in the bottom of the nur- 
 sery and brooders and cover that with chaff or cut straw, and 
 by taking off the top each day the sand need be renewed 
 but once a week. I like the sand in the bottom of the 
 brooders better than chaff alone, as the chicks do not slip 
 in it. I have had chicks lame themselves by slipping on 
 the smooth floor of the brooder. 
 
 I keep the temperature very near 90 degrees for the first 
 three weeks. After that govern the temperature by the num- 
 ber of chicks In the brooder and the outside temperature. 
 Trim the lamp every evening and fill it so as to insure an 
 even blaze all night. Sometimes it is not necessary to keep 
 the lamp lit all day in the outdoor brooder. On warm, sun- 
 shiny days the lamp can be put out and lit towards even- 
 ing. If the brooders are not new or have been used before 
 keep an eye open for lice, for like the poor they are always 
 with us, and it is almost impossible to keep the brooder 
 chicks from visiting with biddy's chicks. 
 
 After my chicks are six weeks old I remove them from 
 the brooder and put them in a box to sleep. I get a large 
 dry goods box, and put a tarred paper cover on what is to 
 be the top. This prevents dampness, which is the greatest 
 foe of little chicks. Nail a board on the top and bottom of 
 the open side, or what is to be the front, and put on lath 
 close enough so that the chicks cannot get through. At one 
 end make a gate or door, whichever you wish to call it, out 
 of lath and hang it with a piece of old leather or heavy 
 cloth for hinges, with a hook to fasten it. (I use screen 
 door hooks.) Put in sand and litter, and you have a good, 
 substantial brooder coop that will last for years. I face 
 thesa boxes to the south, and if there is a south wind I put 
 old pieces of carpet over the opening for the first few nights. 
 My chicks sleep in these coops until they are old enough to 
 go to roost. Sometimes they grow so they fill the 
 original box too full, and then I have to either give 
 them a larger box or set another right beside the first one. 
 These box coops are moved frequently, and each one is as 
 
 Just Let Out for Moralna Exercise, 
 
 Subjects of Experiment at Rhode Island Experiment Station. 
 
 far from the other as it is convenient to have them. They 
 soon learn which is their very own place to roost, and I aJB 
 always sure I will find each brood in its place. Of course 
 it is work, but not trouble, and in bad weather I forget all 
 about the work, in the satisfaction of knowing that my 
 chicks are tucked in cozy and dry at night. 
 
 Keep Uie drinking fountains clean. Scald them at least 
 twice a week. If you are a close observer you know how 
 foul they become without any one telling you. When it 
 can be had I give all my young chickens sweet milk to 
 drink once a day until matured. I always wash the fountain 
 out after it has had milk in it, before putting water in it, 
 and when the weather is warm enough to sour the milk 
 that is left in the fountain, warm water is used to wash it 
 out. I would just as soon eat my dinner off the same plate 
 that I did my breakfast, without- washing it, as to put water 
 in a drinking fountain that had had milk in, without first 
 washing it. I do not think it a good plan to let chicks drink 
 in the morning before they have had their morning meal. I 
 have had the best results by giving milk for their morning 
 drink after they have had their morning meal. When it is 
 cold I think it is best to warm the milk, and in a continued, 
 damp spell, sometimes scald the milk. 
 
 I believe in little things, and it is the little things that 
 count with little chicks. A little draught, a little too much 
 food, a little neglect, cause all sorts of big evils and play 
 havoc with the chicks. I do not believe there is a particle 
 of excuse in poultry fanciers allowing so many chicks to die. 
 In nearly every hatch there are one or two runts, and they 
 will make up their minds to live or die in a few days, but 
 after that if I lose a chick I feel thatlhave been slack or care- 
 less in some way. I believe that every year the true fanciers 
 are raising a greater per cent of chicks hatched than they 
 did a few years ago. Of course there are people who start in 
 the poultry business not knowing or trying to learn any- 
 thing about the habits and nature of chickens. They fail 
 to raise even ten per cent of the chicks they hatch, but they 
 seldom stay in the business long enough to either help or 
 hinder it. But the true fancier of the stick-to-it type every 
 year will raise "better poultry and more of it." 
 
 The care of chicks does not end until they reach the 
 breeding pen. All through the long hot months of July and 
 August they must be under our watchful care. This is the 
 time that is most trying to the beginner, and this is the 
 time that they usually make up their minds to stay or with- 
 draw. Plenty of fresh water constantly before them is very 
 essential for growing chicks. I always want my chicks 
 to have full crops at night, but I want them to be hungry 
 enough through the day to be willing to look out for their 
 dinner themselves. Twice a day is often enough to feed the 
 early hatched chicks through the months of summer. As 
 the cool days and nights come on in the fall, they will let 
 you know when they need an increase of rations. Let the 
 chicks grow lanky and leggy, you can soon put the weight 
 on them when cool weather comes. Care for the little chicks, 
 remember it is always the prize winners that die— that is the 
 reason why we get so few. MRS. BERT WHITE. 
 
SUCCESS WITH BROODER CHICKS. 
 
 Poullrymen Agree that the Strength of the Germ In the Egg Is of First Importance— With Well Hatched Chicks, the 
 Problem Is More than Half Solved— Raw Eggs Advised for Small Brooder Chicks. 
 
 By J. W. Hodson. 
 
 ■ HEN one begins to think of raising young 
 chickens, the first and most important thing 
 that needs attention is the fertility of the 
 eggs. If you have good, strong, fertile eggs 
 the battle is half won. To be sure, judgment must be 
 used in the operating of the incubators and brooders. The 
 nearer we run the machines to nature the better the results; 
 but if the eggs are poorly fertilized, the germ being weak, 
 the best incubator that is made, operated by the foremost 
 expert in the land, cannot get out a good hatch, and there 
 are nine chances out of ten that the chicks that do get out 
 of the shell will die before they are two weeks old, and 
 those that do not die will never grow as they should. But 
 if the eggs have the life and kick in them you need not 
 worry. If you give the little peepers half a chance they 
 will soon show you that they came into the world to stay. 
 
 It is in the winter when the courage of the poultryman 
 is tested most severely. Sometimes we have filled our incu- 
 bators with eggs in January and February and at the end 
 of twenty-one days wished we had sold the eggs at the store. 
 Sometimes at the end of the fifth day, when we made our 
 first test, our hopes were high and we were telling our broth- 
 er poultrymen what good hatches we were going to have, 
 for we had taken only eight or ten infertile eggs out of a 
 hundred; but by the time the fourteenth day came our as- 
 surance began to wane, and at the end of the twenty-first 
 day we have found that nearly all the little chicks had died 
 in the shell, getting perhaps twelve or fifteen out of eighty- 
 five or ninety tertile eggs. 
 
 We could not blame the incubator, for it had been tested 
 before. The trouble was with the eggs, and the lack of a 
 strong life germ in them was due to some fault either in 
 the hen or male bird, and their inability to produce well 
 fertilized eggs was probably due to some fault of our own — 
 either they were not properly housed or fed, or may be both. 
 The houses may have been too cold or the chickens roo fat. 
 In either case you will not get many strongly fertile eggs. 
 
 We keep our incubators in a cellar where the tempera- 
 
 ture is about the same all the time. Outside changes make 
 little difference in the temperature around the incubators, 
 therefore when we once get our machines regulated we have 
 little trouble with them, and when we go to bed we sleep 
 and get up in the morning to find the thermometers within 
 one degree of where we left them the evening before. 
 
 Care of the Little Chicks. 
 
 As soon as the little chicks are thoroughly dried we take 
 them out of the incubators and do not allow them to remain 
 in the temperature of 103 or 104. As long as they are damp 
 we believe they are better off in the incubator, but no longer. 
 We have a brooder ready to receive them that is heated to 
 about 100 around the hover, 85 or 90 about one foot from 
 the hover. We let them remain in the brooders thirty-six 
 to forty-eight hours before we give them anything to eat or 
 drink. They will show signs when hungry. We keep the 
 bottom of the brooder covered with clover chaff or cut clo- 
 ver, and when the iiltle ones get hungry you will see them 
 picking and hunting for something to eat. 
 
 Our first feed consists of a mixture of cracked corn and 
 wheat that has been put in the oven and parched, or roasted 
 as they do coffee, only it is not quite so brown. To this we 
 add .1 little rolled oats, grit and oyster shells. This mixture 
 is sprinkled in the litter and they must work for what they 
 get. 
 
 When about one week old we feed once a day a soft 
 mash, consisting of one part wheat bran, one part middlings, 
 one part corn and oats ground together (with the oat hulls 
 sifted out), and about five per cent of beef meal. Mix this 
 well together and take enough raw eggs to make it stiff and 
 crumbly. We use incubator eggs that have been tested out 
 on the fifth day. We think this is one of the finest foods 
 we can get and the way our chicks grow satisfies us that 
 they have about what they need. After the chicks are one 
 week old we feed only three times a day; when less than a 
 week old, four times. We want to see the chicks hungry. 
 
 J. W. HODSON. 
 
 Colony Houses and Some of the Piano Box Brooders on Beaver Hill Farm, Described by Charles P. Cloaaer. 
 
BROODING AISD FEEDING CHICKS. 
 
 A Large Brooder Which Can be Converted Into a Roosting Coop — Plenty of Room Essential for Growth — The Correct 
 
 Degree of Meat — The Food and Manner of Feeding. 
 
 By Charles P. dogger. 
 
 HLTHOUGH my experience with brooders is not 
 particularly extensive, I have learned something 
 about the rearing of chicks artificially that 
 will benefit the amateur at least. A good 
 brooder is essential. If one intends doing much of 
 any work with brooders, they should be five and one- 
 halt feet square, or large enough to hold comforta- 
 bly fifty chicks until twelve weeks old. No matter how 
 large or now small the brooder is, never place more than 
 three or four chicks to every square foot of floor space; 
 overcrowding must be avoided. The best success I have had 
 with young chicks has been with our piano box colony 
 brooders. They are closely and neatly covered with heavy 
 paper, are five and one-half feet square, five feet high in 
 front, three feet high at the back and have a solid shed roof, 
 with a door at the side and a window in front. We set 
 
 A Flock of Promising White Leghorn Chicks. 
 
 them twelve inches off the ground, so that the lamp box 
 underneath can be reached conveniently. The heating ar- 
 rangement is very simple; we cut a hole in the floor fourteen 
 inches square six inches from the rear wall, making the 
 center of this hole midway between the ends. Into this we 
 "fit closely the ordinary square tin radiator, the bottom com- 
 ing flush with the floor of the brooder and resting on pro- 
 jecting cleats, with the fume pipe projecting through the 
 roof of the brooder. We use a No. 3 lamp burner, which 
 gives enough heat in cold weather. Over the radiator with 
 a half inch air space we place a board hover twenty-six 
 inches square so that it projects six inches beyond the ra- 
 diator ou all sides. From it are suspended the usual cotton 
 flannel curtains. The thermometer is attached to a round 
 stick twelve inchos long which projects through a round 
 hole at the back of the brooder and which reaches past the 
 middle of one end of the hover. One great advantage of 
 this brooder is that when your chicks no longer need artifi- 
 
 cial heat you can in five minutes convert it into a colony 
 house by simply lifting out the radiator and nailing a board 
 fourteen inches square in its place. Put in perches and 
 thirty chicks can perch there until ready for the breeding 
 pens. 
 
 From my individual experience in raising chicks with 
 brooders I find my greatest success is secured when I have 
 less, rather than more, than fifty chicks together. When 
 I do not exceed this number I have no cases of bowel trou- 
 ble if my chicka are healthy when placed in the brooder. 
 Warmth and Food. 
 
 I start my chicks in the brooders at ninety degrees of 
 heat and the warmth of fifty chicks will soon increase it to 
 one hundred. This temperature, however, should not be 
 maintained more than a week, when it should be gradually 
 reduced to eighty by the time the chicks are three weeks 
 old. This is my plan in the winter or early spring, but later 
 in the season I do not get over eighty-five degrees to start 
 with and gradually reduce to seventy degrees. My exper- 
 ience has been that chicks coddled too much are never 
 strong. For the first week I keep them as near the hover 
 as possible. One cannot be too careful, and a board placed 
 six inches from the hover will keep the little fellows within 
 bounds and they will not become chilled. Should they feel 
 the cold they can easily get back under the hover again 
 and warm up. 
 
 As to the manner of feeding, I may not conform to the 
 generally accepted order of things. In the first place I am 
 no believer in soft food for young chicks, but am fully con- 
 vinced that it produces more bowel trouble than any other 
 one thing, not excepting crowding. Therefore it is very sel- 
 dom my young chicks get mash. Forty-eight hours after 
 hatching I sprinkle a few dry bread crumbs on the brooder 
 floor with a little fine grit. I keep milk or water before 
 them all the time, and the second day feed them three times 
 a few broken crackers. The third day I start with my chick 
 feed and I find the little fellows can pick out the small par- 
 ticles in great shape, and how they do grow! In feeding 
 dry food, composed mostly of grain, with the necessary 
 quantity oi meats and bone, I believe we imitate nature 
 closer than by feeding a mash. 
 
 I believe in exercise and see more real benefit in the 
 heat produced in the body by scratching than that which 
 is given artificially. Clover cut in about one-fourth inch 
 lengths is light material and if cracked grain or millet is 
 scattered in this litter, how the little fellows will work! 
 
 Another thing 1 never neglect is the use of bran to pre- 
 vent bowel trouble. In each brooder I keep a small box of 
 dry bran and charcoal and the quantity of bran these little 
 fellows will eat and the good condition of the bran fed chicks 
 is surprising. Our early chicks are fed plenty of cabbage or 
 apples for green food. CHARLES P. GLOGGER. 
 
CARE OF BROODER CHICKS. 
 
 If Labor Is an Item of Expense, then a Successful Way of Raising Chicks With One-third the Usual Labor 
 
 Deserves a Fair Trial. 
 
 By W. fl. Bushell. 
 
 0(3 17 now shall we best care for the brooder chicks?" 
 ILJI We leave the chickens ia the incubator twelve 
 ■^ ^ hours after all the chickens are hatched, which 
 gives thfm strength; then we remove them 
 to the brooder thaf Is heated up to ninety degrees under 
 the hover and seventy degrees outside the hover. We leave 
 the chicks alone in the brooder twenty-four hours before 
 feeding or watering them. The floor of the brooder is cov- 
 ered with sand and cut clover, the clover being used to pre- 
 vent the chicks from slipping. 
 
 When the youngest chick is thirty-six hours old, we 
 feed and water them for the first time, some of the little 
 ones being forty-eight to sixty hours old. We give them 
 prepared chick feed and clean water in a fountain that is 
 made so that the chick can drink, but cannot get into the 
 water or soil it. 
 
 The chick food consists of all kinds of seeds that grow 
 in the fields, with some grit and beef scraps. We feed three 
 times a day and only what the chicks will eat up clean. 
 We feed it in the cut clover so as to force the chicks to ex- 
 ercise. We do not have any bowel trouble nor sickly chicks; 
 nor do we have tr> run out and feed them every two hours; 
 nor do we keep the cook busy baking johnny cake and all 
 kinds of foolish things and washing dishes; nor do we give 
 milk to drink — it is too mussy. We simply feed the chick 
 Teed and give clean water three times a day. The work is 
 
 cut down and we raise the chickens. It is seldom that we 
 find a dead chick in the brooder. 
 
 We are often asked by visiting poultry people if the 
 chick feed is not expensive. I always reply that it is the 
 cheapest food you can get, because it saves two-thirds of 
 the labor and you can raise the chicks successfully on it. 
 Besides, it is of great help in keeping the brooders clean. I 
 know we had less trouble to raise nine hundred chicks last 
 year than some people did who raised only one hundred. 
 
 We use the hot-water, over-head pipe, continuous brood- 
 er system and we keep from thirty to forty chicks in one 
 pen, changing them every week to a fresh compartment. 
 The pens are all built alike, except that some of the pipes 
 are higher to allow for the growth of the chicks and so 
 that the hover will be cooler. By having each pen alike the 
 chicks do not mind the change. They know where to find 
 their hover and they do not "pile up." 
 
 My house is twelve feet wide, seventy feet long, and is 
 piped the entire length. The pens are three feet wide by 
 nine feet long, which leaves an alley-way three feet wide in 
 which to work. We have been very successful in raising 
 chicks in this house and are well pleased with it. 
 
 I use a little air-slaked lime on the floor and dust the 
 hover of my brooder once a week. We clean the brooder 
 under the hover every morning and change the straw in 
 the pen every fifth day. I have never had a louse in my 
 brooder house. W. H. BUSHELL. 
 
 A Substantial Brooding House That Is Well Shaded In Summei — A Building for Storage, etc. (Attached) Is Shown at the Right. 
 
HATCH I IS G AND REARING CHICKS WITH HENS. 
 
 The Location for l\ests aad Protection from Lice and Weather— Care of Hens and Newly Hatched Chlcks- 
 
 Cooplng and Feeding the Brood, 
 
 By H.A. Nourse. 
 
 THE process of hatching and raising chicks by 
 natural means is simple and easy on the face 
 of it; the hen does the work and in proof of 
 her ability we cite a case wherein the hen 
 steals away and in due time returns with a big brood 
 of chicks which she raises with little or no loss. Granting 
 that this may be the uniform result, we must give some 
 credit to the conditions and not all to the hen. This satis- 
 factory result does not often occur when the weather is 
 cold, but rather when it is warm, and the hen selects a nest- 
 ing place with natural advantages. The nest is surrounded 
 by the pure air of nature, and the hen can leave it without 
 danger of the eggs becoming chilled. She dusts herself 
 thoroughly and often in the damp earth and thus keeps her 
 plumage clean and comparatively free from lice. 
 
 When the hatch is completed the chicks are not immedi- 
 ately stuffed with food, but exercised gently and brooded 
 frequently while gathering from the pure air o.xygen for a 
 myriad of strength giving blood corpuscles, until the nour- 
 ishment with which nature provides all well hatched chicks 
 is assimilated and stronger food may be digested and made 
 most of by a system ready for the work. 
 
 But if we want early chicks we must set hens in the 
 cold and changeable weather of early spring. Sometimes 
 we set them in a place poorly protected from the weather 
 and often the hens are neither allowed a dust bath nor given 
 any protection whatever from the irritating pests — lice. 
 
 A setting hen deserves aboxit as much protection from 
 cold or heat as an incubator, but seldom gets it. In cold 
 weather a well built warm room is a great advantage and 
 in warm weather, which frequently overtakes the poultry- 
 man before he has finished hatching, well ventilated and 
 moderately cool auarters will be of considerable assistance. 
 
 Setting the Hen. 
 
 The nest should be carefully built of fine, soft hay and 
 of such size and shape that the hen will fit nicely into it, 
 affording perfect protection to the eggs. It should be rea- 
 sonably flat on the bottom at hatching time or the chicks 
 attempting to leave the shell at the bottom of the nest will 
 often be crushed by the unhatched eggs rolling down from 
 the sloping sides. 
 
 Every means should be used to secure the absence of 
 lice. Nothing is so likely to bring about a poor hatch of 
 good eggs or to prevent the successful rearing of the chicks 
 as lice. A dust bath tor the sitters to dust in should be 
 provided if practicable and each bird should be thoroughly 
 dusted with insect powder at least once a week, the last 
 dusting to be done three days before the hatch is due. 
 
 If a pedigree record of the fowls is kept the nest should 
 be marked with the number representing the parentage of 
 the chicks and each chick punched as it is taken from the 
 nest, thereby avoiding all chance of mistake and making 
 the mark when it will hurt the chick least and be least 
 likely to fill up. 
 
 There is danger of empty shells capping unhatched eggs 
 and imprisoning the chicks and it should be prevented by 
 reaching under the hen and removing the shells at frequent 
 intervals during the exclusion of the chicks. 
 
 Nothing is gained by hurrying the chicks from the nest; 
 if the hen desires to leave the nest as soon as the hatch is 
 finished (or even while it is in progress) the nest may be 
 covered with a light cloth (if the weather is cold) and the 
 hen allowed to stretch, eat and drink, after which she will 
 again seek the brood and quickly make them warm and com- 
 fortable. It is well to give the hen a little food and water 
 while on the nest if the chicks eome out slowly, confining 
 her to the nest for two or three days. 
 
 Caring for the Chicks. 
 
 After the chicks have been out of the shell twenty-four 
 hours it is early enough to move them to their coop. 
 
 A Stolen Nest. 
 
 As each chick is taken from the nest, and the identiflca- 
 tiou mark punched in the web of its foot, its head should be 
 anointed with vaseline or lard sufficient to smooth the down 
 closely about the skull to kill head lice. The hen should 
 be well dusted and the action repeated once a week so long 
 as she remains with the chicks. 
 
 If small coops are used it is an advantage to be able to 
 put them under a t-hed with open front to the south where 
 the chicks will be protected from inclement weather and 
 winds while getting plenty of exercise upon the ground; the 
 hen remaining confined to the coop. 
 
 I am much in favor of large coops, at least three feet 
 square on the bottom, tightly built to keep out dampness, 
 yet permitting sufficient ventilation to keep them cool in 
 warm weather. 
 
 Care of the Brood. 
 
 The first day in the coop the hen should have a good 
 ration of whole corn, but the chicks need only a very light 
 
THE CHiCK BOOK 
 
 feed of crumbled stale bread, johnny cake, or prepared chick 
 feed. I incline toward the prepared food, because it can be 
 bought ready to feed at a reasonable price and gives excel- 
 lent satisfaction. 
 
 The second day the little ones may have two light feeds 
 and on the third day three. After that three, four or five 
 feeds may be offered each day according to the time and in- 
 clination of the feeder, but no more should be given at any 
 time than will be eaten within a few minutes. During the 
 first few days the hen may be fed any large grain and the 
 brood won't make much effort to eat it, but after a few 
 days the young ones will try to eat any and everything that 
 the hen does. Cracked corn and whole wheat may safely 
 be fed with the chick feed, the latter being gradually elimi- 
 nated after the second week and its place taken by the 
 cracked corn and wheat, with an occasional feed of mash 
 at the feeder's option. Clean water should be provided 
 from the start and fine grit for the chicks and coarse grit 
 for the hen should be given with the first feed and be al- 
 ways accessible. 
 
 A small proportion of animal food is desirable af;er the 
 first week. Most of the prepared foods contain this in the 
 proper proportion, but if it is supplied by the feeder, sifted 
 
 beef scraps to mako five per cent of each day's rations will 
 be found very satisfactory for the first two weeks or for 
 four weeks if the chicks have a chance to hunt insects and 
 worms. 
 
 When the weather is warm and the birds are sate from 
 birds and beasts of prey the hen may be given her freedom 
 and permitted to run with the chicks after the first week. 
 This is of great value to the chicks, giving them wider range 
 and providing all sorts of little seeds, bugs, worms and in- 
 sects, which nature intended they should have. It makes 
 the chicks self-reliant, too, and better able to take care of 
 themselves, while making the most of their opportunities, 
 when the hen leaves them to shift for themselves. 
 
 A cropful of food collected by the chick from nature's 
 resources is worth two of that fed by an attendant and con- 
 sumed by a chick confined within a narrow enclosure. It 
 is gathered a little here and a bit there, some vegetable and 
 some animal, by vigorous exercise taken under conditions 
 which cannot fail to promote a healthy action of the diges- 
 tive organs. Thus the nourishment is absorbed and the 
 body strengthened and properly developed. Nature's meth- 
 ods are always best when the work is done in nature's 
 season. H. A. NOURSB. 
 
 THE NATURAL METHOD IS SATISFACTORY. 
 
 How an Expert Hatches and Rears Winners for the Largest Shows — Making the Nests — Sitting the Hens — 
 
 Cooping and Feeding the Chicks. 
 
 By M. S. Gardner. 
 
 MANY writers of late have told us how to hatch 
 chickens in incubators, and raise them in brooders, 
 that little remains to be said upon that subject. 
 Very little has been written, however, in regard to 
 the other and older method of letting the hen rear her own 
 brood. While I use incubators for hatching my earlier 
 chickens, I still hatch the greater part of the May and June 
 chicks under hens, and tor two reasons: First, because I 
 believe it gives the hen a rest from laying that is beneficial 
 to her, and second, because I find that chickens hatched and 
 reared by hens prove better foragers and grow faster for me 
 than those grown in brooders. 
 
 To successfully raise chickens with hens, several things 
 are absolutely necessary. First, strongly fertilized eggs 
 from perfectly healthy and vigorous breeding stock. Second, 
 quiet, medium sized hens, and properly constructed nests. 
 Third, a man to care for the hens who will exercise eternal 
 vigilance, and who can control his temper under most try- 
 ing circumstances. Doubtless every man who raises chick- 
 ens has a way of his own. I do not claim that my way is the 
 only one, or even that it is the best, but simply this, that 
 I have been raising thoroughbred chickens for more than 
 twenty-five years, and with success, by the method I shall 
 describe. During the season of 1902 I raised more than five 
 hundred chickens under hens. Although May and June 
 were the wettest m.'/nths ever known in this state, my loss 
 from all causes did not exceed five per cent of the chickens 
 hatched. 
 
 Setting the Hens. 
 
 As March is a cold month in northern New York, we do 
 not attempt to set any hens until April. When the weather 
 moderates so that we feel sure the eggs will not chill, we 
 
 prepare to set our first hens. Several pens are reserved for 
 our sitters, from four to ten hens being placed in each pen, 
 dtpauding upon the size of pen and also upon how much 
 room we can spare for this purpose. The nests are made on 
 the floor of straw or swale hay which is held in place by two 
 by fours placed upon the floor or else by narrow strips of 
 board nailed to the floor and not more than four inches 
 hi.?h. It is desirable that the hens be able to walk onto the 
 nests, and not be compelled or allowed to fly into them. 
 Sometimes if crowded for room these nests are not more 
 than three feet apart. We usually set several hens at one 
 time. When we have the required number of broody hens 
 we take them carefully from their nests after dark at night 
 and place them in their new quarters, having previously 
 prepared the nests in the manner I have described. In each 
 of these nests we have placed one or two glass eggs or possi- 
 bly cheap hens' eggs. By the side of each nest is a potato 
 crate or a frame covered with wire netting. Each hen is care- 
 fullv set on the glass eggs and a potato crate placed over 
 her. A hen that has been broody for several days and is of 
 the proper disposition to make a good mother will at once 
 settle down upon her new nest and go to sleep. Occasionally 
 one will resent such treatment and proceed to kick up a 
 i-umpus. Such hens should be removed at once, as they 
 disturb the quieter ones and seldom prove successful mothers. 
 T do not find more than one in ten that will refuse to sit 
 in a nest of this kind. The first day we keep the room dark- 
 ened and do not let the hens come off to eat. The morning 
 of the second day the crates are removed and sufficient light 
 let in to enable the hens to see the corn, grit and water 
 that have been previously placed there. A large dust box 
 is also provided for them. Sometimes two hens will fight 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 35 
 
 when first let off the nests, if taken from different pens in 
 the breeding houses, but this seldom proves a serious affair, 
 as they are usually too hungry to waste any time in this 
 manner. After eating and drinking four out of every five 
 will go back to the nest in which we placed them. Some 
 few will exchange nests, but it is very seldom a hen refuses 
 to go back to one of the nests. As all of the eggs are in 
 plain view from all parts of the pen, two hens seldom try 
 to occupy the same nest. 
 
 In making the nests we use great care in preparing the 
 bottom so that the eggs will not come in_ contact with the 
 floor. We also make them rather flat and large enough in 
 diameter so that the eggs can roll from under the hens' 
 feet as they step into the nests. My reason for making the 
 nests upon the floor is this: Under natural conditions all 
 fowls no doubt built upon the ground, as partridges do. 
 When a hen can walk onto her nest she does it very care- 
 fully and seldom breaks an egg. If compelled to fly or jump 
 up she usually succeeds in falling into the nest and breaking 
 one or more eggs. Another advantage in placing the nest 
 upon the floor is that the eggs do not 
 dry out as badly as when placed far- 
 ther from the ground. 
 
 The Eggs Require Attention. 
 
 Now to return to the sitting hens. 
 We have them fed and watered and 
 back on their nests. If one fails to go 
 back the room is darkened, the hen 
 is carefully caught and placed upon 
 her nest, and the potato crate drop- 
 ped over her. If at this time all re- 
 main quiet the eggs for hatching are 
 brought and placed under them. 
 From ten to fifteen are given to a 
 hen. the number depending upon the 
 weather and the size o£ the hen. In 
 very early spring not more than ten 
 eggs are placed under each hen, as 
 the outer ones may become chilled or 
 at least get cold if more are used, 
 then as the hen rolls them over the 
 chilled eggs are pushed further un- 
 der her and other's are rolled to tht 
 
 outside to be spoiled during the next cold night. I am sat- 
 isfied that many poor hatches in early spring are due to the 
 fact that too many eggs are placed under the hens. 
 
 We now have our hens properly started on their three 
 weeks' task and have only to watch them carefully and see 
 that they have fresh water every day, with an abundant 
 supply of grit and corn. A lousy hen never should bo set. 
 We keep a good supply of fine dry dirt for dust bath before 
 our fowls at all times, so we have no trouble with lice. By 
 the second day we usually remove the potato crates from 
 over the hens and thereafter they are at liberty to come off 
 to eat or roll in the dust bath as often as they desire. Every 
 day when they are off each nest is inspected and if any eggs 
 are broken the others are carefully washed, but we seldom 
 have any trouble of this kind. I have no use for a ten pound 
 hen as a sitter or anywhere else. For hatching purposes I 
 prefer one weighing not more than six or seven pounds. 
 Where it is possible to do so we set all the hens in one 
 pen at the same time. Where some are put in later they 
 usually disturb those that have been sitting, then when the 
 first chicks began to hatch it makes those set later discon- 
 tented. If the weather is very hot and dry and the eggs 
 are drying down too much, we sprinkle the nests with 
 warm water once or twice during the last two weeks. 
 
 When the chicks begin to hatch we disturb the hens as 
 little as possible. Sometimes if they are very quiet I run 
 my hand very carefully under them and remove all the 
 empty shells so they will not slip over the unhatched eggs 
 and Fmother the chickens. 
 
 Cooping and Feeding. 
 
 Nearly all our chicken coops are dry goods boxes covered 
 with tar paper, to keep the rain out. These are boarded up 
 tight about half way across the front, and slatted the rest of 
 the distance, so the chickens can run out and in, but the hen 
 cannot. Into these coops the hens and chickens are removed 
 when the chickens are about twenty-four hours old, a little 
 bran, chaft' or dry sand having previously been sprinkled 
 upon the floor. Not more than a dozen chickens are given 
 to one hen and we often give them only seven or eight 
 chicks each. The coops are scattered out through the corn- 
 fields and in other protected places so that each breed has a 
 fresh run and plenty of grass. When the chicks are placed 
 in the coops they "re fed dry oatmeal and hard boiled egg 
 
 
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 4 Fine Pluce far Growing Chicks on lite Farm of Gardner and Dunning. 
 
 chopped up very fine. They are also given some fine grit 
 and a cup of water, which is refilled as often as necessary 
 and not allowed to sit in the sun where it will become 
 warm. The second day they are ted on cooked food. Three 
 parts cornmeal and one part "red dog" flour or wheat mid- 
 dlings are mixed with skim milk and a sufficient ami5unt of 
 baking soda to make it light. It is then baked until well 
 done. This is softened with milk or water and fed five times 
 a day for the first ten days. At the end of ten days if the 
 weather is suitable the hen is let out of her coop and allowed 
 to go where she pleases. After this they are fed but three 
 times per day. At six weeks or before we begin to feed 
 cracked corn and wheat. Occasionally a hen fails to return 
 to her coop the first night and we must find her and drive 
 her in, but usually they come back without trouble. 
 
 As each brood of chickens is placed in the coops they 
 are punch marked and examined for head lice. If any are 
 found their heads are greased with pure lard, which usually 
 answers the purpose and a second application is seldom nec- 
 essary. Each night every coop is shut up to keep out the 
 rats and skunks which abound in northern New York. For 
 this purpose a frame covered with a fine wire screen is used. 
 This admits plenty of fresh air, which is absolutely essential 
 to growing chickens. 
 
3G 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 Some of our hens take their broods fully a quarter of a 
 mile from their coops every day, and in this way teach them 
 to hustle for themselves. Nothing will develop a Barred 
 Rock cockerel's muscle and make his bones grow like clias- 
 ing grasshoppers through a cornfield. It answers the same 
 purpose as foot-ball for a boy. When the hens begin to 
 wean their chicks, great care must be exercised to prevent 
 crowding in the coops at night, as several broods will often 
 be found in one box. If they are not separated, crooked tails, 
 twisted wings and small, stunted chicks will be the result. 
 I believe crowding and overheating in the coop or brooder 
 
 to be the cause of more poor chickens, more crooked, de- 
 formed birds, more attaeks of roup and other conUgioiis 
 diseases, than all other causes combined. We do not intend 
 to allow more than ten or twelve chickens in one coop, no 
 matter how large it may be, and as soon as possible teach 
 them to roost, as they are less liable to crowd and pile up in 
 a heap on the roost than in a coop. For this purpose we 
 use a weaning coop, or colony house, set up from the ground, 
 into which we move our growing chicks as soon as they 
 evince a desire to fly upon the top of their small coops at 
 night. M. S. GARDNER. 
 
 HOW I MANAGE SITTING HENS, 
 
 A Well Known Breeder Tells How tie Has Reduced to a Minimum the Work of Hatching with Hens, 
 
 By Dr. H. F. Ballard. 
 
 TO BEGIN with, breeders of Asiatics should have, or at 
 least they like to have some early sitters. To have 
 early sitters we must have early layers. To have 
 early layers we must begin to feed for eggs early, 
 say January 1. Then if you get a few hens to start the in- 
 cubating fever in February you have done well. I aim to. 
 set every hen that goes to sitting early, and I do not wait 
 tor two hens to sit at a time so early in the season. I have 
 an old shed barn in which I set all my hens, and they are 
 never allowed outside of the barn from the day they are 
 set until the chicks are three days old. Each hen has a nest 
 box about eighteen inches square that can be closed in front. 
 I generally get boxes at the grocery or drug store and nail on 
 boards in front and use a barrel stave as a door, which can 
 be slipped down in front when closed. 
 
 The first evening the hen is placed on two or three 
 china eggs to test her persistence as a sitter and her charac- 
 ter as to temper. If she settles down quietly the first thing 
 she is A No. 1. If she stands and begins to poke her head 
 out between the boards, she is A No. 2. But do not pay any 
 more attention to her now, just go quietly away and lot her 
 think it over. The chances are she will be sitting quietly 
 in the morning, but whether she is or not I do not let her 
 off the nest, but place food and water before her where she 
 can reach it, and do not disturb her otherwise. If she is 
 
 4 Prize-i\lnning Hen and tleatlhy Brood. 
 
 quiet the eggs can be given her the second evening, but if 
 she is restless it is better to wait until the third evening be- 
 fore giving her the eggs. Some hens will do better after 
 they get a nest full of eggs. They seem to know that the 
 china cgg.s are a delusion and a snare. 
 
 If the hen persists in standing up and cackling and 
 tramping over the nest regardless of the eggs, the quicker 
 you break her up the better. For the last five years I have 
 never seen a sitting hen that I could not break from sitting 
 in three days, and I am breeding Cochins, a breed that are 
 considered by many people as good for nothing but sitting. 
 Those people simply do not know much about Cochins — that 
 is all. I have bred Langshans, Brahmas and Plymouth 
 Rocks, and the Cochins are no worse than any of them 
 about sitting, while they make the best mothers of the 
 whole list when they sit and hatch a brood. 
 
 In the same building where I set my hens, I keep all my 
 extra cocks and cockerels. These are divided up into coops 
 of one, two, or three or more, according to their fighting 
 propensities. Into one of these coops our contrary sitting 
 hen — that thought she wanted to sit and would not — goes 
 instanter. If she is a white hen, of course she is put in 
 with a white male bird; if a Partridge, with a Partridge, 
 and so on. Inside of three or four days he has persuaded 
 her to give it up as all a mistake, this sitting business any- 
 how, and you can ;hen turn her into the regular pen again. 
 So much for the breaking up, and it will work every time, 
 whether your hen has been sitting three days or three weeks. 
 
 To return to the sitter, providing she sits all right, on 
 the morning of the third day, when she has been on the nest 
 about thirty-six hours, open the door of the coop so she can 
 come off. Do not take her off, but let her come off in her 
 own way. She will be much more apt to go back to the nest 
 of her own accord, but if she does not, try to gently drive 
 her back. If she won't go back, catch her and put her back 
 and fasten her up again. If she goes back of her own free 
 will you may leave her nest open, as by that time she is 
 getting used to things and will perhaps need little further 
 attention. Sometimes it requires two or three trials before 
 she will go to her own nest, but she must be taught to do so, 
 or fastened up each time until she learns it. In the house 
 where my sitting hens are I always keep plenty of food, 
 water, grit and ash heap to roll in. 
 
 After your hen has been sitting about eight days you 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 37 
 
 should test out all the infertile eggs. All the tester I use is 
 a common lantern and my two hands. I set my lantern on 
 top of the box in which the hen is, any time after dark, on 
 the eighth day, or on up to the tenth day. I take each egg 
 between the thumb and first finger of both hands and hold 
 it up between my eyes and the light, so I can see through. 
 If the egg is infertile it will be a clear yellow color all over. 
 If there is a chick started in it the embryo can be seen. 
 Testing in this way is the simplest thing imaginable. I 
 leavo the infertile eggs in a basket until morning, when they 
 are broken into the ground feed and fed to the laying hens. 
 If you have a pen of hens that have taken to eating their 
 eggs feed them to them without breaking them. Feed them 
 all they will eat and they will get foundered on eggs and 
 soon let them alone. 
 
 Some writers advise setting two hens at once, and when 
 you test out a part give what eggs are left to one hen, and 
 set the other on fresh eggs. Do not do it. It makes the 
 second hen have to sit too long and about the time she 
 comes off with her chicks you may lose her. But let each 
 hen keep her own eggs and if there are not more than eight 
 or nine chicks when they both hatch, one hen can take all 
 and the other, for her own good, must be broken up. Another 
 thing that I do for my sitting hens is to sprinkle every hen 
 once a week with some good insecticide. I make a mixture 
 of crude carbolic acid one ounce, sulphur four pounds, and 
 sifted coal ashes about eight or ten pounds. This dilutes 
 the carbolic acid sufficiently, so it is not dangerous and can 
 
 be sprinkled over the backs of the hens on the nests, with 
 the bare hand. 
 
 As I said in the beginning my sitting hens are among the 
 least of my troubles, but if somebody can tell me how to 
 
 The Brooder of Our forefathers. 
 
 kejp my neighbors' dogs and cats and rats and weasles and 
 minks from killing my birds, without my getting into a 
 racket with my neighbors, such information will be thank- 
 fully received. H. F. BALLARD, M. D. 
 
 HATCHING WITH STRAI\GE HEISS. 
 
 Orange Boxes Made Very Good Double ^es^s—The Care of Sitting Hens that are Moved from One Farm to Another. 
 
 By C. A. Dattoa. 
 
 THE plan which I have followed for the past three 
 seasons in managing sitting hens has given very 
 good results, and I will attempt to explain it with 
 the hope that some reader may glean a kernel of 
 helpful information therefrom. 
 
 I use a small room in the barn for sitters, partitioned 
 off for that purpose. For nests I have found nothing better 
 than orange boxes, which generally can be had at any gro- 
 cery or fruit store for the asking. They are about the proper 
 size, each box holding two hens. They are made so as to 
 give a free circulation of air through the nests, which is 
 very essential to the comfort of the hen in warm weather. 
 I have a hinged door to each box to make it handy in letting 
 the hens oft and on their nests. For nest material I use 
 straw. 
 
 Being a Leghorn breeder, I have to buy sitters from the 
 neighbors. I gather them at night and place them in the 
 nests on china eggs. They are not let off until the second 
 day after they are put on the nests. After this they are 
 taken from the nests each day and fed whole corn and grit. 
 The hens are often quite wild, but by being gentle with them 
 they soon become quiet enough to place eggs in their care. 
 Each day these hens are taken from the nests, fed and re- 
 turned again in about fifteen minutes and shut up. This 
 prevents hens from leaving their nests and fighting with 
 
 other hens, which generally results in broken eggs. I then 
 darken the room and all is quiet till the next day. By this 
 method I have had hens hatch two sittings of eggs and come 
 off looking well. 
 
 When buying sitters it is best to make sure that each 
 one has taken up the business in sober earnestness before 
 they are moved to their new location. Those who sell 
 them naturally desire to get them out of the way as soon 
 as possible, and will often urge the buyer to remove them 
 before they have been broody long enough to be reliable. 
 A hen should sit three or four days before she is trans- 
 ferred to another place. Then, if they are handled care- 
 fully and made comfortable during the journey, they will 
 continue to behave well in their new home, even when the 
 surroundings are entirely different. The man who care- 
 lessly pulls a hen off her nest, thrusts her into a sack and 
 jolts her home on his shoulder, ought not to expect the 
 hea to sit. But sometimes she does, for some hens can 
 scarcely be induced to change their minds by the harshest 
 treatment. 
 
 During the past three years 1 have bought from twenty- 
 five to forty sitting hens a season and out of this number 
 have had only three which positively refused to sit; and I 
 have had an average hatch -Tf eleven chicks per hen, the 
 season through, by following Ibis plan. C. A. DUTTON. 
 
A HOUSE FOR SITTING HLNS. 
 
 A Southern Poultryman Hatches With Hens and Incubators, but Prefers Hens for Brooding the Chicks- 
 How the Hatchery Is Equipped. 
 
 By F. E. Wlage. 
 
 EWILL give my way of hatching and plans of the kind of 
 hatching houses I use. On account of oil being so ex- 
 pensive in this locality, and for several other reasons, 
 I consider a kind of half artificial half natural mode 
 of conducting the hatching is the best way. Of course my 
 "better half" gives me a hand and I don't see how I could 
 manage without it, because hired help down here is, to say 
 the least, very unreliable. 
 
 We have prepared for fertile eggs and vigorous chicks 
 by selecting our best birds, keeping them in good condition, 
 but i;ot in any way forcing them for the sake of winter 
 
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 StCTlOM cy HEAT BO/ES 
 
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 PLAN, MO I PUA.M HO 3 
 
 Plan of House and Equipment for tite Use of Sluing Mens Described by F. E. WInge 
 
 eggs, and by keeping two males for each pen, placed therein 
 on alternate days. 
 
 I aim to set six hens and to start a fifty egg incubator 
 at the same time, and as soon as the chicks are dry I divide 
 them among the hens, so each hen gets from twelve to six- 
 teen chicks to care for, depending on the season of year. If 
 there are too many chicks, some of the hens waiting for 
 eggs are made to brood them. 
 
 We hatch during February, March and April, and in the 
 fall during September and October. 
 
 Hatching houses are 20x20 feet. The sills are two feet 
 from the ground. The houses could be made any length, 
 but we use them for curing cow-pea hay in and this size has 
 been found most convenient. They are made entirely of 2x4 
 scantling and 1x12 inch rough boards. Boards on walls are 
 left one-halt inch apart and of course not battened so as to 
 admit air for the curing of the hay. 
 
 Plan 1 shows the floor plan with ten pens. I place three 
 sitters in each pen, thus the house will accommodate thirty 
 sitters at one time. The letter N in plan 1 shows position of 
 nest boxes in hallv/ay; A shows feed and grit boxes; W, 
 water pans, and D, dust boxes. As may be understood, all 
 work in setting and caring for hens is done from the hallway. 
 
 Plan 2 shows a section of nest boxes without bottom; 
 W is a wire used in closing front door; T top doors; P being 
 nail used for fastening the wire of the front doors. 
 
 The pens having been cleaned out, water and feed boxes 
 filled, we begin letting out one hen in each pen at 4 p. m. 
 
 She will as a rule bs waiting for this and greatly enjoy a dust 
 bath, a good drink and a quantity of whole corn. Only one 
 nest door being open, there is no one to fight with and she 
 cannot make a mistake in nests, so no eggs will be broken 
 or chilled. After the expiration of twenty minutes, during 
 which time we are employed with something else, we again 
 visit the hatching house, when as a rule the hens at liberty 
 will have resumed their duty. The second hen in each pen is 
 then liberated and after another twenty minutes the third 
 one. Thus we must be at hand for about one hour, but the 
 actual work in caring for all thirty hens will not take more 
 than ten minutes. The best of it is 
 that any one can be entrusted to do 
 the work now and again should it be 
 necessary. 
 
 We place a couple of handfuls of 
 mint (which grows wild here) in nest 
 material and there is no trouble with 
 vermin. Above each nest is a piece of 
 pasteboard tacked, with number jf sit- 
 ting, number and kind of eggs, when 
 due, number of chicks and punch mark. 
 When hatch is over it is copied in the 
 hatching record book. It should be re- 
 meml)ered that good accommodations 
 for the sitting hens, not only make the 
 work for caring for them easier, but 
 often are of considerable assistance in securing good 
 hatches. The poultrymen further north, who desire to set 
 hens very early, must protect them from 'the cold, or good 
 hatches cannot often be obtaineki. The hen will generate 
 enough heat to keep the eggs at the required temperature 
 during very cold weather, if the building in wliich she sits 
 offers sufficient protection so that her comb will not be 
 touched by frost and if the nest is deep, warm and snug. 
 
 In the south we have less of the extreme cold to guard 
 against, but late in the season wa find it advisable to see 
 to it that the sitting hens are afforded some protection from 
 the heat. A hen is not comfortable, and will not often 
 bring off a good hatch when she is confined in a hot-box. 
 The building should be sufficiently well ventilated to keep 
 it fairly cool and frequently cleaned and disinfected to 
 make the air fit for the hens to breath. 
 
 On poultry farms , where the natural means of hatching 
 are employed and scores, or perhaps hundreds, of sitting 
 hens must be cared for, the time required to do this part 
 of the routine work is considerable and any plan that prom- 
 ises 'to decrease the time required, and consequently the ex- 
 pense, for "time is money,"' is worthy of serious attention. 
 
 It is not well to let off a group of hens in the same 
 apartment at one time, for they are almost sure to fight, 
 or ca,use trouble in some way. To take off each one sep- 
 arately requires too much time. The house and equipment 
 described enables the one in charge to care for the hens in 
 the best manner and the leaslt time. F. E. WINGE. 
 
THE SITTER AND HER BROOD, 
 
 Making the Nest and Setting the Hen— Feeding and Caring for the Hen and Chicks— A Satisfactory 
 
 Coop and Runway. 
 
 By Mrs. S. E. Hurlbut. 
 
 THE best thing I have ever found in which to set hens 
 is an empty barrel. Cut a hole nine inches from the 
 bottom end. Make this hole seven inches wide and 
 nine inches high. Put about three inches of dirt in 
 the bottom, leaving it about level. Put in a double handful 
 of tobacco stems or waste tobacco, laying it level, then put in 
 enough fine hay or straw to make a good nest. Put a couple 
 of china eggs in the nest and put in the hen. Stand the bar- 
 rel on end and put a board across the top for shelter and to 
 darken the nest, so it is more secluded. This also prevents 
 the hen from flying upon the top where she is liable to foul 
 the nest and eggs. 
 
 If the hen is uneasy put a board or wire screen in front 
 of the hole in the barrel so that she cannot get out for a day 
 or bo. Let her sit on the china eggs for a couple of days so 
 that the nest will be thoroughly warm, then put the eggs 
 under her. Keep plenty of good clean water and ground 
 corn where she can get it and give her a chance for a dust 
 bath. If you have a shed or vacant coop where the ground is 
 dry the bath is assured. You can place several of these 
 nests side by side, as the barrel gives seclusion so that the 
 hens cannot see each other. 
 
 After the lien has been sitting about a week dust her with 
 some good lice killer, and dust again a few days before 
 hatching time is due. The cover can be lifted from the bar- 
 rel to do the dusting and if for any reason you wish to take 
 the hen off the nest you can lift her out without disturbing 
 the eggs. Leave the chicks in the nest at least twenty-four 
 hours after they are hatched, and it is well enough to put a 
 piece of board in front of the entrance, so that the chicks 
 cannot fall out. It often happens that, if one of the chicks 
 gets out and peeps loudly, the hen will leave the nest and 
 brood the lone chick, leaving the others to get chilled. At 
 the proper time take the hen and put her in the coop and 
 give her the chicks. After the chicks are a few days old 
 turn the coop over in the evening and dust the hen with 
 powder, which will work down through her feathers onto the 
 ■chicks. I occasionally turn the coop bottom side up and 
 sprinkle kerosene thoroughly on the inside. 
 
 Mrs. liurlbuVs Brood Coop. 
 
 Runway Used With Mrs. Hurlbut's Brood Coop. 
 
 Feeding the Chicks. 
 The first food given the chicks is usually bread and 
 -milk, and for a water dish for small chicks a low tin baking 
 .dish, not more than an inch high, is all right. The food I 
 
 give after the first day is meal and middlings (equal parts 
 by measure) mixed, with about one tablespoonful of animal 
 meal to one quart of thj food. This is thoroughly scalded 
 and fed cool five times a day for about two weeks. After 
 that I feed the mash three times a day and in the middle 
 of the f o r e- 
 noon and af- 
 ternoon they 
 are fed hulled 
 oats and 
 wheat screen- 
 ings mixed. I 
 increase the 
 animal meal 
 gradually un- 
 til they are 
 well feathered 
 out. when I 
 feed about one 
 part animal 
 meal to eight 
 
 parts meal and mid-llings — say eight pints of food and one 
 pint of animal meal, or that proportion. I occasionally feed 
 chopped onions, which they always relish, and give them 
 grit and oyster sihells. I throw it into the runs and let 
 them eat whait they want of it. During the winter, when 
 the hens have picked out the coarse shell and grit, I put 
 the fine grit in a box and keep it to feed to the Chicks in 
 the spring. 
 
 I keep the chicks in the runs until they are well feath- 
 ered out, moving the runs as fast as they eat down the 
 grass, in hot weather being careful to place them in the 
 shade. I take the hens away from the chicks when they are 
 large enough, and that depends on the weather. In warm 
 weather they will do without the hen younger than when 
 it is colder. Each breeder must use his own judgment, 
 and in fact the keynote of success is good judgment. 
 There are no ironclad rules that fit all conditions. My 
 yards are about fifty by one hundred feet and well shaded. 
 I put the chicks into these yards when they are about ten 
 weeks old. After the chicks eat off the) green 
 stuff in the yards, I feed green food once a day 
 and gradually reduce the regular meals to three 
 times a day. Anything I can get that is green 
 I feed them — grass, clover, weeds, radishes, cu- 
 cumbers, cabbage, lettuce, gre«n corn, tomatoes, 
 apples, etc., all help. I have a good garden and 
 the surplus goes to them. 
 
 After the first hard frost in the fall I let 
 them run at large and they have a picnic in 
 the garden and fields until cold weiather. I 
 keep grit and shell in the boxes by them all 
 the time in the yards. I give them plenty of good clean 
 water, keep them free from lice, give them shelter from rains 
 and sun, and when cold weather comes good, comfortable 
 houses. I raise Barred Plymouth Rocks and have no troub'e 
 
40 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 in raising spring hatched cocl^erels that will weigh nine 
 pounds and over, and pullets that will weigh seven pounds 
 and over by Christmas. 
 
 Coop and Run for Hen With Chicks. 
 I have seen many sketches of coops, runs, etc., and pres- 
 ent herewith one that I have used for the past ten years with 
 good success. Some of my friends have adopted this style 
 of coop, and one man says of it, "It is the only thing with 
 which I can have any success in the village, as cats are so 
 
 4 Prosperous Brood of Prospective Money Makers. 
 
 thick they get all my chicks it they are allowed to run." 
 This coop is proof against hawks and crows as well, or any- 
 thing that does not dig. 1 like the old-fashioned A coop for 
 several reasons. The chicks can get down near the bottom 
 of the coop under the sides, and if the hen scratches they 
 are out ot the way. They are cheap and easy to move, are 
 water-proof and easy to free from vermin. I cut the sides 
 thirty inches long, twenty inches wide, using ten-inch wide 
 boards with a batten of tin or wood over the middle joint. 
 Take three pieces of board, one by two, one for the ridge 
 pole, and the other two for battens near the bottom. Nail 
 these to the sides, as shown in shaded places in front of 
 coop. Take a piece, one by three, and put across the front 
 
 five inches from the bottom, as shown in the sketch. Nail 
 a piece, two and one-half inches wide, in the middle, leav- 
 ing a space two and three-quarter inches wide at each side. 
 Then nail the rest solid. Nail a board of matchijd stuff 
 lengthwise on the back, or bevel the edges so the water will 
 shed properly if not matched. You can leave a small hole 
 at the top of back for ventilation if necessary. I usually 
 cover the ridge with a strip of tin to make it water-proof. 
 When the chicks get large enough to jump up onto the cross- 
 piece and get out, put a piece 
 of one-inch wire netting across 
 the upper part of the front. 
 
 To make the runs take a 
 sixteen-foot board ten inches 
 wide, cut in two for the sides, 
 eight feet long. Then take 
 another board and cut two 
 pieces three feelt ten inches 
 long for the ends, and two 
 pieces four feet two inches 
 long for the cover and top 
 board. Take four pieces ten 
 inches long, two by two, for 
 corner-pieces. Nail the three- 
 foot-ten-inch pieces to them, 
 place them between the sides 
 and nail them securely. Take 
 one piece of the four-foot- 
 two-inch, place it on the end 
 of the run, lay the other piece 
 next to it and nail it securely. 
 Take two straps or T hinges 
 and hang the first board to 
 the one nailed and yoti have 
 the door by which to feed 
 and water. Cover the balance 
 of the top with one-inch mesh 
 wire netting four feet wide. 
 Saw a hole for the opening 
 in one end eight inches long 
 and five inches wide from 
 the bottom. Mtove the coop 
 up to it so that the open- 
 ing will correspond with the end of the run. On cold 
 nights or in rainy weather put a board in front of the coop 
 on top of the run. This is necessary during rain storms, 
 as the rain falling on the boards will spatter into the coop 
 and make it damp unless protected. 
 
 In hot weather I put the coop and run in the 
 shade, and move them every few days onto fresh 
 ground. These measures are not arbitrary, as the runs 
 can be made longer or shorter, or higher, to suit the fancy 
 of the breeder. I am giving you a general idea. The cover 
 and board adjoining make a good shelter for the chicks to 
 teed under when it rains and furnish a shade when the sun 
 shines. IMRS. S. E. HURLBUT. 
 
REARING CHICKS NATURALLY AND ARTIFICIALLY. 
 
 The Difficulties and How to Avoid Them — Conditions That Affect the Health and Growth of Young Stock— Hatching 
 
 and Brooding— Feeding Chicks With Hens and In Brooders— Soft Food 
 
 Best to Produce Early Maturity. 
 
 By H. E. Moss. 
 
 THERE is such a multitude of "Don'ts" associated not 
 only with the poultry, but with every other business 
 that to attempt to enumerate them would be an end- 
 less task. What is often called "horse sense," or 
 good judgment, or brains, must determine between the right 
 and the wrong; but many occasions will arise where ex- 
 perience is necessary upon which to base judgment and 
 where the experience of others can be had and applied. It 
 is equivalent to so much time and money saved, for with- 
 out it we must test the question ourselves and if found to 
 be a failure it is just so much paid for experience or paid 
 up capital. We shall, therefore endeavor to be as clear and 
 explicit as possible, assuming that the large majority who 
 will avail themselves of this advice are amateurs or begin- 
 ners who are willing to profit by the experience of others, 
 and to whom success or failure means much. We shall 
 avoid the don'ts and write from the positive, not the nega- 
 tive viewpoint. 
 
 The rearing of domestic poultry should show a profit 
 and will do so in proportion to the intelligence with which 
 it is conducted precisely as in any other busness; but where 
 the highest order of talent is employed, the profits on the 
 capital invested will far exceed those in any other legiti- 
 mate business. 
 
 We Will Start With the Chick 
 
 As it emerges from the shell. If the eggs begin to pip 
 in the evening they should all be excluded by the next morn- 
 ing. In cool weather compel the hen to keep her nest for 
 twenty-four hours longer; this will permit the chicks to 
 sleep and gain strength, which they will very rapidly, as 
 the absorption of the yolk now begins and the new functions 
 are fully established. Then remove her with the brood to 
 the coop, but before doing so, dust her thoroughly with a 
 good insect powder and apply a little grease or oil on top 
 of the chicks' heads and under the wings. This will pre- 
 vent much future trouble in fighting lice. This should be 
 repeated once a week until they are past danger and can 
 dust themselves in soft moist earth as their instinct teaches 
 them. 
 
 Have Your Coops Ready. 
 
 In severe cold weather they should be placed under shel- 
 ter, but where they get as much direct sunshine as possible. 
 An open shed facing south or east is preferable where the 
 chicks can have a dry run when a late snow covers the 
 ground. A gravel or sand floor is very desirable, and if 
 dry, will be found very satisfactory. Your coop will require 
 no bottom, but can be shifted its width every day, thereby 
 insuring a clean floor. Otherwise a wooden floor is indis- 
 pensable and should be covered with chaff, fine litter, ashes 
 or any suitable material and renewed frequently. 
 Food and Warmth 
 
 Are now the two factors upon which success depends. 
 The latter need not be considered here, as the hen is to 
 
 brood them, and she will take care of them; but in cold 
 weather we render it more comfortable for them by placing 
 the coop in a sheltered location, at the same time allowing 
 the chicks liberty to run in the sunshine during the middle 
 of the day. Should the snow be deep, clear a place for them. 
 They thrive better, grow faster and make stronger, hardier 
 fowls than the later hatches that have the extreme heat of 
 summer to contend with before they are half grown. A 
 long protracted hot spell checks their growth in a very 
 marked degree. Cold does less harm than heat, provided 
 they can run under the hen and get warm whenever they are 
 so inclined, and if the hen or the warmth is always to 
 be found when they want it, there is little danger of 
 them becoming chilled. The best results will usually be 
 had where the hen is kept in her coop until the chicks are 
 weaned, thereby compelling her to hover the chicks when 
 ever they demand it and avoiding the enforced excessive 
 exercise she would often subject them to, tiring them out 
 and making them leg weary. Scatter a shovel of sand in 
 front of the coop, which will serve as their first grit. Have 
 a feeding board or trough ready; also drinking fountain, 
 which wash out daily and keep filled with pure water. After 
 your chicks have been out of the shell thirty-six hours, give 
 them a feed of stale bread crumbs soaked in milk and 
 squeezed almost dry. They will eat sparingly at fir^t, as 
 they should. They have been nourished by the yolk which 
 was taken into the abdominal cavity just before hatching 
 and they would not suffer from the lack of food for three 
 days. The bread and milk does not overtax the delicate 
 digestive organs, which as yet have been unemployed, and it 
 cleanses the crop, gizzard, and intestinal tract and prepares 
 it for its functions. Feed every two hours for the first 
 thrive days, but only what they will eat up clean each time. 
 Little and often is the rule for little chicks up to ten days 
 old, then the capacity of the crop increases and the inter- 
 vals can be lengthened. 
 
 We have seen so much of the hard boiled egg nonsense 
 and the fatality from it that it is surprising that any one 
 should recommend it. Others will advise corn meal, 
 johnny cake, meat stew, hash — anything. Now, it would 
 be just as consistent to feed these things to a new born 
 babe as to a chick. It has been done and no doubt some 
 survived, but only because green food happened to be ac- 
 cessible, and the chick after eating the poison, found the 
 antidote. A dog can eat Rough on Rats and then drink a 
 pan of milk and suffer no injury, but that does not justify 
 me in advising it as a steady diet for dogs. Those who pre- 
 fer the dry grain ration should after the third day use pin- 
 head oat meal and a little millet seed until they can eat 
 cracked wheat, finely chopped corn, and hulled oats, which 
 latter should constitute the main food for a growing chick. 
 Add to this a little millet or chopped sunflower seed with 
 a little (very little) cut green bone or lean meat daily after 
 they are ten days old, the amount depending on the season 
 
42 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 and the number of insects and worms obtainable on range. 
 Green food or bulky vegetable food should be fed daily and 
 as regularly as a horse or cow is fed hay. It is just as es- 
 sential and serves the same purpose in the digestive process 
 in one case as in the other. Accustom them to eat whole 
 wheat, buckwheat and cracked corn as soon as possible. 
 
 A Preference for Soft Food. 
 Our preference and that of many others, especially 
 where the chicks are raised for market, is soft food, for two 
 reasons: First, because we can combine all the necessary 
 elements and secure the proper ratio of food constituents 
 at each feeding. They cannot select certain seeds or parti- 
 cles which they prefer and waste the remainder, as they will 
 in dry feed. They usually hunt out all the millet seed first. 
 as this is "candy" to the little chicks and a luxury even to 
 old hens. Bury a handful under a haystack and they will 
 leave jio straw unturned until they find it. No matter how 
 accurately we figure out our dry feed ration, we can't force 
 them to eat the less palatable after they have filled up on 
 "candy" and our calculations are knocked out. Second, be- 
 cause a soft, properly compounded food needs no accessories 
 
 A Flock of Chicks That Will Crow Fast If Well Fed. 
 
 except green food, which is Imperative in either case, and it 
 saves much energy which would be expended by the chicks 
 in grinding it. Bear in mind, we are raising these chicks 
 for profit and not as pets. We must, therefore, force them 
 to the limit of their ability to eat, digest, assimilate and 
 grow. Quick maturity is what we desire. In order to achieve 
 this we must meet all the demands made by the growing 
 powers for material to grow on. You can't deceive nature. 
 If it calls for nitrogen, carbon will not answer; if it calls 
 for water, nitrogen will not serve, and any ration that is not 
 balanced as it sbould be feeds one side and starves the other. 
 If any system of feeding could be devised whereby we could 
 mature a chick in four weeks, we should all quickly adopt it, 
 and if we were raising chicks exclusively for market we 
 should not depart from it. Again, a ration may be balanced 
 and its ratio of protein (albuminoids) to carbohydrates, 
 freo fat, and mineral salts properly determined and yet fail, 
 as it surely will if the protein is derived exclusively from 
 vegetable or grain sources. The experiment stations have 
 lately proved tbis fact, which some of us discovered long 
 ago by costly experience, at that time our only teacher. A 
 ration bearing precisely the same nutritive ratio but with 
 a certain percentage of animal protein will be highly suc- 
 cessful, but if lacking it they famish and die from starva- 
 tion in the midst of apparent plenty. A chick properly fed 
 
 will be very eager for the next feed. When they are not, 
 there is danger ahead. Never feed all they will eat up by 
 lingering over the feed trough. They will overload their 
 crops if permitted and where dry food is given, especially 
 rolled oats, the swelling takes place in the crop faster than 
 the food is passed into the gizzard and often proves fatal. 
 An excess of bran is also dangerous. A little is necessary 
 in some cases and desirable m others, as the husk or shell 
 acts as a sitinuilant to intes/tinal action, but an excess causes 
 irritation and bowel trouble. 
 
 The above is comparatively an easy matter to follow, 
 for when natural brooding is employed more than half of 
 our anxiety is removed, and when the business is to be con- 
 ducted on a small scale this method will answer, but where 
 large numbers are to be hatched and grown, any but the 
 artificial system would be entirely too laborious and out of 
 the question. The above being fully understood, the only 
 change to be considered is 
 
 Artificial Brooding. 
 
 Unless we can furnish a uniform and constant supply of 
 heat of the right temperature trouble begins, and once 
 
 begun there seems to be 
 no end. Get this one fact 
 clearly in yx>ur mind, that 
 warmth is more essential 
 than food in handling an 
 incubator brood. They will 
 manage to live on almost 
 any kind of food even if 
 they do not grow and 
 thrive, but variable heat in 
 the brooder is faltal. The 
 chemical and nutritive 
 changes that food must 
 undergo in the digestive 
 process can only be carried 
 on at a high temperature. 
 This is the vital tempeia- 
 ture; below it the process 
 ceases. This at once checks 
 nutrition. Doctors describe 
 health as the perfect har- 
 mony of nutritious changes, or physiological ease. 
 If the temperature of the body falls below the vital 
 point, nutrition is disturbed and disease follows. If the 
 chick is chilled before the yolk is fully absorbed, nothing 
 will save it. The nutritive process has been checked. What 
 food is taken afterward passes wholly or partly undigested 
 and death soon follows. Fatal as cold is when prolonged to 
 discomfort, it is necessary after the chick has learned where 
 to run to hover and get warm, to allow them a little exer- 
 cise in an outside run in moderately cold weather when they 
 can take in the sunshine. If left to their choice, they will 
 seek the warmth before they become chilled to the danger 
 point, provided they know where to find it. Here is where 
 the artificial brooder is better than many old hens, that 
 often keep going, no matter how cold it is, while the chicks 
 cry and beg for the warmth that is denied them. Their 
 plaintive peep is sure sign of disicomtort, and whenever 
 it is heard it is high time they were looked after. Where 
 chicks are to be raised by the thousands for market, arti- 
 ficial incubating and brooding must be adopted, as it would 
 require too much help at too great an outlay to make it 
 profitable with hens under the natural method. Three sit- 
 ting hens would cause me more trouble and annoyance than 
 one incubator, and with their broods would require as much 
 attention as a brooder house holding several thousand. 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 43 
 
 The Broodei- House 
 
 Must be warm and dry. There are many good plans 
 published. On« that will be found very satisfactory is six- 
 teen feet wide, four feet high in front, and six in the rear 
 with the hip of the roof plumb with the face of the hover 
 so as to allow head room in the passage. Divide your space 
 into three feet at the rear for a walk; two feet for width 
 of hover and eleven feet for pen. This building can be ex- 
 tended any length desired. Don't attempt to heat the hovers 
 with lamps in any latitude north of Birmingham, Ala., or 
 you will fail. You might be able to get the temperature under 
 the hover high enough, but the pens would be chilly and 
 there is where they must spend the greater part of the day 
 if they are to thrive. Use a water jacket stove and double 
 loop of inch and a half pipe in the hover and a single loop 
 under the windows, of which there should be one in each 
 pen, raised twelve inches from the floor. Make the pens 
 four feet wide, this with eleven feet in length outside the 
 hover is sufficient to start one hundred 
 chicks in, but they must be thinned out as 
 they grow older. A movable lid over the 
 pipes is all the hover consists of. They will 
 be contented and scratch and exercise all 
 day long and run under the pipes when they 
 wish extra warmlth. No curtains are re- 
 quired when tiie building is heated as we 
 describe. They are undesirable at best. 
 When the hover is curtained off it often is 
 allowed to become filthy, and impure air and 
 am'nonia fumes are held there for the chicks 
 to breathe. If the hover registers too high 
 a temperature and the pens too low. lift or 
 lap the covers so the heat from the pipes 
 can rise more readily. 
 
 Crowding works much mischief. Out- 
 door and indoor brooders heated by lamps 
 are frequently rated at too high a capacity. 
 If one-half the chicks were assigned to them 
 there would be less loss and better chicks. 
 The action of the chicks is a perfect indi- 
 cation of their feelings. Whenever they 
 stand around humped up and chirping, they 
 are in danger and are losing ground instead 
 of gaining. In ordinary winter weather they should be 
 given access to the outside runs for a few hours when the 
 sun Is bright. They are better for it and will run in and 
 get warm when they feel inclined. 
 
 Keep your supply of coarse sand and fine grit and clean 
 drinking water constantly before them. After they are ten 
 days old they are quite hardy and practically safe; and if 
 properly fed and of breeds suitable for broilers they can be 
 made to weigh one pound in forty days, one and a half 
 pounds in flfty-five days and roasters five pounds each at 
 four months. When reared with small yards for exercising 
 they move about much less than when on free range, and 
 while they have sufficient exercise to maintain good health, 
 tliey have not sufficient to waste energy or flesh or toughen 
 their muscles. They gain in weight more rapidly and make 
 heavier, plumper broilers in a given time. 
 
 Feeding Brooder Chicks. 
 
 I use three distinct mixtures of food between hatching 
 and marketing time. The first ten days I take special care 
 
 of their digestive organs and prepare them for the active 
 work demanded from the eleventh day until two weeks before 
 marketing. I feed a narrow ration, the basis being oats in 
 some form. I then hasten the finishing with the best pos- 
 sible material, adding more corn, and aim to add flesh faster 
 than frame or feathers and to distribute what fat is deposit- 
 ed in globules throughout the meat, making it tender and 
 juicy instead of accumulating layers of internal fat or 
 patches under the skin, all of which is wasted and lost in 
 cooking and serving the fowl. A properly fattened fowl 
 should not show any visible fat when dressed, but not one 
 in a thousand poultry raisers knows how to put meat on 
 a growing chick, and the only way they can turn out what 
 might pass for a plump broiler or roaster is to work on such 
 breeds as develop the quickest and then cover them with as 
 much fat as possible in addition to the meat. This is all 
 wrong. Soft, tender, juicy meat and a round, plump breast 
 is what is wanted aud the fatty delusion must stand aside. 
 
 These Chicks are Housed In Permanent Buildings and have Large, Well-shaded Runs. 
 
 No one grain has so great a tendency to deposit internal 
 fat as corn, and this is the very last source we should go to 
 for flesh forming food. I believe that in the near future 
 our best markets will demand machine crammed or crate 
 fattened poultry. They have for many years demanded 
 crammed ducklings. The only reason they have not been 
 known by this name is because no machine is necessary to 
 cram a duckling— he will stuff himself if given the food. 
 
 The rations fed for any specific purpose may vary great- 
 ly as to material, and in different localities will naturally 
 be compounded of the most available material if suitable, 
 but for a growing chick they should always consist of oats 
 (minus the hulls) in some form as the base, and this forms 
 one-half the ration. Other grains can be varied, whether 
 cracked or ground, but five per cent of the bulk must con- 
 sist of meat or ground bone in some form after they are ten 
 days old as well as an abundant daily supply of succulent 
 green food or steamed clover. If you omit the meat or green 
 food trouble begins and sho'ws in weak legs, naked bodies, 
 stunted and uneven growth and blue, skinny carcasses when 
 dressed. h. E. MOSS. 
 
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. 
 
 By A. F. Huater. 
 
 HATCHING the cMcks is but half the battle, if, indeed, 
 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 
 incubator 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. It is 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 in it. 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. 
 
 PARI 01 I (IM. BROODER t10US£. 
 
 The Foreground Shows Brooders Out of Doors, Each Brooder Enclosed In a Pen 20 Eeet 
 Square, Made of 18-Inch letting. 
 
 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 
 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 heal used in this bouse 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 conse- 
 ijiieut shrinking 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 re- 
 duce 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 enclosed so as to cut 
 off currents of air, and the chicks run 
 out and in upon a level. For our win- 
 ter chickens the broodere are set in 
 the middle of the pens ini itlie broader 
 houses, or, say, about four feet 
 back from the window, and two 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 45 
 
 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 removed 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 watc?red 
 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 
 temperature of the hover is gradually 
 reduced from 95 degrees at the begin- 
 ning to ?0 or therp-abouts at the end 
 of the second week, then to 85, then 
 80, then 75, and t!he 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 bein'g our custom to begin set- 
 ting 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 "shel- 
 ter 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 thg 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 net- 
 ting tied to temporary 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 
 
 BROODERS AS VS£D OUT OF DOORS. 
 The One In Foreground has a Very Small Pen for Baby Chicks. 
 
 reader will realize that they are thoroughly well built. 
 The roosting coop, which is chiefiy 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 
 stiffen it. A coop like this will comfortably house twenty- 
 five to thirty chickens until they are nearly grown; in fact, 
 we sometimes have pullets begin to lay before they are 
 brought in from those 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 
 cola, an improvement would be to make a front of half-inch 
 boards, hinged at the top edge, so it could swing outward 
 and upward and rest upon folding legs hinged 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 button.s. 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 
 
16 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 The A Coop. 
 
 we have found it a conveuience to have them wholly de- 
 tachable, 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 to put 
 the shelter close to 
 the coop, using one 
 of the 2V6x3-foot shelter boards, as shown in the illustra- 
 tions. 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 fur- 
 nishes shade if the sun is shining, or protects from a driv- 
 ing rain, of course adapting it to the direction of the wind. 
 When we move the pullets out into the field and into the 
 roosting coops we set upon stakes and a strip of furring, a 
 shelving roof seven and a half feet long by three feet wide, 
 slightly 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 rainy day or to get away from 
 the hot sun, they are not making good growth, and by so 
 simple an expedient as we have here outlined we more than 
 doable the protection and by so much promote their com- 
 fort. 
 
 Foods and Feeding. 
 
 As we stated at the beginning of this article, we raise 
 two kinds of chicks, chickens lor 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 cooirs^ being kept 
 separate from the 
 chicks intended for 
 breeding stock. 
 
 Feed often and 
 feed but a little at a 
 time is the rule for KoosUng Coopn for Large Chicks. 
 
 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 twenty minutes to half an 
 hour, remove it. Nothing causes more bowel looseness and 
 dysentery than sour food. Our chief foods for the first six 
 weeks are coarsest oatmeal, 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 moistened with sweet milk or water,— slightly moistened 
 so that it is still crumbly and not "pasty." The oatmeal 
 is just such as i.^ 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, 
 pan-loaves, rolls, corn cakes, etc., from hotels and restau- 
 rants and costs about a cent and a half a pound. This 
 
 ^^ 
 
 As a Shflter from Sun. 
 
 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 
 oatme-al. 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 mix»d 
 with one of the bread or oatmeal feeds, or the infertile eggs 
 (clear eggs) from the incubators are boiled hard, chopped 
 fine, shells and all, and jnixed 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 
 he 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 "Excelsior 
 Meal bread" as recommended by Mr. I. K. Felch. "Grind 
 into a fine meal in the following proportions: Twenty 
 pounds corn, fifteen pounds oats, ten pounds barley, ten 
 pounds wheat bran. Make the cakes by taking one quart 
 sour milk (or buttermilk), adding a little salt and molasses, 
 one quart of water in which a large heaping teaspoonful of 
 saleratus has been dissolved. Then thicken all to a little 
 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 prie-? 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." 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 47 
 
 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- 
 meal a year and it makes about one-flfth of our chicks' food 
 ration for the first three months of their life. Considei-ed 
 simply as a food ration it is economical, but when we con- 
 sider that is a good foundation for the future usefulness of 
 the birds, 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 jn 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 inaugurated. 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 ol 
 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, 
 thoroughly 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 (butch- 
 er'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 sup- 
 plies that we have, 
 but, if this is not 
 a V a i 1 a ble, meat 
 jneal or beef scraps 
 should be mixed in- 
 to 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 
 
 As a Shelter from Rain. 
 
 A Shed-Roof Shelter. 
 
 sometimes going around between 
 
 corn and so on. The intention is to feed only what the chicks 
 will eat up clean and quickly; but we break the rule so far as 
 the last 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. 
 
 Wa have said 
 nothing about fresh 
 water because it 
 goes without saying 
 that fres'h, clean 
 water must always 
 me accessible to the 
 chickens. We water 
 them three times a 
 day, morning, noon 
 and late afternoon; 
 whiles 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 quantity 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. 
 
 A. F. HUNTER. 
 
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. 
 
 By r. L. Sewell. 
 
 'E BELIEVE chicks come into the world with the 
 best conditions for rapid growth at the time of 
 fruit blossoming. That is about the middle of 
 May in this latitude — but in seasons so 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 batching — 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 re- 
 quire no special urging to bring them into fine form and 
 feather for the early winter shows. Our ambitious fanciers 
 
 ^■S't'r 
 
 June Matched and Vigorous. 
 
 who are not content with any but the very large breeds, 
 weighing eight to twelve pounds, must remember that they 
 are handling races developed through artful selection and 
 most advantageous environments. 
 
 The fancier who sets out to win in the present day com- 
 petition at our best shows and reap 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 
 ho 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 the 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 for it. 
 
 The exei'cise 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 
 fare 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 health 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 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 49 
 
 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, fres.i 
 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 bo to young stock, among which we look for our 
 ne.xt 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. 
 
 FRANKLANE L. SEWELL. 
 
 JUNE HATCHED BIRDS FOR WINTER SHOWS, 
 
 The Season Naturally Favorable to Growth— Free Range tor Hens with Chicks— A Shaded Location tor Coops and 
 
 Brooders — Green Food and Clean Water Important. 
 
 By H. A. Nourse. 
 
 JUNE is a month of growth if most is made of the favor- 
 able conditions usually prevailing and chicks hatched 
 this month will often make bone and muscle faster 
 than those of earlier hatches. This is especially true 
 when the owner is without facilities for properly housing 
 the chicks during the chilling storms which April and May 
 some times furnish. In June not much protection is neces- 
 sary. The brood may be out in the fields where the requisi- 
 tion of fresh air, exercise and green grass will build strong 
 bodies, able to take care of all the food that the chicks can 
 eat. No conditions are more favorable tor securing good 
 growth at the least expense for labor and food. 
 
 Some of the winners at the largest shows in recent 
 years were hatched in June. In the Plymouth Rock, Wyan- 
 dotte and Leghorn classes June hatched birds are frequently 
 awarded the ribbons and a successful breeder of Buff Coch- 
 ins, asserts that some of the best January show pullets he 
 ever raised were hatched in June and July. 
 
 Chicks With Hens. 
 
 The man who broods his chicks with hens, and has a 
 range of fair area, can make the most of his chances by con- 
 fining the hen to the coop only at night and in bad weather. 
 At other times she should be out with the chicks teaching 
 them to find the natural food intended for them and protect- 
 ing them from their natural enemies. Such a course not 
 only strengthens tiiem physically, but makes them self- 
 reliant and able to take good care of themselves when they 
 are deserted by the hen. This freedom also allows the hen 
 to dust frequently in the cool, moist earth, keeping her 
 feathers clean and assisting to rid herself of lice, which in- 
 crease faster in warm weather and must be kept down. To 
 this end, hen and chicks must be treated for body lice and 
 head lice. If the hen is confined most of the time, a roomy 
 coop and good ventilation should be furnished. In warm 
 weather coops should be located in the shade, or if this is 
 impossible, they should face toward the north. If the hen 
 is free she will find a cool place, but if confined, she is likely 
 to suffer from the heat and the chicks remaining near her 
 while young, will suffer also and fail to prosper. 
 
 Brooder Chicks. 
 
 Chicks in brooders are supposed to be, and should be, 
 free from lice. No chick that has had a chance to get a 
 louse on it should be put in the brooders or in a brooder 
 house and, if that is looked to, brooder chicks have an ad- 
 vantage over chicks with hens. Most of the June brooder 
 chicks are housed in outdoor brooders and the shade ques- 
 tion becomes one of major importance. A brooder placed 
 in the sun, however well it may be ventilated, will reach a 
 high temperature during a hot day and cool rapidly at night, 
 making it necessary to extinguish the lamp during the day 
 and start it again at nightfall. This does no particular 
 harm if the chicks are old enough to take care of themselves 
 and can find shade during the day; but it is unfortunate for 
 little chicks as the temperature will vary widely. 
 
 Under a group of shade trees or in an orchard is the best 
 place for a brooder at this season, the shade tempering the 
 heat of the sun. If the cover of the brooder is raised, there 
 will be no difficulty in keeping the heat under the hover 
 within bounds. To place a brooder where it will be exposed 
 to the midday sun and confine the chicks in a small yard 
 also without protection is nothing less than cruelty, and 
 good results are impossible. 
 
 Feeding and Watering. 
 
 The feeding of June chicks need not be different from 
 chat advocated for those hatched earlier. The green 
 food should be young, tender blades of grass gathered by 
 the chicks themselves; if the young ones must beconfined 
 to yards, fine lawn clippings or the delicate leaves and stalks 
 of new clover, rape ar alfalfa should be handed out liberally 
 every morning while they are still fresh from the night's 
 dew. Cool, fresh water constantly accessible is a decided 
 advantage and far more difficult to provide than in cool 
 weather. The supply should be renewed with fresh water 
 three times each day and the fountains cleaned and disin- 
 fected frequently, for germs multiply rapidly in tepid water. 
 The need of being thus careful is obvious when we under- 
 stand that the germs of diseases affecting the lungs, throat 
 and head find drinking water a ready means for distribution. 
 Prevention is not difficult and is better than cure. Take 
 care of the June chicks and they will take care of you. 
 
 H. A. NOURSR. 
 
JUNE HATCHED CHICKS. 
 
 Leading Breeders Give Their Experiences With Late Hatched Chicks— Evidence That With Care and Correct Treat- 
 ment Chicks Hatched In June Make Winners In December, January and February. 
 
 [The following short articles from experienced and well known breeders will encouragfe those who. from any cause, do not have as many early chicks 
 on hand as they need and instruct beginners in the care und feeding of late hatched chicks. By studying the methods advocated bj' the best author- 
 ities the reader can readily determine how to make the most of the natural advantages within his reach and how to avoid the mistakes that spoil the 
 profits. Opinion among these experienced breeders is practically unanimous that food, water, shade and lice are the main considerations, and that 
 with the exercise of care in raising the birds many a June hatched chick will win fame for its owner at next winter's shows.] 
 
 RAISED UNDER SUITABLE CONDITIONS, JUNE 
 
 HATCHED CHICKS ARE UP TO WEIGHT FOB 
 
 WINTER SHOWS. 
 
 'HILE IT is true that early chicks do better, still a 
 great many good birds can be, with proper care 
 and feeding, raised from chicks hatched in that 
 month. We have had June Barred Rock pullets 
 laying in January and February, and continue laying until 
 late in the spring before becoming broody. The cull cockerels 
 can be sold early in the fall, when they make excellent fries. 
 The others should be separated, cockerels from pullets, piit 
 in light, dry, warm coops, and kept for the spring trade. 
 They must be made to scratch for their grain, and positively 
 must have grit, green food and a dust box to insure steady 
 growth through the winter. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties in raising June chicks is 
 the extreme heat. Shade and plenty of fresh water are in- 
 dispensable. An orchard or a berry patch makes excellent 
 shade, or rape seed sown early in May makes good shade, 
 and green food, too. Sometimes on the lawn we drive stakes 
 in the ground forming a square, and fasten burlap to them, 
 making a shelter about two feet high, which breaks the 
 sun, but allows a free circulation of air. 
 
 Our chicks are free to roam at all times. We do not 
 think the wet grass, early in the morning, hurts them in 
 the least, but rather believe it toughens them and speeds 
 their growth. 
 
 We feed rolled oats and whole wheat; it makes bone 
 and muscle and they thrive on it. They get but little corn. 
 Feed June chicks sparingly during the hot months of July 
 and August, keep them a little hungry and they will forage 
 better, eat more grass and green stuff, find more bugs and 
 worms, and you won't know what a sick chick looks like. 
 You can force their growth more when the cool nights of 
 September come by giving them all they want to eat for 
 supper of a good mash food, composed principally of bran, 
 shorts and chop feed, with a handful of salt occasionally. 
 
 We use open front, shed roof coops, without any floor, 
 about four by six feet on the ground, which can be easily 
 moved, thus keeping them clean and wholesome. If the 
 chicks want to roost on the ridge, or on a brush heap, or in 
 the trees, we let them; it makes them tough. Keep them as 
 near natural conditions as possible and a great many June 
 chicks will be up to weight for the winter shows and for 
 winter layers. W. S. PEASE. 
 
 CARE, CLEANLINESS AND VARIED FOODS CAUSE 
 CHICKS HATCHED IN JUNE TO WIN IN DE- 
 CEMBER, JANUARY AND FEBRUARY. 
 
 I will give you my views on the raising of June hatched 
 chicks for exhibition purposes. 
 
 Chicks hatched before June 15th can be virtually ma- 
 tured by January 1st following, by close attention to feed- 
 ing, wide range and sanitary, well ventilated cooping. Food 
 for first two weeks should be given every two or three hours, 
 dry mixed cracked gi-ains, hulled oats, wheat, millet and 
 corn. Fresh milk twice daily and pure water and grit at 
 all times. After the second week and up to four weeks of 
 age a little chopped fresh meat daily. When one month old 
 allow free range, shaded. Provide a dusting box made up 
 of equal parts of fine lake sand and road dust, with a little 
 powdered sulphur added, and place where it will keep dry. 
 This will keep them free from lice. 
 
 Do not crowd the roosting coop. Young chickens must 
 have plenty of room in order to thrive. 
 
 Separate the cockerels from pullets at fourteen weeks. 
 
 Have your winter quarters ready by October 25th. After 
 this time provide fresh ground bone and vegetables daily in 
 addition to the oats, wheat and corn. Clean, well ventilated 
 houses are particularly essential. I remove the droppings 
 daily. 
 
 Chicks raised in this manner will be ready for the De- 
 cember shows and will be of standard weight. The first 
 prize White Wyandotte Cleveland cockerel, December, 1902, 
 was hatched June 10th. A full brother hatched the same 
 date headed the second prize pen at Pittsburg show in Feb- 
 ruary, 1903. At the Painesville show in January, 1904, the 
 pullets I exhibited in the first prize pen were hatched the 
 first week in June, and all were standard weight or over. 
 
 So do not be discouraged over the late spring and de- 
 layed hatches, but redouble your care and you will be up 
 in front when the winter show season arrives. 
 
 DR. WM. H. HUMISTON. 
 
 JUNE SAID TO BE "ONE OF THE BEST" MONTHS 
 FOR HATCHING WINTER SHOW BIRDS. 
 
 As a matter of fact I have always considered June a 
 splendid month to get out "Ringlet" Barred Rocks and have 
 hatched a great many winning show birds as late as July. 
 Every bird in one of my New York first prize exhibition pens 
 was hatched in July. Some of my first prize pullets at New 
 York were hatched August 10th. 
 
 Birds hatched in June are ready to show in January and 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 51 
 
 July chicks, if well caret! for, are ready to show in January 
 and February. I have had July pullets lay iu January. 
 Many breeders calculate to get out their January and B^b- 
 ruary show birds in June so the birds will be "on edge" or 
 in the pink ot condition at show time iind not be past their 
 beauty period. 
 
 I care tor June hatched chickens just the same as those 
 of any of the spring and summer months. My chicks have 
 all the shade they want as well as sunshine, and sunshine is 
 as necessary as shade. 
 
 While I do not say June is the best month to hatch in, I 
 know that it is one of the best and I get out several hun- 
 dred "Ringlets" every June and have done so for years. 
 
 I feed chicks the same in June and July as in April and 
 May. E. B. THOMPSON. 
 
 The greatest abjections to raising late hatched chicks are 
 lack of shade, improper attention to drinking vessels and 
 crowding one hundred chicks where only fifty should be 
 quartered, but these objections are easily overcome, and 
 v.'here they are, June hatched chicks are profitable. 
 
 C. BRICAULT, M. D. V. 
 
 JUNE HATCHED CHICKS REACH MATURITY 
 
 EARLY ENOUGH TO LAY WHEN PRICES OF 
 
 EGGS ARE AT THEIR HEIGHT. 
 
 Chicks hatched in June can be made profitable both as 
 
 layers and show birds, if raised under conditions to promote 
 
 a healthy growth. Their treatment 
 
 differs but little from that which is 
 
 given the early ones; the difference 
 
 can be summed up in a few words, 
 
 namely, plenty of shade and cool, 
 
 dean water to drink at all times. 
 
 T'p to lour years ago T shared in 
 
 the belief tnat late hatched chicks 
 
 were undesirable, but after giving the 
 
 matter a thorough test 1 find that 
 
 White Wyandotte pullets hatched in 
 
 June reach laying maturity in less 
 
 time than the early hatched ones, and 
 
 many experienced breeders are of the 
 
 same opinion. 
 
 Our late chicks are fed the same as 
 
 the early ones up to a certain age, 
 
 then they are fed differently. A pre 
 
 pared chick food is fed until they are 
 
 six weeks old, three times a day 
 
 the first week and five times a day up to the seventh 
 
 week. They are then changed gradually to hulled oats, 
 whole wheal and cracked corn. This is fed four times a day. 
 Several boxes containing ground oats, bran and beef scraps 
 
 (equal parts) are placed at different points on the range 
 and trom these they help themselves at will. It is astonish- 
 ing the amount of this mixture they will consume between 
 their regular meals. Being housed on a good grass range, 
 they have all the green food needed. About the middle of 
 September I begin to feed a mash to the pullets, and this is 
 where the difference in feeding occurs, the late pullets being 
 fed this mash at an earlier age than the early ones, for at 
 this season all are fed alike. The mash is composed as fol- 
 lows: Ground oats 50 per cent, bran 25 per cent, middlings 
 15 per cent, corn meal 10 per cent. It is mixed with boiling 
 water at noon and left to cook in its own heat until 5 
 p. m., when it is cool enough to feed. It is fed in several 
 long troughs so that every pullet has its share. No crowd- 
 ing at this meal is allowed, and the whole grain is scattered 
 so well that crowding is not necessary; all get their share. 
 
 Pullets hatched June 20th and treated as above began 
 laying December 27th and were persistent layers for months. 
 If I were forced to delay hatching till June I would follow 
 the above method and have eggs for market when prices 
 are highest. 
 
 Many of our best layers were hatched in June, and I 
 sha'l never again hesitate to hatch chicks in that month. 
 
 SATISFACTORY EGG PRODUCTION BY JUNE 
 HATCHED CHICKS. 
 
 Year after year we generally have more or less chicks 
 oome off in June. This year, owing to the long and severe 
 winter and backward spring, we expect to hatch between 
 200 and 300 during that month. The main object with us is 
 eggs. We want pullets to lay early and lay lots of eggs. 
 We have, in most cases, found June hatched chicks profit- 
 able; the pullets especially. June hatched White Wyandotte 
 pullets have begun to lay with us in October or November, 
 jusfc before cold weather, and have continued to lay all 
 winter. 
 
 We plac^ the brooders, or hens with chicks, in a cool, 
 sh.idy place under the trees and arrange the yards in such 
 
 
 A^i»^ 
 
 
 
 ^^^ ~WM ' B i M^*mM 
 
 ^^^9H 
 
 
 f'Sf^.-TT^^m 
 
 Where Chicks Crow Rapidn un i/ie Htam at Mrs. li. i\. nantl. 
 
 a fashion that the chicks may have a little sunshine. 
 
 Our method of feeding late hatched chicks does not vary 
 very much from that pursued in feeding earlier chicks; the 
 only difference being that we increase the beef scraps a 
 little after the chicks are four or five weeks old. 
 
 We have tried in the past the dry feeding method for 
 small chicks, but have given it up for the mash and dry 
 grain combination. We can in this way get our birds to 
 mature quicker and lay earlier, without affecting their size. 
 We are using this spring one of the widely advertised chick 
 foods, twice a day, with cracked wheat, hominy grits, pin 
 head oatmeal and a little cracked corn. These small grains 
 a.re fed dry three times a day for the first week and twice 
 a day for the second and third weeks. After that time we 
 begin to feed a little hulled oats and whole wheat and a little 
 cracked corn once a day. W^e have lost less chicks this year, 
 up (0 the present time, than we ever did before when dry 
 food was used exclusively. 
 
 We are careful in raising late hatched chicks to give the 
 little fellows plenty of shade, good pure drinking water and 
 to keep them free from lice. Our chicks when old enough 
 to leave the brooders have the range of a meadow and a piece 
 of woodland, where they have plenty of shade. We use 
 colony houses 6x8 with shed roof, and four feet high at the 
 back and seven feet in front, with door and window, which 
 are replaced through the summer by screens. 
 
 HAITZ POULTRY FARM. 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 LICE, FOUL BUNS AND WANT OF FRESH AIR THE 
 
 JMAIN OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS WITH JUNE 
 
 HATCHED CHICKS. 
 
 Some people claim that June hatched chicks do not grow 
 as quickly as thoss which are hatched earlier. The reason, 
 perhaps, is that the millions of lice and mites that have been 
 incubating and brooding through rain and shine of the early 
 spring are not kepi in check when the warm weather comes. 
 For this pest the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station rec- 
 ommends coal oil emulsion. 
 
 The next disadvantage is a swarm of chicks have pre- 
 ceded the late hatch, the runs are befouled by the earlier 
 chicks and the old fowls, and the little fellows suffer for 
 pure air day and night and are tramped on and crowded to 
 death. Besides this the weeds, berries, etc., claim our atten- 
 tion and the late chicks are not as well cared for as the 
 earlier ones. 
 
 Nature teaches and my experience proves that May and 
 June are the months to hatch birds, and with the same 
 care they should do as well or better than the earlier birds, 
 for insect food is more plentiful and sunshine more abund- 
 ant; but now we must provide shelter from the hot sun in- 
 stead of from cold winds; also good, roomy, well ventilated 
 coops or brooders. 
 
 If brooders are used they must be constructed so that 
 the chicks can have free access to heat or fresh air as they 
 prefer. Both coops and brooders must have at least one 
 side made of screen wire netting; a few holes in a box is 
 not sufficient ventilation; a damp, perspiring chick 
 turned out in the cold morning dew to chill might as well 
 have its head snipped off at once. A chick can eat almost 
 anything any time of year, if it Is not over-heated or chilled, 
 but a chilled chick will have bowel trouble and no brand of 
 food will cure it. MRS. S. P. ROGERS. 
 
 MUCH DEPENDS UPON THE CARE LATE HATCHED 
 CHICKS RECEIVE. 
 
 I have had good results with last of May and early June 
 hatches. For late December and January shows there is no 
 better time to get them out than May 25th to June 15th. 
 as they mature after the weather becomes cool, and 
 the plumage is bright at show time. My winners, 
 both cockerels and pullets, at the late Peoria, 111., show 
 and at late Illinois State Show, all up to weight, were 
 haitched from May 25th to June luth. This is ample evi- 
 dence that June hatched chicks will make show birds. 
 
 Unless one is well fixed to handle these late ones I 
 wouldn't advise getting out too many of them, but a few 
 will prove what I am stating is true. The great trouble in 
 handling late hatched chicks by many is they lose interest 
 in them. Early in the spring the hen fever is up to 95 or 
 higher, but it gradually cools off as the weather gets warm 
 and the chicks are neglected. 
 
 I would brood at that time with a hen. Place coop, 
 which should be of sufficient size to give ample room and 
 fresh air through the hot nights, in a dense shade — a large 
 apple tree or north side of a building is the best for June 
 hatched chicks. Feed mostly dry food at this time. Pro- 
 vide fresh water often, and after chicks are a few days old 
 give the hen her liberty, and all the chicks have to do is to 
 grow. 
 
 I have for several years raised a few late hatched birds, 
 even as late as July 1st. This season I will be compelled to 
 get out even more than usual owing to the lateness of the 
 spring and the immense early egg trade. 
 
 To those who are prejudiced against late hatched chicks 
 I will say that a sitting or two of eggs at this time will 
 prove that what I am saying is true, provided you do your 
 parr, in caring for them. O. L. KING. 
 
 ADVOCATING JUNE HATCHED CHICKS OF THE 
 LIGHTER BREEDS FOR WINTER SHOWS. 
 
 I have hatched many S. C. White Leghorns in. June with 
 great success for both market and exhibition. I have raised 
 many winners of both sexes which were hatched in June and 
 won in December. They were fully developed and weighed 
 from four to six pounds, and as all Leghorn breeders know, 
 that is good weight for them. 
 
 I always feed young chickens for the first five weeks 
 with prepared chick food. Have used this for several years. 
 I have not known of a single case of bowel trouble in feed- 
 ing this food. After the chicks are four or five weeks old I 
 commence feeding them cracked corn and wheat; keep fresh 
 water bel'ore them all the while, also oyster shell and grit. 
 
 One must have a good shelter for them and protect them 
 from drafts which give them colds. Do not crowd and over- 
 heat them; this will affect their health. Give them just 
 enough food so they will eat it up clean and not have any 
 left. Keep the vermin down. I use lice killing powder on 
 the chickens, and kerosene on the roosts. 
 
 It never pays to half raise a chicken or any kind of an 
 animal. 
 
 If I were starting in the poultry business and were de- 
 layed in getting eggs on account of the cold spring, that 
 would not prevent me getting eggs in June. I would get 
 some eggs from some reliable breeder who has the breed I 
 like best. Everybody has his favorite breed. After the 
 chickens were hatched I would do my utmost to feed them 
 right and keep them free from lice and colds. When fall 
 arrived I would have a fine lot of choice chickens, especially 
 if of the lighter breeds, which will mature in four and one- 
 half to six months and commence laying in five or six 
 months and lay about two hundred eggs per year on about 
 one-half the feed that it takes for a larger breed. 
 
 R. C. COLLIN. 
 
 A Croup of June Chicks Ready to be Fatted for Marltet. 
 
 HAS NO EXTRA TROUBLE RAISING JUNE CHICKS. 
 
 I will give you my method in hatching and raising June 
 chickens. I give the hen a nest free from chiggers. lice, 
 and mites, and set her where no laying hens can bother her. 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 53 
 
 I keep the eggs and nest clean. When the chicks are hatch- 
 ing I take the shells out of the nest to give the chicks room. 
 I leave the chicks in the nest twenty-four hours to give them 
 strength. 
 
 Chicks don't need food for thirty-si.\ hours after hatch- 
 ing. The first food is oatmeal, dry, miyed with fine grit or 
 prepared chick feed. Give them cold water and very little 
 at a time when young. Take the hen and chicks off the 
 nest and put them under a good shade tree. Make a coop 
 for hen and chicks two feet long, eighteen inches wide, 
 twelve inches high. Don't nail the top — leave it loose so you 
 can look in at the chicks from the top. Make a slat coop 
 four feet long, two and one-half feet wide and fifteen inches 
 high to put in front of the coop. Let the hen and chicks 
 out in the slat coop so the chicks can run around. Keep the 
 hen in the siat coop for a week, until the chicks get strong 
 and learn the hen's cluck. Let the hen and chicks run out 
 over the farm to hunt bugs and other insects. The exercise 
 makes them strong, and gives plenty of muscle. Feed June 
 chicks by themselves. I don't have any more trouble rais- 
 ing .June chicks than I do raising April hatched chicks. 
 
 JOHN W. TANNER. 
 
 difference in caring for late hatched chicks and early hatched 
 ones is in keeping one cool and the others warm. 
 
 U. R. FISHEL. 
 
 PUT THE LATE HATCHED CHICKS IN A CORN- 
 FIELD AND RAISE THE BEST COLORED BIRDS 
 OF THE SEASON. 
 
 I have often wondered why there were not more eggs 
 Bet and chicks hatched during the month of June. To be 
 sure it takes some precaution to successfully rear chicks 
 hatched in the mouths of June and July, but not nearly so 
 much trouble and expense as is needed in the months of 
 January and February. To readers of this book who have 
 no brooder houses I will give you my plan for successfully 
 rearing late hatched chicks. Supposing you are aware of 
 the fact that you must not take the chicks off the nest or 
 out of the incubator until fully forty-eight hours old, it is 
 unnecessary to go over that part of my method. If you have 
 a small poultry house or an outhouse where rats cannot get 
 at the chicks place the brood in this building, keeping them 
 in it for three or four weeks. This gives the chicks size and 
 strength enough to withstand the hot sun and small grass 
 lice. "When you move them from the building put them, if 
 possible, in a shady place. If you can do so, by all means 
 place them in a cornfield, for there is no place where a late 
 hatched chick will grow as fast as in a field of corn well up, 
 as it affords them plenty of shade, keeps them off the dewey 
 grass and the fresh cultivated ground gives them plenty of 
 insects, worms, etc. 
 
 I feed my chicks while in the brooder, or say for the 
 first six weeks, a chick food composed of wheat, kaffir corn, 
 hog millet and rice, mixed and cracked, the greater portion 
 of the food being wheat. To this I add a little pin head 
 oats (very little), hard boiled eggs, some green cut bone, 
 etc. Keep granulated charcoal by them all the time, as 
 well as fresh water. Do not feed too much, but often. 
 
 Make the little fellows work all you can. After you 
 take them from the building they will find plenty to do and 
 require little food. After they cire six weeks old change 
 the food to a mixture of rolled oats, cracked corn and whole 
 wheat, feeding three times a day, or better ye't, hopper feed- 
 ing, which I believe to be the best way to feed chicks from 
 six weeks of age until matured. The 'White Rock cockerel 
 which Won first at Chicago and for which I refused $400 was 
 a June hatched chick. ' 
 
 There is no use arguing the question, the best colored 
 specimens in nearly all breeds are late hatched chicks. The 
 
 A Shaded Yard for Crowing Chicks. 
 
 INSECT LIFE SURROUNDS THE JUNE HATCHEU 
 
 CHICK 'WITH DELICACIES ITS EARLIER 
 
 HATCHED RELATIVE CANNOT ENJOY, 
 
 AND HELPS TO MAKE IT 
 
 A "WINNER. 
 
 To all those interested we most heartily commend the 
 June hatched chicks, for various reasons. 
 
 Many people think, and especially amateurs, that they 
 must hatch a chick in February or March if they wish to get 
 a prize winner, but with our experience nothing is farther 
 from the truth. A truly healthy chicken and one that can 
 successfully combat the pests and diseases that afflict It 
 must start on the voyage of life with all conditions as fav- 
 orable as possible, and there is nothing so conducive to vig- 
 orous growth and good health as warm sunshine; the sun's 
 rays also have a wonderful influence in bringing out and 
 beautifying the plumage, especially in a two or more colored 
 fowl. Another advantage that the June hatched chick has, 
 and one of very material worth to him, is the warmth com- 
 ing from mother earth at that time of the year. 'Warm feet 
 are a great incentive to rapid growth, but the greatest bless- 
 ing that can probably come to this bird in his race for 
 maturity with his older brother is his opportunity to prey 
 on insect life in his pillage for food. From the very first 
 day that he emerges from the place of his birth to comfort- 
 able quarters on some grassy plot he begins to enjoy his 
 existence in the warm sunshine and to prey on the little 
 worms, spiders and flies, and as he grows older and larger 
 and his courage comes to him he becomes a bold hunter 
 and wanders farther from home, making conquests on larger 
 game, like the cricket, and eventually as his strength and 
 endurance come to him he is able to capture that greatest 
 of delicacies to the chicken appetite, the grasshopper. These 
 advantages the earlier hatched bird does not have. At the 
 time of his advent into the world, in March or April, when 
 the atmosphere is usually damp, and there are more or less 
 cold winds and a great deal of cloudy weather; consequently 
 the chicken hatched at that time of the year has to be shel- 
 tered, carefully fed and supplied with artificial heat, which 
 except in brooders cannot be kept at an even temperature. 
 These difficulties make the raising of early chicks not only 
 very troublesome, but also very expensive. 
 
 One of the greatest obstacles, perhaps, in raising late 
 hatched chicks comes in the extremely hot and dry weather 
 
54 
 
 THE CHJCK BOOK 
 
 of August and September. The birds raise themselves, so 
 to speak, so easily up to this time that breeders are apt to 
 become careless and allow their shelter to become foul, and 
 a coop that was plenty large enough six weeks before is 
 wholly inadequate now, and they crowd and pack themselves 
 together during hot and sultry nights until some are smoth- 
 ered, and mites and lice kill many more. 
 
 We receive some inquiries asking if one is unable to pro- 
 duce a prize winner from chicks hatched in June. To such 
 we tell what we have noticed by observation and personal 
 experience. That some of our best show birds have been 
 late hatched, and it is the personal experience of one mem- 
 ber of this firm, who is also interested in the firm of J. M. 
 Williams & Co., that the Buff Orpington cockerel that won 
 first at Chicago in 1902 was hatched in .July and weighed 
 eight and one-half pounds in the show room in January. 
 
 These facts, together with others we might cite,- if time 
 and space would allow, prove to our own satisfaction that 
 June hatched chicks are just as profitable to raise as those 
 hatched earlier, for every purpose except broiler raising. 
 
 FILLIO, WILLIAMS & CO. 
 
 get as large as the early hatched ones. If you are feeding 
 a drove of hogs let them run with them and they will get 
 the size and will have that large bone we want. 
 
 W. REESE PAETZEL. 
 
 A CAUTION TO WATCH FOR LICE AND GIVE THE 
 
 CHICKS RANGE, AND SO MAKE WINNERS 
 
 OF THE JUNE HATCHED BIRDS. 
 
 Where most people have trouble in raising June hatched 
 chicks is in letting the hen run loose as soon as she gets 
 through hatching and sometimes neither she nor the chicks 
 have shelter. The little chicks should have a dry place to 
 sleep. Those who do not watch for lice find this a great 
 drawback to the June hatched chicks. You should look at 
 your chicks about every four weeks and dust them. A June 
 hatched chick should have plenty of that good free range. 
 
 There are prize winners hatched in June as well as in 
 the earlier months. At Indianapolis in February two of the 
 pullets in our first prize Buff Rock pen, also our third prize 
 pullet, were hatched in June and there was not a larger 
 boned pullet in the class than the third prize bird. 
 
 When we take the hen from the nest with her chicks or 
 take them from the incubator we let them run out on a dry 
 floor and give them a fine chick grit. In about twenty-four 
 to thirty-six hours after we feed them a. little chick food. 
 Do not teed too much, but just keep them hungry. We feed 
 the chick food for about four to six weeks and then we feed 
 them wheat and cracked corn till they get large enough to 
 swallow a whole grain of corn. 
 
 We have sold on the market in January chickens that 
 were hatched in June. They weighed five to eight pounds 
 each and have showed pullets that weighed from six to seven 
 and one-half pounds and cockerels that weighed seven to 
 eight and one-half pounds. 
 
 In raising late hatched chicks one of the main things is to 
 get them started right and (hen keep them on the right road. 
 I have given the method of feeding, but the main thing is to 
 fight the lice and give them plenty of range; that is what 
 makes them grow. 
 
 Lice will take the strength from the chicks and often 
 will kill them and people say it was the cholera when it is 
 nothing but the lice. Sometimes too many chickens are 
 crowded in one house and this will give them colds and stop 
 their growth. 
 
 If I was starting in the poultry business the month of 
 June would suit me just as well if not better than the other 
 months. I find the Buff Rock chicks have a better color in 
 June, better wings and tails than the earlier chicks and if 
 you watch the lice nnd give them plenty of ranee they will 
 
 PROOFS THAT CORRECT CARE AND FEEDING DE- 
 VELOP JUNE HATCHED CHICKS INTO WIN- 
 NERS AND WEIGHTY SPECIMENS. 
 
 In regard to late hatched chicks, especially those 
 hatched in June: are they profitable? I say most emphati- 
 cally: Yes! Such birds make good winter layers, especially 
 the Wyandottes, and fbarring the early fall shows) make 
 excellent exhibition specimens. 
 
 Partridge Wyandotte pullets commence to lay when 
 about six months old, and it is generally conceded that such 
 birds as a rule are in their best condition to show just after 
 having laid their first egg; therefore a pullet hatched the 
 20th day of June should commence to lay about the 20th day 
 of December, at which time she ihould be in the best con- 
 dition. The majority of our largest shows are held during 
 the months of December and January, and late hatched 
 bird? have an equal chance of winning in competition with 
 many of those which were hatched much earlier. 
 
 One jeason I hatched chicks as late as the first day of 
 August with good results; and it may be of interest to many 
 to know that some of the very best cockerels and pullets 
 that I raised were hatched the 20th day of July, among them 
 being the first prize pullet at North Abington, which show 
 was held the 25th day of December. The same pullet also 
 took third prize at Madison Square Garden, New York, Jan- 
 uary 5th, and another of the same age and in fact out of 
 the same brood took fifth prize at that show. It will be 
 seen that the pullet which won first at North Abington was 
 just five months and five days old when exhibited, and the 
 two when shown at the New York show were just five and 
 one-half months old. These two birds were exactly stand- 
 ard weight when shipped to the New York show, and the 
 third prize pullet had laid her first egg. The fifth prize 
 pullet then had many chicken feathers and was not filled 
 out and finished, but was penciled all over with good open 
 penciling and gave promise of developing into one of the 
 most beautiful birds that I ever raised. The manner in 
 which this bird developed during the following month was 
 something surprising, and had she been hatched June 20th 
 instead of July 20th, she would in all probability have been 
 placed much higher at that show. She is to-day one of my 
 most valuable specimens and lays a large, brown, well- 
 shaped egg. 
 
 I have seventeen pullets that were hatched last July, 
 that are up in weight and all are high scoring birds, and as 
 hens some of them will in all probability be a trifle over 
 weight next fall when in show condition, which rather dis- 
 counts the idea of many that late hatched birds are always 
 small and stunted. 
 
 One of the first questions naturally asked is. How were 
 these birds fed? 
 
 For the first three weeks they were fed entirely upon 
 a chick ford, which was fed to them every two hours; for the 
 next three months they were fed upon prepared chick food, 
 beef s"ra's and what little scraps I had to give them that 
 came from the kitchen. During this period they were fp<l 
 four times a day. After they were four months old they 
 were given a mash in the morning consisting of chick food 
 and beef scraps mixed; at noon they were given oats and 
 wheat, and at night they were given wheat and cracked 
 corn; besides this they were often given cabbage, lettuce 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 55 
 
 and dainty bits of anything that I was able to get which I 
 thought would induce them to grow. 
 
 There are many reasons why we should recommend the 
 setting of eggs all through the month of June, and especially 
 to those who are just starting in the business of raising 
 ■ poultry. My experience has been that during the month of 
 June eggs as a rule are very fertile, and a large percentage 
 of them hatch, in many instances, every egg put under a 
 hen. Weather conditions during this time of the year are 
 generally such that both eggs and chicks will stand more 
 hardship and neglect than is the case during the early 
 hatching season. Fanciers (myself among them) who ad- 
 vertise to replace all infertile eggs occasionally have to 
 replace many that were shipped during the early part of 
 the season, even when we know by repeated tests that at 
 least 85 per cent of them were fertile. Such conditions prove 
 to my mind that the manner and place where eggs are set 
 (especially early ones) and the way hens sit upon them, or 
 the manner in which they may be manipulated in an incu- 
 bator, combined with weather conditions, cause many poor 
 hatches, which not only is a loss to the fancier to the ex- 
 tent of the infertile eggs returned, but often discourages 
 customers who have had but little, if any, experience in the 
 business. If an equal number of eggs had been ordered 
 later in the season a greater number of chicks would have 
 been hatched and both parties would have been better 
 satisfied. 
 
 It is also claimed that a larger per cent of late hatched 
 chicks are pullets, which is desirable to most purchasers. 
 
 The main question to be considered in raising late 
 hatched chicks is to get them far enough advanced before 
 
 Movable House to Serve as a Roosting Coop or to Protect Small 
 Chicks In Bad Weather. 
 
 the cold weather sets in, that they will not be stunted there- 
 by. I have proved to my own satisfaction that it can be 
 done, and birds raised to full standard weight from eggs 
 that were set the last days of June. J. B. HADAWAY. 
 
 FEEDING YOUNG CHICKENS, 
 
 Dry Feeding and Unlimited Range. Make Large, Healthy Chicks. 
 
 By C. B. Bristol. 
 
 E HATCH all chicks with hens, but as soon as they are 
 hatched I take them from the hens and put them in 
 brooders, which I believe is the only way to rear chicks 
 satisfactorily. You have them where you can watch 
 them at all times. I use indoor broodei-s and believe them 
 to be far superior to outdoor machines that are used with- 
 out shelter. The outdoor brooder works well and is fairly 
 convenient to use when the weather Is fair, but when it is 
 stormy, or there is a high wind, it is neither convenient nor 
 agreeable to attend to the lamp. When it rains hard, it is 
 almost impossible to open and clean the brooder and the 
 chicks suffer from being confined in very small quarters and 
 from breathing the impure air of a dirty brooder. 
 
 If the brooder is in a building, the chicks can have the 
 run of the floor, when the weather is not fit for them to be 
 outside. An open shed built over an outdoor brooder for 
 shade and protection from rain and heavy winds is consid- 
 erable advantage, for it protects one when he fills and trims 
 the lamp, or adjusts the flame, and when he feeds and cares 
 for the chicks. If swch a shed is provided with a muslin 
 curtain to be let down in front when the weather requires 
 it, it makes a good exercising room for the chicks, when 
 they would otherwise have to be confined in the brooder. 
 
 I do not feed anything until the chicks are twenty-four 
 hours old; then I feed hard boiled eggs. For the first week 
 I feed corn meal bread that is baked until it will crumble. 
 This 1 feed as often as they eat it up clean. After the first 
 week I feed cracker crumbs and stale bread which can be 
 purchased of bakers very cheaply. As soon as the chicks 
 will eat whole wheat and cracked corn I feed it. I also feed 
 beef scraps twice a week, and keep plenty of grit in the 
 hrooder. This is very necessary, as it aids digestion. 
 
 I am aware that some poultrymen, who have reason to 
 know, advise against the use of hard boiled eggs, but I 
 have never found anything equal to it for the first meal. 
 The corn bread is an excellent food, but must not be de- 
 pended upon after the first week, because it is too much 
 trouble to bake it and because it is not by any means a 
 complete and well balanced ration. 
 
 I keep the chicks in the brooder until they are a week 
 old before I let them out in the brooder house. After they 
 are four weeks old I have small coops, which are set in 
 different parts of the place, so they will be by themselves, 
 and all of the same age then are together. The smaller 
 ones are not crowded by the larger ones. 
 
 This is a point worth noting and acting upon, for if 
 small chicks crowd into the same cooip with larger ones, 
 the former are frequently overheated at night and pre- 
 vented from getting their fair share of food in the day time. 
 This prevents growth and arrests development, and the 
 chick never makes so good a fowl as it would if it had a 
 better chance. Those of one age should be fed separate 
 from the other flocks, or the younger ones will be crowded 
 away from the food by their larger brothers, and will not 
 get enough to properly nourish their bodies. 
 
 My chicks have unlimited range at all times. I breed 
 Barred Plymouth Rocks and the above mode of feeding and 
 caring for them has been very satisfactory to me, as I 
 hardly ever have a sick chicken and I have pullets hatched 
 late last year that weigh eight pounds. I feed grain ent\rely 
 to all my fowls, and no ground feed except cracked corn. 
 My first hatch this season, the loth of March, was ten chicks 
 from thirteen eggs; from eggs laid in February, the coldest 
 month we had this year. C. B. BRISTOL. 
 
FEEDING CHICKENS BALANCED RATIONS. 
 
 From Hatching Time to Maturity— Suitable Foods and Quantities for the Different Periods of Growth— Feeding 
 
 the Newly hatched Chick — Balancing the Rations— Ration for Growlhy Youngsters — Forcing Late Hatched 
 
 Chicks for Show — Analysis of Food In Common Use by Poultrymen. 
 
 By Robert H. Essex. 
 
 HICKENS need a far narrower ration than do ma- 
 tured fowls — a ration containing considerable ani- 
 mal food, and this is one of the points I wish to 
 impress upon readers. Experience has caused me 
 to realize its importance. In the early days of Buff Ply- 
 mouth Rocks, their combs were too 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 feathers rapidly is 
 the best food for chickens, and they should be well supplied 
 with it, at least until they are through their first molt. Such 
 food will be chiefly animal food and will compose a very 
 narrow ration. 
 
 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 (1.5.7:33.3). and please remember it is about 
 
 "A" Loops and Runways for Young Chicks. 
 
 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 bo 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 particles 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 shorts or middlings may be found too 
 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 toe 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 sec- 
 ond 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 feefler 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 o£ 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 
 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 gi-ain either 
 whole or ground. A most desirable feature of these animal 
 foods is that their protein contents produce flesh without 
 an excess of fat. The breeder of exhibition stock will ap- 
 preciate the importance of this fact, especially if the cock- 
 erels which he has been forcing for early fall shows give 
 signs of leg weakness. The food they have been getting 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 57 
 
 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 scraps, etc.. and considering that these foods are so 
 easily obtainable, no breeder of fowls can afford to be with- 
 out a supply. 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 mangels 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. 
 
 Let your chicks have enough food, but do not stuff 
 them. Little chicks will begin to cry for you when they dis- 
 cover that you are their attendant, and if yon 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 Kations for Chicks. 
 
 The reader has now been duly impressed wich 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, an1 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 Kctual ligures being 3:6. The nutritive ratio 
 of this mixture would be 1:3.6. To make the ration nar- 
 
 A Shelter That Can be Opened or Closed, os the Weather Requires. 
 
 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 tent 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. 
 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 ratio of 1:2.2. 
 
 Finely cracked corn may be substituted for the wheat. 
 In which case the following result would be attained: 
 
 One pound corn 
 
 One pound beef scraps 
 
 Dry Matter. Protein. Carbohydrates. 
 . . .89 .062 .752 
 
 , . .93 .45 .47 
 
 Nutritive ratio. 
 
 512 1.222 
 1:2.4. 
 
5S 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 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 tar 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 scientifi- 
 cally 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 idigestible 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 aa 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. It 
 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 — tliat means vigor. 
 
 What shall the foundation of the ration be now? 
 
 Oats. 
 
 "But oavs 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 
 
 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 I he 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: 
 
 Carbohydrates 
 Protein. and Fats. 
 
 One pound cats 092 .532 
 
 One pound wheat 075 .700 
 
 One-half pound corn 035 .392 
 
 One-half pound beef scraps 225 .235 
 
 .427 1.S59 
 
 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 
 every day. Sometimes we may substitute buckwheat for 
 wheat or corn, at other times barley, etc., etc. Occasionally 
 we feed 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 of 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. 
 
 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 rooms, 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 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 59 
 
 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 wrUer 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 coaxed 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 boue, bits of bread, oatmeal porridge (well 
 sugared), cooked rice, cooked potatoes — fed by lamplighi.. 
 
 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 — 
 
 A Closed Roosting Coop for Cool Weather. 
 
 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 — some- 
 times put in Iheir mash; and they had all the milk they 
 could drink. 
 
 An Open Roosting Coop for Worm Weather. 
 
 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. 
 
 (Parentheses are used where 
 the digestibility is estimated 
 from that of other similar feed- 
 ing stuffs.) 
 
 '1 
 
 £ 
 a, 
 
 £1 -f. 
 0£ 
 
 o 
 
 > . 
 
 GRAINS: 
 
 Wheat 
 
 .896 
 .912 
 890 
 891 
 .874 
 .884 
 .856 
 873 
 
 .881 
 .884 
 .879 
 .868 
 .892 
 850 
 .849 
 .881 
 .95 
 
 (.07^) 
 .070 
 092 
 .087 
 
 ( 078) 
 
 (.064) 
 .188 
 
 (.054) 
 
 ,120 
 (.115) 
 .128 
 (.237) 
 .122 
 .055 
 .044 
 .074 
 .168 
 .289 
 .372 
 
 194 
 
 .32S 
 
 (.071) 
 
 168 
 .0*3 
 .186 
 
 009 
 (.009) 
 .016 
 .011 
 .010 
 .010 
 (.028) 
 .104 
 
 .028 
 (•31 
 .035 
 .008 
 
 (.700) 
 .784 
 .532 
 .962 
 
 (.548) 
 
 (.703) 
 .535 
 
 (.668) 
 
 .454 
 (.488) 
 .609 
 (.505) 
 .586 
 .711 
 .665 
 .668 
 .531 
 .449 
 .437 
 
 .633 
 .725 
 (.795) 
 .471 
 .128 
 .403 
 
 .157 
 ( 089) 
 .109 
 .054 
 .085 
 .077 
 (.153) 
 .430 
 
 -050 
 .137 
 .057 
 .059 
 
 .775 
 854 
 
 .ti24 
 
 .779 
 (.626) 
 (.767) 
 
 .'23 
 (.722) 
 
 .574 
 
 ( 603) 
 
 .737 
 
 (.742) 
 
 .708 
 
 .766 
 
 .709 
 
 .762 
 
 699 
 
 .738 
 
 .809 
 
 .827 
 1.048 
 (.866) 
 639 
 .171 
 .589 
 
 .166 
 
 (.098) 
 .125 
 .065 
 .095 
 .087 
 
 (.181) 
 534 
 
 .078 
 .168 
 .092 
 .067 
 
 (1:9.3) 
 
 Corn .... 
 
 Oats 
 
 Barley 
 
 Buckwheat 
 
 Rye.. . 
 
 1:11 2 
 1:5.8 
 1:8.0 
 (1:7.0) 
 (1:11.0) 
 
 
 1:2.8 
 
 Sorghum Seed 
 
 (1:13.3) 
 
 BRANS, MIDDLINGS AND MEALS. 
 
 Bran (wheat) 
 
 Bran (rye) 
 
 Middlings (wheat) 
 
 Middlings (buckwheat) 
 
 1:3.8 
 (1:4.2) 
 1:4 8 
 
 (1:2 1) 
 
 Shorts (wheat) 
 
 1:4 8 
 
 Corn Meal. ... 
 
 1:12.9 
 
 Corn and Cob Meal , 
 
 Barley Meal 
 
 Pea Meal 
 
 1:15.1 
 1:9.3 
 1-3 2 
 
 Linseed Meal 
 
 899 
 918 
 
 .917 
 .922 
 .889 
 .917 
 243 
 .898 
 
 211 
 .114 
 .135 
 .091 
 .114 
 .095 
 .280 
 .916 
 
 .082 
 .127 
 .095 
 .070 
 
 1:1.6 
 1:1.2 
 
 MANUFACTURED FEEDS. 
 
 Gluten Feed 
 
 1:3.3 
 
 
 1:2.2 
 
 
 (1:11.2) 
 
 Brewers' Grains (dried) 
 
 1:2.8 
 
 Brewers' Grains (wet) 
 
 1:3.0 
 1:2.2 
 
 BULKY VEGETABLE FOODS. 
 
 1:17 4 
 
 Carrots 
 
 1-9:9 
 
 Beets (Sugar) 
 
 Mangel-Wurzels 
 
 1:6.8 
 1:4.9 
 
 Rutabagas 
 
 1:8.5 
 
 Turnips 
 
 1:7.7 
 
 
 (1:5.5) 
 
 Alfalfa 
 
 1-4.1 
 
 DAIRY PRODUCTS. 
 
 Buttermilk 
 
 1-1.8 
 
 Milk 
 
 1:4.4 
 
 
 1:1 6 
 
 Whey 
 
 1:7.4 
 
 ROBT. H. ESSEX. 
 
CARE or THE GROWING STOCK, 
 
 Successful Poultry Raisers Give Their Favorite Methods of Caring for and Managing Chicks from Six Weeks to Six 
 Months of Age — Original Plans of Roosting Coops — Range for the Youngsters — 
 
 What and How to feed. 
 
 [In line with the symposium on "Feeding Brooder Chicks." and "Care of June Chicks." we present the following additional methods in use 
 among prominent breeders for bringing their growing stock to a vigorous maturity. The advice here given is of great value, as it is the result of 
 experiment and observation by men whose successes qualify them to take rank among the foremost producers of good poultry.— Editor]. 
 
 COLONY COOP FOB GROWING FOWLS— GRASS RUNS 
 
 AND SHADE— CONDITIONS AND FOOD THAT 
 
 PRODUCE BIG COCHINS. 
 
 ^UR chicks (Cochins) are hatched by both hens and in- 
 cubators. We use outdoor brooders, called 200- 
 chick size, and place from forty to fifty in each 
 brooder. When the chicks are about six weeks old 
 and are nicely feathered we divide them into lots of twelve 
 each, keeping the cockerels and pullets separate. They are 
 then placed in weaning coops, which are 5x6 feet, ground 
 plan, and three feet high in front and two feet at the 
 rear. (Fig. 1.) 
 
 These coops are provided with frame doors hinged on 
 the inside and covered with one-fourth inch mesh screen. 
 
 On the outside a sol- 
 id wood d'oor Is 
 Mnged at the top. 
 This door can be 
 raised or lowered 
 or closed entirely, 
 las the state of 
 weather may re- 
 quire. On warm 
 summer nights the 
 screen door is closed 
 and the wood door 
 is lowered and 
 propped to provide 
 shelter in ease of a 
 windstorm or hard 
 rain. This arranige- 
 ment gives the 
 chicks plenty of fresh air. and at the same time protects 
 them from vermin and night prowling animals. 
 
 Having an abundance of green grass and shade, these 
 weaning coops are almost constantly on the move. This re- 
 duces to a minimum the possibility of disease arising from 
 accumulated filth, as is almost sure to occur if the chicks are 
 compelled to live on ground saturated with poisonous excre- 
 ments. During these stages of development they are given 
 a thorough dusting of Persian insect powder once a week. 
 This treatment we consider to be very important, as we have 
 found by experience that lice cause more trouble than all 
 other ailments combined. 
 
 From tlie ages of six weeks to six months the chicks are 
 fed cracked corn, pure clean wheat, hulled oats, and at noon 
 are given a mash feed of some good poultry food, and once 
 a week we add to this ration, fresh ground green bone. 
 
 We never use any drugs or condiments and have no se- 
 cret method of getting our Cochins so large, as we have 
 
 Fla. I— Coop with Double Doors Used by 
 A. W. Rudy S Son. 
 
 found that if fresh pure food is used, combined with a little 
 brains while using it, and the chicks are kept under condi- 
 tions that will enable them to assimilate what is given 
 them, their growth will be rapid and their development 
 perfect. 
 
 We are very careful when selecting the chicks to make 
 up a colony, to sei=* that they are all of the same size and of 
 equal development. If any show a tendency to going back, 
 or slow development, they are immediately removed and 
 placed with a younger fiock, where they will have at least a 
 fighting chance to keep up with the procession. When six 
 months old they are placed in larger houses, the flooi-s of 
 which are covered with a thick bed of straw. Cochins have 
 no use for roosts till they are at least one year old. 
 
 A. W. RUDY & SON. 
 
 RAISED IN AN ORCHARD— ALLOWED TO 'HAVE 
 THEIR OWN WAY'— VARIETY OF FOOD. 
 
 In regard to our care and managetoent of chicks from 
 six weeks to six months old, we have a large apple orchard 
 near the house v,-hich has been fenced in and made into four 
 largo yards. A brooder house, or "summer home" for chicks 
 has been placed on the dividing line between the yards, so 
 that at this age we are able to separate the young pullets 
 and cockerels, giving them separate yards and roosting 
 places in the buildings. We have low, flat, movable roosts 
 standing on four legs, which are placed in the buildings soon 
 after the brooders are removed, and here you will find our 
 chicks at night until they are from one-half to two-thirds 
 grown. 
 
 Some of them prefer the low branches of the trees which 
 are so conveniently near by, and as we find it means con 
 stant warfare to compel them to seek the buildings, while 
 they dwell in the orchards, we allow them to "have their 
 own way" until the unpleasant fall weather sets in, when 
 they are removed to winter quarters and sheltered at night. 
 We have a "cornfield" adjoining the yard in which the pul- 
 lets are allowed to roam one day. and the cockerels the next. 
 They always come home to roost and be fed. We usually 
 put about as many in each yard as we can get of the same 
 age and sex, varying from forty to seventy-five to the yard. 
 
 In the morning we teed a mash composed of equal parts 
 of cornmeal, ground oats and wheat bran, with a little meat 
 scraps added, also a very little salt. Have sometimes used 
 a prepared poultry food in place of this mash. The mash we 
 scald with equal parts of sweet milk and water, and feed 
 while just a little warm. The chicks are given all the fresh 
 skim milk and water they will drink, and a basin of "dutch 
 cheese" is sometimes added to the mash. A little fresh cut 
 green bone is fed once or twice a week if we can get it. At 
 noon oats, wheat or buckwheat is scattered in the yards for 
 them to hunt for, and at night they are fed all the wheat or 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 61 
 
 corn they will pick up. They of course help themselves to 
 apples in the late summer and early (all, and we occasionally 
 give them cabbage and tomatoes to pick at after the grass 
 gets dry, or any little "treat" we happen to have for them, 
 to give variety. C. W. JEROME & CO. 
 
 PLENTY OF RUNWAY AND YARD ROOM— LEAN- 
 TO COOP. 
 
 I use both incubator and hens for hatching. If the hens 
 are slow in laying, requiring too long a time to supply a suf- 
 ficient number of eggs for an incubator, I put the first two 
 or three broody hens that I can find to work. I never set 
 
 one hen singly. If 
 the hens lay we.l 
 I set the incuba- 
 tor. I much pre- 
 f e r incubators 
 and brooders, es- 
 pecially the 
 brooder. I have 
 hatched out 
 chicks by hens 
 raised them in 
 brood<-rs without 
 any loss of chicks 
 to speak of and 
 
 Fig. 2— Style ot Lean-lo Coop Used by Mr. 
 John Hettlch. 
 
 With much less trouble than wa;tching the old hen. 
 
 I never use outside coops, even for broods with hens. I 
 have on the south side of a main building a lean-to shed 
 six by fourteen feet with a glass front. (See Fig. 2.) This 
 shed I use for my young chicks. I have movable partitions 
 and can divide it into from three to five compartments, de- 
 pending on the number and the size of broods, each com- 
 partment containing a brood of chicks. From this they can 
 run on the outside in good weather either with the hen, or 
 with the hen confined on the inside, so the chicks can run 
 in and out at will. 
 
 In this coop they remain until they are weaned, which is 
 from six to ten weeks. Of course this coop must be cleaned 
 three or four times a week, with plenty of litter or chaff on 
 the floor, with dry food fed in litter to make them work, and 
 plenty of fresh water. They grow and thrive from the very 
 start. After chicks are weaned they are moved from this 
 lean-to coop into the main room adjoining, which is 12x14. 
 In this room they are put to roost, while other youngsters 
 take their place in the first or young chick coop. The last 
 lot of chicks I allow to grow up in this shed, while the first 
 lot remain in the main room of the big building until about 
 October 1. when the cockerels are separated from the pullets. 
 
 My cockerel house is in another part of the yard, with 
 plenty of runway and yard room. Pullets go into my main 
 hen house, which is 12x15, divided into two parts, with 
 plenty of yard room to each part. I do not allow my hens 
 and pullets to run together. I find hens get too fat on a 
 ration that would keep a pullet starving hungry. 
 
 .\s to feeding chicks I find little trouble to keep them 
 growing from the time they are six weeks to six months old 
 on plerity nf sound small grain, wheat and chopped corn be- 
 ing my main ration. Twice a week I feed them a full mess 
 of wheat bran, middlings and oil-mea! well mixed. I be- 
 lieve that oil-meal has a splendid effect in producing fine, 
 glossy plumage. Of course, we all know that plenty of grit 
 and fresh water are two essentials. It is the little chicks 
 that give most trouble in getting them up to six weeks old. 
 
 I am always making a fight on lice, both on fowls and 
 in buildings. Lice kill more chicks and grown fowls, for 
 that matter, than all other diseases combined. 
 
 JOHN HETTICH. 
 
 MOVABLE COOPS IN BLUE GRASS PASTURE- 
 METHOD OF FEEDING— CORNFIELD AND 
 CLOVER FOR RANGE. 
 
 I do not have any particular style of coop — a good roof 
 and bottom of boards always, made so that it can be conven- 
 iently cleaned. Twenty chicks to a hen I think about right. 
 The coops are placed near the house for convenience while 
 the chicks are young, moving them further away as they 
 grow older. At about five or six weeks they are located 
 near a blue grass pasture, with a number of apple trees for 
 shade. Here they have range until cold weather drives 
 them into winter quarters. 
 
 My first food for little chicks is dry wheat bread, moist- 
 ened with sweet milk. This is good enough for the first 
 day; the second day. oatmeal and millet seed are given, 
 with good grit. They get water from the start. Up to four 
 weeks old their food is bread, moistened in milk, millet seed, 
 oatmeal cornbread, baked as for the table, and cracked 
 wheat. After they are four weeks old I discontinue the oat- 
 meal and bread and milk, and feed millet seed, whole wheat 
 and cracked corn, with cornbread for breakfast, baked the 
 day before. After the chicks are two months old I feed a 
 bran mash, consisting of one-third each of ground oats, 
 corn and wheat bran, moistened with milk, clabber or sour 
 milk preferred. This I feed in the evening, all they will eat. 
 
 I follow this method of feeding the old fowls, believing 
 the evening the proper time for soft food. For late hatched 
 broods (say the last of June or first of July hatches) I know 
 of no place better for cooping than a near cornfield, with a 
 clover meadow near by. The corn furnishes plenty of shade 
 through the warm days, and the clover field supplies grass- 
 hoppers. 1 have had good results from late broods raised in 
 this manner. O. L. KING. 
 
 ROOSTING COOP FOR YOUNG STOCK— THREE FEEDS 
 A DAY AND PLENTY OF RANGE AND WORK. 
 
 In raising chicks, if they have been fed and cared for as 
 they should, are free from mites and diseases until weaning 
 time, or until they are large enough to be taken from the 
 brooder to the roosting coop, I find that the greatest work 
 and care of the season is over. After my chicks are six to 
 eight weeks old I give them their liberty all through the 
 day, except when the weather is too bad to let them run. 
 I feed them three times a day and make them work for it all 
 except the morning feed. For a roosting place I use coops 
 with a floor space two and one-half feet square. (Fig. 3.) 
 I also use these coops with a run attached for the hen 
 and brood when I let the chicks run with the hen instead 
 of using a brood- 
 er, so when the 
 chicks are wean- 
 ed they will con- 
 tinue to go home 
 to roost. 
 
 These coops are 
 made of seven- 
 eighths inch 
 matched lumber, 
 well seasoned. 
 The sides can be 
 made of lumber 
 taken from dry goods boxes. The front should be two feet 
 high, the back sixteen inches high. This gives sufficient 
 slant to the top to run the water off when it rains. The 
 back is left open and has slats nailed across to keep the 
 hen in. and to allow the chicks to pass out. This open side 
 admits plenty of fresh air at all times. The top should pro- 
 ject over about eight inches at back of coop to prevent the 
 
 Fig. 3— Roosting Coops fur Young Stock Rec- 
 ommended by Mr C. E. Read. 
 
62 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 rain from blowing in. In the front there is a door twelve 
 inches wide. There is a bottom made by nailing boards to- 
 gether on two cleats, made so that the coop will slip down 
 over the floor onto the ground. This prevents the rain from 
 blowing under and wetting the floor. The cleats keep the 
 bottom from resting flat on the ground. The coop should 
 be given two coats of paint. 
 
 This kind of a roosting place is very easily cleaned or 
 whitewashed by lifting it off the floor. When the ground is 
 dry and warm the floor is not necessary, simply move the 
 coop to a now spot when it begins to get foul. Twenty-five 
 or thirty chicks can, without being crowded, roost in a 
 place of this kind until they are three or four months old. 
 When the chicks are raised in a brooder I prefer a roosting 
 coop large enough to accommodate fifty. This number is as 
 many as should be put in one flock until three or four 
 months old. I then move them to a large roosting house, 
 where they continue to roost on a floor until five or six 
 months old. Sometimes I put as many as one hundred in a 
 place of this kind. From here they go to their permanent 
 roosting place, which is on perches made of two-by-four- 
 inch scantling, with the top rounded a little. Whatever 
 kind of place chicks have to roost In, it should be kept 
 clean and free from mites. Unless you do this you will 
 surely fail. 
 
 I have no mechanical arrangement or fixed method for 
 feeding chicks. I always feed what I think the time and 
 occasion demand. I believe that as much depends on the 
 way food is prepared and manner of feeding, as on the ma- 
 terial. For the morning meal I usually give a light feed of 
 cornbread baked just the same as for table use, or a mash 
 composed of bran and middlings. They will still be a little 
 hungry, and will start out hunting what they can find to 
 pick up. Along toward noon I scatter wheat among the 
 leaves and litter in a large part of their range. This gives 
 them something to do that greatly interests them until 
 along in the afternoon. When the sun is about one hour 
 high I scatter cracked corn, and perhaps some millet seed 
 or wheat in some litter. This will keep them busy until 
 about sundown, and by this time their crops are full, they 
 have done a good day's work and are ready to go to their 
 coop and enjoy a good night's rest. 
 
 There is always plenty of fresh water and grit where 
 they can go to it whenever they choose. G. E. READ. 
 
 RAT AND STORM PROOF ROOSTING COOP. 
 
 The brood coop I have had most success with is 
 made as follows: Length, twenty-four inches; height, 
 in front, twenty inches; rear, twelve inches; width, 
 eighteen inches (inside measurements). I make the 
 
 coop of matched 
 pine, with board 
 floor, the cleats 
 on the outside, so 
 as to raise the 
 coop off the 
 ground. The top 
 p r o j ec ts three 
 inches at the 
 sides and four 
 •inches at the 
 rear. I make a closed front (boards the same as the coop), 
 the front being hinged to the top, and the top and front 
 mitered, so as to close tight when down. The coop front 
 Is kept in place by cleats on the inside, these cleats allow- 
 ing about seven-eighths of an inch space on both sides for 
 ventilation when the door is down. 
 
 The front has iron strips with three or four holes fast- 
 
 Flg. 4— Coop with Adjustable hood Front, 
 
 ened about the center for the purpose of forming a hood to 
 the coop, which can be set at different angles by placing 
 screw eyes to the sides of the coop. This feature of the coop 
 is grand, as by the hood the hot sun can be kept out as well 
 as driving rains. 
 
 These coops save me many chicks each season. They 
 are rat proof and storm proof. The hen is kept in by a lath 
 front fastened just at the edge of coop. By painting these 
 coops and storing when not in use, they last a long time 
 and repay for their cost many times over. When the chicks 
 are older 1 utilize dry goods boxes, cut down to about the 
 same shape, only I make a hood of the lower eighteen inches 
 only REV. C. A. SMITH. 
 
 Mr. r. f. Mow's Roosting Coop. 
 
 ROOSTING COOP FOR STOCK UNTIL READY FOR 
 WINTER QUARTERS— MAKING THE MASH- 
 GRAIN FOOD. 
 
 As soon as the hen weans the chicks (or if raised in a 
 brooder, as soon as they are large enough to take care of 
 themselves) they are removed to roosting coops made and 
 used exclusively for this purpose. These coops are scat- 
 tered along a 
 hedge fence fac- 
 ing a large orch- 
 ard, where they 
 can get range and 
 shade at all 
 times. The coops 
 are made from 
 cheap lumber, 
 but are strong and tight. We have them from six 
 to ten feet long, but prefer them ten feet long, two 
 feet high at back, three and one-half feet in front, the roof 
 projecting over the front to keep out rain. Ends and back 
 are boarded tight, and there is also a tight floor. Front is 
 of wire netting nailed to the frame just fitting, and hinged 
 at the top, .so as to be closed at night and to shut the chicks 
 in when getting them used to new quarters. The coops have 
 roosting poles lengthwise the whole length of coop. We do 
 not find so many crooked breast bones from roosting on 
 these poles as are found by chicks roosting on the floor. The 
 coops must be kept far enough apart so the different flocks 
 will not try to crawl into one coop. If possible we put pul- 
 lets in different quarters from the cockerels. We have kept 
 chicks in these coops until snow flies. 
 
 We feed only three times a day when chicks are this 
 age. The morning and noon ration consists of corn meal 
 (ground fine) two parts, bran one part, middlings two parts, 
 thoroughly mixed. To this we add salt and to a peck we 
 add one quart of meat meal. This is placed in a light ves- 
 sel, boiling water poured over it and mixed to a stiff dough. 
 We use a grain sack to cover the vessel, and pack very 
 tightly to keep in all the steam. Let the mixture cook in 
 Its steam and feed only when cool. They are fed all they 
 will eat up clean. At night they are fed corn, wheat and 
 oats — very little oats, however, as we have had poor success 
 with oats. The grains are fed alternately so they will not 
 get tired of either grain. F. E. MOW. 
 
 EXCELLENT CONDITIONS FOR GROWING HEALTHY 
 BIRDS. 
 Living as we do on a farm, we have plenty of range, 
 grass and shade. We have a large apple, plum and cherry 
 orchard, also raspberry and blackljerry patches, which af- 
 ford fine range for young chicks. As for food, we use only 
 such grains as we raise on the farm. When the chicks are 
 about six weeks old we put them in flocks of fifteen to twen- 
 ty-five, each flock roosting at night in a large coop having 
 a movable bottom, so as to make it easy to clean out. There 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 65 
 
 is a wire screen door in front, so as to give plenty of air, 
 also to make it vermin-proof at night. 
 
 As to our method of feeding, wc give corn ground rather 
 coarse, so the chicks will have something to pick at. Bach 
 morning we take what corn meal we want for a day and 
 moisten it with milk that has been heated to the boiling 
 point, being careful to mix thoroughly so all the meal is 
 scalded, thus preventing danger of bowel trouble. We feed 
 three times a day just what they will eat up clean each time. 
 
 When they are about three months old we omit the corn 
 meal and give whole oats in the morning and noon, and 
 whole corn at night. We let them forage through the day 
 for bugs, grass, etc.. which they need to keep in good grow- 
 ing condition. There is plenty of good clean water for them 
 to drink at all times. This is one of the most important 
 parts in raising healthy chicks. H. TIBBBTTS. 
 
 BEST OF CARE— PLENTY OF FOOD— WELL VENTI- 
 LATED COOPS. 
 
 We give our chicks farm range (farm consists of 269 
 acres) and plenty of fresh well water, also a variety of food 
 
 consist ing of 
 cracked corn, 
 wheat screenings, 
 corn bread, pota- 
 toes, etc., and 
 plenty of natural 
 grit from a grav- 
 el bank. In au- 
 tumn their range 
 affords a good 
 Fig, 6— Coop Used by Simon Lynch S Son. supply of grass- 
 
 hoppers. Wesweepthefeeding space each day, scald and clean 
 the drinking vessels, and try to keep the chicks as free from 
 lice as possible by keeping the floor of the roosting houses 
 clean and the walls, etc., whitewashed frequently. We aim 
 to give at all times the best of care and plenty of food. We 
 keep our fowls well sheltered at night in well ventilated 
 roosting houses, ranging in size from four by eight feet to 
 six by twelve feet. The illustration (Fig. 6) shows a build- 
 ing six by twelve feet; front, six feet six inches; rear, 
 four feet. The roof projects one foot to protect 
 ventilators from rain. The door (D) is two by six 
 feet. C C are doors twelve inches, hinged at bottom, to be 
 opened for light and thorough ventilation. Above this door 
 Is a wire screen six inches wide (B) for ventilation at night 
 or when other doors are closed. Above the door, running 
 full length of house, is a board four inches wide to give 
 support to roof. SIMON LYNCH & SON. 
 
 FARM RANGE— PLENTY OF GREEN FOOD— ROOMY 
 QUARTERS. 
 
 We have never aimed to raise over four or five hundred 
 chickens a year, as we raise geese and turkeys and cannot 
 accommodate a much larger flock. The young have good 
 comfortable coops, with board floors, closed up according 
 to the weather, with the brood hen confined accordingly. 
 They have farm range, an abundance of grass, good wafer 
 at all times and plenty of grit. Our coops are too small to 
 accommodate them after they are quite large, so as soon as 
 they begin to think about roosting on top of coops or a limb 
 of the nearest tree, we put them in our large buildings, 
 where the most of them are to be kept through the winter. 
 Most of our old stock, kept for sitting, laying, etc., has been 
 marketed by this time. 
 
 Our buildings are clean and free from vermin. The 
 youngsters, if they like, can use the perches, which are two 
 
 inches wide and have rounded edges; or they can roost on 
 the lloor, which is earth, thickly covered with straw. There 
 is plenty of room either place, with no crowding (chicks 
 won't crowd if comfortable). When the cold rains and win- 
 ter snows come unexpectedly they are comfortable. They 
 are free from colds, nor do they have crooked breasts as 
 some might think, for they do not have to go on the percneg 
 till they want to. We have had to put as many as one hun- 
 dred and fifty in a large room, but that is too many; fifty 
 to seventy-five are better. 
 
 These chicks are taught to roam and scratch when quite 
 young, and are not over-fed on grain too easily gotten. 
 When past their chick food they are fed twice a day with a 
 mash consisting of corn meal, middlings and bran, about 
 equal parts, scalded and salted. A third meal, the night 
 one, consists of cracked corn, wheat or screenings, fed in 
 the straw so that they have to work for it. A little meat in 
 some form is fed every few days, and they are given any- 
 thing in the form of vegetables, cooked or raw, that they 
 will eat that we happen to have, and we usually have some- 
 thing of the kind. Our large orchard and grove furnish an 
 abundance of shade, sometimes too much when it is a little 
 cool. We never neglect the young, nor feed them more or 
 less in quantity than they require, which varies according 
 to age and weather, and no one but the feeder can tell how 
 much. We used to overfeed, which is easily done, though 
 some people actually starve their poultry and of course have 
 "bad luck," while the real cause is death from neglect. 
 
 We do not expect to raise every chick, but are satisfied 
 with a good per cent. We lose but few after they are placed 
 in the large buildings, and those are by accident. This 
 season we expect to keep many of the incubator chicks in 
 the brooder houses till late fall or winter. The flocks spoken 
 of were raised by hens. B. F. HISLOP. 
 
 A COOL AND SAFE COOP FOR FORTY YOUNG FOWLS 
 —MOVED TO FRESH GROUND WEEKLY. 
 
 I have several coops for young chickens that are two 
 and one-half feet high at back, three and one-half feet 
 in front, three and one-half feet wide and from six to 
 eight feet long, with heavy water-proof paper on top of 
 roof. I try to set from three to five hens at one time and 
 put all the chicks with two or three of them in one of these 
 coops. When the chicks are about a week old, if the 
 weather is good, I let them out. They will return at night 
 and when weaned will roost in these coops of their own 
 accord. Then I make a frame in front (two feet wide)^cov- 
 ering it with 
 poultry netting 
 (small mesh). I 
 leave an opening 
 in the back eight 
 inches above the 
 roosts and cover 
 with wire netting 
 The fowls are 
 then safe from 
 minks, raits, or any other animals 
 
 fig. 7~Mr. D. F. Palmer's Movable Coop 
 for Forty Chicks. 
 
 ,nd still have a circula- 
 tion of fresh air. The roosts In coop are about a foot from. 
 the ground. 
 
 I clean the coops once a week and set them on fresh 
 ground. These coops will accommodate about forty chicks. 
 Late in the fall I line them with paper to prevent drafts, 
 and when cold weather comes the chicks are in fine shape to. 
 go into the houses. As to food, I am feeding small shrunken 
 wheat from the mill. Of course fresh water is before them 
 at all times. D. F. PALMER. 
 
a 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 FEEDING THE CHICKS. 
 
 We have had experience in raising chicks in brooders 
 for many years and we have been successful. We never 
 put more than seventy-five chiclis in a lot and we use the 
 dry food method entireiy. Some years ago we found that 
 it was not possible for us to give the chicks the time neces- 
 sary to success, as our fruit business at times claims almost 
 all our attention. We therefore dropped the brooders, re- 
 taining our incubators and giving the chicks to broody hens, 
 placing the hens in the house formerly used for brooders 
 until the weather allowed us to put them outdoors. 
 
 The method of feeding which we employ for chicks 
 after being fed for a week or so on crumbs, boiled rice, etc., 
 is for morning: One quart sifted cereals, ground fine, one 
 pint wheat bran, two ounces meat meal and moisten just 
 enough^ to adhere slightly together. Noon, feed cracked 
 corn, barley, hulled oats. Feed just what they will eat up 
 quickly. At night we feed cracked corn, hulled oats, wheat, 
 and a mixture of any small grain we may have. We find 
 that the meat meal has been a great help, and all our chicks 
 made splendid growth in bone, and we have not the propor- 
 tion of puny birds that are so common in nearly every flock. 
 We prefer hen-raised chicks for many reasons, and we 
 will name some of them. First, you do not get so many 
 crowded in a bunch; second, the hens exercise them hunt- 
 ing bugs and teach them to hunt for something to eat in- 
 stead of lying around waiting for the feeder to come; third, 
 our hens will average ten chicks each and thirty hens will 
 
 raise us three 
 hundred chick.s. 
 which is as many 
 as we wish for 
 our present quar- 
 ters. We give 
 Game hens Game 
 c*iicks, as they 
 win hover them 
 iimtil full feath- 
 ered and raise 
 nearly all given 
 them. White Wy- 
 andottes leave them in six or seven weeks to do for them- 
 selves, and they get colds and the attendant diseases and 
 die off. We would rather raise one well developed chick 
 than twelve poor ones, and by our method we have few 
 eulls. 3. D. & J. W. RILEY. 
 
 Fig. 10— Slatted Front Coop with Door at 
 Side. 
 
 Fig, 8-9 — lialf-way Coops to Use Between 
 Brooder and Fig. 10. 
 
 THREE GOOD COOPS— MOVING THE YOUNG STOCK 
 —COOKED FOOD AND GRAINS. 
 
 I send a pencil sketch of coops used by me. No. 8 is 
 the old A coop for hen and chicks. I have found this to be 
 about as satisfactory in the long run as more expensive ones. 
 No. 9 is a little 
 more expensive ^-. > -».->^,^-< =a«a». 
 
 and if made right 
 is very conven- 
 ient, easily kept 
 clean and sate 
 from night prow- 
 lers. I often 
 make use of 
 these coops as a 
 half-way house from the brooders to coop or house No. 10, 
 as I can limit the number of chicks to suit size, weather 
 and oither conditions. If the weather is cold and damp I 
 often use a jug of hot water, set in the middle of the 
 coop. It is a good thing and the chicks appreciate it, as 
 one can soon tell. 
 
 I use one incubator, and with it I have three brooders — 
 No. 1, one hundred chick; No. 2. three hundred chick; No. 3, 
 five hundred chick size, so-called. 
 
 They go from the incubator to brooder No. 1, wnieh I 
 have ready for them with a temperature of about 90 degrees 
 to start with: from No. 1 to No. 2, then as age and size war- 
 rant they go to No. 3. No. 2 has outside runs; No. 3 is an 
 outdoor brooder and chicks have a good grass yard and 
 plenty of shade. I bunch them up in small colonies of 
 about fifteen in the No. 9 coops. Fresh water and grit are 
 where the chicks can get to them all the time. 
 
 The food question is one that bothers me more or less. 
 All my fowls, old or young, get one cooked ration every day 
 — in the mornings. For this I use oats, corn chop, clover 
 (cut), bran, shipstuff and beef or blood meal. This is pre- 
 pared the night before, and as soon as the young stock get 
 old enough they get a portion, the same as the old stock. I 
 feed corn chop, wheat and millet, green cut bone and vege- 
 tables, tabic scraps, and anything I can find that is good fur 
 them. I aim to give my chicks as much variety as possible. 
 Oat groats is a principal factor in my food for growing 
 chicks. 
 
 E. M. DURHAM. 
 
 A Shelter Coop for Growing Chicks. 
 
 •' i-Ufr- 
 
PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING, 
 
 This Profitable Branch of the Poultry Industry Discussed In Detail, from the Hen That Lays the Egg to the Profits 
 
 That Go Into the Pockets of the Successful Broiler Raiser— Suitable Breeds for Broilers— Vigor and 
 
 Shape In Breeders — Seasons of Incubation and Prices of Eggs — Seasons of Sales and 
 
 High Prices for Broilers— Period of Growth to Marketable Size— Special 
 
 Foods an Aid to Growth— A Clue to the Profits. 
 
 By A. F. Hunter. 
 
 THERE are several interesting features manifest in dif- 
 ferent lines of poultry work, and not the least of 
 them is the fascination of broiler raising for the 
 beginners. That the promised profits of turning 
 eggs into a choice marketable fowl product does fascinate the 
 beginner is well known to those who have studied conditions 
 in the poultry business, and perhaps the most frequently 
 recurring question coming to the poultry editor's desk re- 
 lates to one point or another of broiler raising. Nor is this 
 surprising when we consider that the changing of an egg 
 into a chick is but a matter of three weeks' time, and the 
 growth of the baby chick to a marketable broiler is but a 
 matter of eight to twelve weeks' time. Somebody says, "An 
 egg costs two or three cents, and in three months we can 
 turn it into a two-pound broiler which will sell for a dollar; 
 that certainly looks an easy way to make money. And it 
 would be if every egg produced a chick and every chick 
 grew to broiler size and good, marketable condition, and 
 sold for fifty cents a pound; but, there are eggs and eggs, 
 and there are broilers and broilers, and there are not a few 
 diffculties in the way of realizing the Klondike profits which 
 look so tempting. That there is a good profit in broiler 
 raising there is ample evidence in the sections where market 
 poultry is made a business, and where men have continued 
 the raising of broilers and soft-roasters for ten, fifteen, 
 twenty or more years. That many who embark in broiler 
 raising gradually outgrow "the broiler stage" and develop 
 into larger things is not surprising. We have in mind 
 such widely known poultrymen as A. G. Duston and Wm. 
 Ellery Bright as examples of broiler (and market poultry) 
 raising having been the stepping stone to the great poultry 
 business they have built up; indeed, not more than six or 
 eight years ago Mr. Duston wrote interesting and helpful 
 articles for the Reliable Poultry Journal upon this subject 
 and his poultry plant was planned and built with the inten- 
 tion of making broiler raising a prominent feature in his 
 poultry work. 
 
 There are great poultry farms where broiler raising is 
 a considerable part, or even the chief part, of the work, and 
 where incubators are kept running practically the year 
 around. On others the broiler work is simply one feature 
 of the general poultry work; the intention being to have 
 a good crop of broilers to meet the high-priced market, and 
 a succession crop of soft roasting chickens to meet the high- 
 priced market for roasters, and a general "market poultry 
 and eggs" business for all the year. There is still another 
 class of broiler raisers, those who turn off their young 
 cockerels to market just as soon as they are of marketable 
 size, considering them simply a by-product of the general 
 poultry work. 
 
 Prices Go TJp, Then Down. 
 There is very little sale for broiler chicks in October, 
 November and December, at least in the general market; 
 some sale there is, to private trade, and in such case very 
 
 little attention is paid to market quotations, the prices being 
 simply between the grower and his customer. In January 
 there is a light call for broiler chicks, which steadily in- 
 creases through February and March and culminates in 
 April, then gradually decreases through May, June and July, 
 and by August the lowest prices are again reached. These 
 lowest prices range from twelve to twenty cents a pound, 
 and the highest prices range from twenty-five to fifty cents 
 a pound, the sale price depending upon the quality of the 
 product and the demand in the market. The chickens must 
 be "gilt-edged" to command the highest figures, and if of 
 extra fine, "gilt-edged" quality they not only sell quickly, 
 but frequently command a premium above highest market 
 prices. 
 
 These broilers are In greatest demand in April, 
 with a good demand in March and May, with a 
 moderate demand from New Year's to August. In 
 the best markets, which are those of our greater eastern 
 cities, the prices range from about twenty cents a pound 
 in January up to fifty cents a pound in April, then gradu- 
 ally fall off to about twenty cents again in August. Not all 
 two-pound chickens, however, are "high-class" broilers and 
 command the highest current prices; to command the high- 
 est prices they must be of "the best" quality, must be plump, 
 full-breasted, yellow-skinned and fine-boned, and the quicker 
 a chicken can be grown to broiler size the better in quality 
 it will be. The better the quality the higher the price and 
 consequently better profit to the grower. If a two-pound 
 broiler costs twelve and a half cents a pound to raise and 
 is of such fine quality that it sells for forty or fifty cents a 
 pound, there is a profit of twenty-seven and a half or 
 thirty-seven and a half cents a pound; if, however, it is 
 "off" in quality and sells for ten cents less per pound, there 
 is hut seventeen and a half or twenty-seven and a half cents 
 a pound profit. This one point of poor quality and conse- 
 quently lower price has discouraged (or disgusted) not a 
 few broiler raisers, hence the importance of getting eggs 
 from stock of the much desired fine-boned, plump-breasted 
 yellow-skinned class of fowls, to the end that, if fed right 
 and cared for as they should be, they grow (and grow 
 quickly) into broilers of the very best class. 
 
 That there has been little change in market conditions 
 in the past dozen years is shown by the price-list given in 
 the circular of Messrs. W. H. Rudd, Son & Co. in 1891, which 
 reads as follows: 
 
 Quotations for Broilers. 
 
 January, demand light 15 to 20c 
 
 February, demand improves 20 to 22c 
 
 March 28 to 35c 
 
 April 35 to 50c 
 
 May 40 to 30c 
 
 June 30 to 25c 
 
 July 25 to 20i; 
 
 August, prices fluctuating 16 to 23c 
 
 September 12 to 16c 
 
 Oct., Nov., and Dec, little demand 12 to 15c 
 
G(; 
 
 THK CHICK BOOK 
 
 PROFITABLE 
 MARHET 
 CHICK E^S. 
 
 illustration Referred to by Mr. hunter. 
 
 Mr. Twining's figures give 
 us a clue to profits. He teils 
 us liis two-pound broilers cost 
 liim twc-aty-five cents apiece, 
 and divides tlie cost as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 Two eggs 5c 
 
 Labor 7c 
 
 Food 8c 
 
 Picking 5c 
 
 Total 25c 
 
 As he and his son did all 
 the work, it is obvious that 
 ilie seven cents for labor was 
 put into his own (and ?on's) 
 pockets, and that they got the 
 full price of their labor in ad- 
 dition to the profits returned, 
 ''"he figures give us twelve and 
 a half cents per pound as the 
 cost of a two-pound broiler 
 and the market prices ranged 
 from twenty to fifty cents a 
 pound. A two-pound broiler 
 selling at twenty cents a 
 pound pays fifteen cents prof- 
 it, while the same broiler sell- 
 ing at fifty cents a pound 
 pays seventy-five cents profit. 
 Quite a difference there, and 
 the figures show the impor- 
 tance of having the product 
 ready to market at the time of 
 highest prices. This is the 
 month of April, but March 
 and May also give high prices. 
 It takes nine to twelve .veeks 
 to grow a two-pound broiler, 
 and that means that the 
 chicks must be hatched in De- 
 cember. January and Febru- 
 ary to come upon the market 
 in time for best prices. 
 
 In November, 1901, Reliable Poultry Journal, we told 
 of a decidedly successful broiler raising business, and gave 
 a table of shipments of about four thousand broilers, with 
 prices taken directly from Mr. Twining's books. We re- 
 print the table so that prices may be compared with those 
 of Mr. Rudd, published ten years earlier. 
 
 These returns are from (practically) weekly shipments, 
 while the prices in the first table are designed to give the 
 average prices for each month. Another point worth notic- 
 ing is that Mr. Twining shipped to both Philadelphia and 
 New York markets, and sometimes could get a few cents 
 better price in one market than in the other. For example. 
 May 3rd and Sth shipments to Philadelphia only returned 
 him thirty-five cents a pound. He shipped no more for 
 nearly two weeks and then shipped to New York and re- 
 ceived forty cents for them; another shipment returning 
 him thirty-six cents, and not until June 3rd was the New 
 York price down to thirty-five cents, which was the Phila- 
 delphia price just a month earlier. It is worth noting that 
 the Boston prices for May are given as forty to thirty cents, 
 which approximates closely to Mr. Twining's actual returns 
 ten years later; a comparison of these prices shows that 
 theie is but little variation in prices from year to year. 
 
 Table of Shipments and Returns of Mr. Twining's 
 Broilers. 
 
 Date. 
 
 No. 
 Chicks, 
 
 Returned. 
 
 Price 
 Per Pound. 
 
 AprilZS 
 
 50 
 
 $ 25 00 
 
 .50 
 
 25 
 
 50 
 
 27 92 
 
 .48 
 
 May 3 
 
 50 
 
 23.01 
 
 .38 
 
 " 3 
 
 ICO 
 50 
 
 38.74 
 22.19 
 
 .35 
 
 " 8 . . ., 
 
 .35 
 
 •■ 20.... 
 
 240 
 
 140.74 
 
 .40 
 
 ■• 27 
 
 200 
 
 119. C7 
 
 .36 
 
 ■• 27 
 
 6 
 
 4.10 
 
 .3S 
 
 Iiuie 3 
 
 201 
 
 123.68 
 
 35 
 
 ■■ 10 ... 
 
 6 
 
 4 12 
 
 .35 
 
 ■ in 
 
 252 
 
 145 ii 
 
 .32 
 
 ■ 17 
 
 13 
 
 7.80 
 
 .32 
 
 17 
 
 250 
 250 
 209 
 
 132.44 
 127.78 
 109.85 
 
 ..12 
 
 ■ ■ '4 
 
 .30 
 
 July 1 
 
 .30 
 
 H 
 
 253 
 
 128.20 
 
 .30 
 
 ■■ 15 
 
 205 
 
 98.40 
 
 .28 
 
 ■ 22 
 
 157 
 
 81 19 
 
 .28 
 
 ■ 29 
 
 274 
 
 102.18 
 
 .23 
 
 Aug. 3 
 
 267 
 
 97.33 
 
 .20 
 
 ■ 12 
 
 432 
 
 1'3 16 
 
 .20 
 
 • 13 
 
 120 
 
 33 28 
 
 .20 
 
 ■ 1') 
 
 270 
 
 94 02 
 
 .20 
 
 ■ V> 
 
 .54 
 
 18.90 
 
 .20 
 
 Totnl 
 
 3.959 
 
 ,^l,83<).n3 
 
 
 Average Price per chick, 46.45 cents. 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 G7 
 
 Eggs for Hatching Broilers. 
 Tire first problem, and one of the most important to the 
 broiler raiser, is the eggs from which to hatch the chicks. It 
 is November, December and January eggs thai pro- 
 duce the December, January, and February chickenj. 
 and eggs in those months are scarce and high. Eggs at this 
 writing (February) are selling at forty-five cents a dozen, 
 wholesale; nearly four cents apiece. It is evident, then, that 
 eggs at this season are worth decidedly more than the two 
 and a half cents apiece figured by Mr. Twining. His fig- 
 ures, however, extended into and through the period of low- 
 est prices foi eggs, and the books showed that his average 
 for the (about) nine thousand eggs incubated was nearer 
 twonty-five cents a dozen than the thirty cents of the fig- 
 ures. We visited a large practical poultry farm early in 
 December and found the owner just closing 
 a Ciise of fine looking eggs he was sending 
 to market. We asked him if he was selling 
 
 any eggs to market poultry raisers and he 
 replied, "No, sir! It don't pay to bother with 
 that trade. I'm getting forty-five cents a 
 
 dozen wholesale for these eggs, and the most 
 
 that market poultry raisers will pay is five 
 
 dollars per hundred; that isn't dift'erence 
 
 enough to pay me for packing them to ship 
 
 by express and pay for 
 
 correspcmdence, time, 
 
 etc., that it takes." As 
 
 we had visited a mar- 
 ket poultry raiser only 
 
 a couple of days before 
 
 and he had exclaimed 
 
 about the difficulty of 
 
 getting good hatching 
 
 eggs to fill his incuba- 
 tors, a comparison of 
 
 the 'two differing points 
 
 of view is interesting. 
 
 The one man had the 
 
 eggs in good supply, 
 
 said he was getting a 
 
 hundred and over a day 
 
 and could no doubt ship 
 
 five or six hundred eggs 
 
 a week if the other 
 
 would offer a price 
 
 which would make it 
 
 worth while taking care 
 
 of the orders. Five dol- 
 lars per hundred did not 
 
 tempt him, possibly six 
 
 dollars per hundred 
 
 would. 
 
 "Good Hatchable 
 Eggs." 
 
 Next to getting eggs 
 to put in the incubators 
 
 the mcst important matter is the qualify of 
 the eggs, is the getting cf good, strong bodied 
 eggs that w-ill haitch out strong, vigorous 
 chicks. Indeed, it may we'l be stated that 
 the quality of the eggs is the most important point; 
 it isn't an impossibility to get one or two or three 
 thousand eggs, buit to get eggs whch will turn out a 
 i-ea.=ionable proportion of sturdy, "bound-to-live" chicks 
 is more difficult. This brings us to "the hens bshind 
 the liggs." as it is impossible that eggs be in the best 
 
 shape ,o hatch good chicks unless the hens that produce 
 them are in high condition. They must be in per- 
 fect health and be fed a food ration that supplies the ele- 
 ments of which good eggs are made in addition to 
 the food (which must include a sufficient supply of 
 green facd to "balance" the grain and animal foods), the 
 fowli must be kept in clean quarters, must be kept free from 
 vermin, must have an abundance of fresh air to breathe, 
 and must have sufficient exercise to keep the circulation 
 active and promote good digestion. This looks formidable 
 at first, but is really nothing more than common prudence 
 dictates, because "the hen that lays is the hen that pays," 
 and the hens must have good food and care if we expect 
 them to lay. 
 
 The term "quality of the eggs" means much more than 
 
 the average reader 
 will realize. It is most 
 important that eggs 
 for market be of good 
 quality, be strong- 
 bodied and full-bod- 
 ied; if less than this 
 they are seconds or 
 thirds and sell for a 
 lower price. Of how 
 much greater impor- 
 tance that they be 
 strong bodied and full 
 bodied if they are to 
 be incubated. If weak 
 
 -X \J and watery they can 
 
 f^Vj.\ not hatch good, 
 
 strong chicks. There 
 
 may be sufficient body to 
 
 the egg to nourish the em- 
 
 biyo (and beyond) the critical 
 
 period of exclusion, but the in- 
 The Proflloble end Unprofitable Type ^_^^^ ^^^^^^ ^jj, j^^ ^^ ^gg^^ 3^^^, 
 
 in Marliet Fowls. ,■ ■• 
 
 . , ,, „ . feeblo it cannot "make-a-live 
 
 lllustl-f.tion 1' f. r-i' li>l>y Mr. Milliter. 
 
68 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 of it; or it may be still poorer and the embryo die in the last 
 week of incubation; and some eggs are so poor the germs 
 die in the first few days of incubation. When eggs are veiy 
 poor in quality there will be many of these dead germs 
 found in the incubator at the end of the hatch, or thrown 
 out at the second test; it is perhaps unnecessary to say that 
 such poor quality eggs are the most unprofitable and most 
 unsatisfactory for the market poultry raiser to buy. 
 
 The Hens That Lay the Eggs. 
 
 The witty "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" said that 
 the education of a child should bagin twenty years before 
 the child is born, and, similarly, the strength and vigor of 
 our broiler chicks must be planned for one or more years 
 before the eggs are laid from which the chicks are hatched. 
 The laying hens must be birds with strong constitutions 
 and themselves descended from birds that had strong con- 
 stitutions. An old poultryman. in an article written for 
 the Reliable Poultry Journal a few years ago, says: 
 
 "Instead of beginning with the egg which is to produce 
 the chick we go farther back, even back of the hen which 
 lays the egg, and find the health and strength of her ances- 
 try In other words, we examine her family tree. If, on 
 due investigation, we find the hen which is to lay our eggs 
 is the offspring of some generations of strong, healthy birds, 
 we may safely depend on her giving us the proper material 
 on which to build our broiler structure. There never has 
 been, and never will be, a successful broiler business built 
 up on eggs from other than stock in perfect health and of 
 strong vitality. The reasons are plain to see. In order to 
 get your quick grown, juicy carcass there must be a torced 
 growth from the very hatching, and the chick must have 
 the stamina and vitality which alone come through inher- 
 itance, and which enable him to stand the hardest feeding 
 and keep him busy and happy. The chicken from poorly 
 fed, ill developed parent stock of hit and miss breeding 
 cannot and will not fill the bill." 
 
 How to get the desired strong constitution is an impor- 
 tant consideration, and it is evident that we should both 
 breed for it and "select" the breeding birds for it. Prof. 
 Graham, of the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, has 
 "■given much study to this subject, and in an excellent article 
 published in the Reliable Poultry Journa! he discusses the 
 question of the constitution of the breeding stock, and illus- 
 trates his points with photographs from birds of both the 
 desired and undesirable types. Mr. Graham says: 
 
 "I am of the opinion that one of the mosi important 
 points to be considered is constitution. This may have no 
 actual market value, but it certainly has much to do with 
 the bird's ability to grow and put on flesh. What we want 
 is a good feeder and an economical producer. Generally, a 
 bird with a short, stout, well curved beak, a broad head, 
 not too long, and a bright, clear eye, will have plenty of con- 
 stitution. Furthermore, I have noticed that when a bird 
 has a long, narrow beak, a thin, long comb and head, and 
 eye sunken in the head, it is lacking in constitution. It also 
 has a narrow, long body, and in many cases legs which are 
 long, and upon which the fowl seldom stands straight. There 
 are some exceptions to these points, yet, upon the average, 
 if a bird has a good head, the chances are favorable fjr a 
 good body, and if a poor head, the opposite may be said. I 
 have frequently noticed in Rose Comb breeds, such as Wy- 
 andottes, that you seldom see a good shaped one that has 
 a long, narrow comb. 
 
 "The neck of the market fowl should be moderately 
 short and stout, indicating vigor. The breast is the most 
 important point in a market chicken. It should be broad, 
 moderately deep; and, if fairly long, will present a fine ap- 
 
 pearance and appear well fleshed. It is quite possible that 
 a brnad, deep breast will carry more meat than a moderately 
 deep breast of the same width, yet there is no doubt but that 
 the latter will present much the better appearance and 
 thereby sell quicker, and at a higher price in the market. 
 
 "When considering the length of breast, we must try 
 to get it to come well forward (see Fig. 1), and not cut off 
 at an angle, as seen in Fig. 2. The body, in general, 
 should pretent the appearance of an oblong, when the head, 
 tail and neck are removed. We frequently see birds that are 
 very flat in front and cut up behind as seen in Fig. 3. This 
 class of chickens gives a very short breast; and if it happens 
 to be deep, as it is in this bird, you will have, when dressed, 
 about as poor a looking chicken as one could wish to see, 
 there being a lack of width and lengtn of breast, with ex- 
 cessive depth. (Notice the head is narrow and long, the 
 body is narrow, the eye is bright, but slightly sunken, the 
 legs are long and not straight under the body.) In Fig. 2, 
 note the very flat breast, the length of back, the long neck 
 and head, the narrow comb, the sunken eye, and the length 
 of legs. The breast comes fairly well back, but not well 
 forward. In Fig. 1 the bill is short and stout, but not as 
 well curved as I should like. Note the breadth of the head, 
 the prominence and brightness of the eye, the short and 
 stout neck, the great width of the breast, the fullness caused 
 largely by the breastbone extending well forward, the short, 
 stout legs that are straight under the body, and the width 
 between the legs. There is an expression about this chicken 
 that impresses one as being the essence of vigor. 
 
 "The back should be broad to give lung and heart capac- 
 ity, and, further, this width should extend well back to the 
 tail-head. Avoid the wedge-shaped back as seen in some 
 fowls that have groat width at the shoulders and taper 
 rapidly toward the tail-head. 
 
 "It is much easier to get good shaped market females 
 than it is to get good cockerels. * * * The farmers have 
 gone to raising big chickens and are asking for large, over- 
 grown cockerels for breeders and, further, birds that have 
 excessive depth. The result is, we get chickens when dressed 
 weighing four to five pounds each that have immense, high 
 breastbones and very long legs. These are not attractive 
 to the buyers and sell at a less price per pound than plumper 
 birds. For example, if given two birds of the same width 
 of breast, one is one and a half inches deeper in the breast 
 than the other, the result will be, the one bird looks plump 
 and sells readily, the other lacks plumpness and sells 
 slowly. This can be bred out by using such males as Fig. 1. 
 
 "I wish to have birds as well built as we can get them. 
 Fig. 1 is as near the ideal market chicken as I have seen in 
 the breed he represents. The hen as seen in Fig. 4 is of a 
 good market type. Note the width and fullness of breast. 
 As a breeder she is a little fine in bone, and rather too 
 small. She has, however, that blocky appearance that is 
 desirable." 
 
 There has been tar too great a use of big, coarse breed- 
 ing males, the thought appearing to be that size (mere 
 "bigness") indicated a strong constitution, and the note 
 of warning sounded by Prof. Graham is most timely. In 
 broiler chickens, too, fineness of bone is most important. 
 The fine-boned carcass gives a larger proportion of meat 
 to bone (waste), and the coarser framed bird has the knife- 
 edge breast, rather than the round, plump breast which has 
 so attractive an appearance. Then, too, the finer boned 
 birds take on fat more readily; it will generally be found 
 that the birds which will not fatten and that it is seemingly 
 impossible to get in good, marketable condition, are the 
 long-legged, thin-bodied, angular birds begotten by the big, 
 coarse ancestors which have come to be used because of this 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 69 
 
 craze for mere "bigness!" If we will but take heed of the 
 suggestions given us by Prof. Graham there will be a nota- 
 ble improvement in the "type" of bird we send to market; 
 tbg improvement in type resulting in a bettering of quality, 
 an increased price, quicker sales and better profits to the 
 poultrymau. 
 
 I spoke of the remarkable attraction that broiler raising 
 seemed to have for the beginners in poultry work, and to 
 such the very great bettering of incubators, brooding 
 and feeding comes as a great boon. The distressing fail- 
 ures, such as I have seen many of, should now be less com- 
 mon. One such, in a pleasant town about thirty miles west 
 of Philadelphia, is worth citing as a warning. In this case 
 two young men trrm the city had thought to better their 
 pecuniary condition by broiler raising. They built a hot 
 water pipe brooder house a hundred feet long, bought five 
 hundred eggs and went to work. A friend with whom I was 
 making an over-night visit told me of their poor success, 
 and suggested that we drive over in the morning and see 
 them. When we arrived we found them contemplating an 
 incubator full of eggs which should have hatched the day 
 before, and from which not one chick had come. Closing 
 the shutters (the incubators were being run in the old 
 
 dampers as the temperature falls or rises from the point 
 desired. Moreover, the hovers are not back against the 
 walk partition, but out about three feet from it; there is 
 no confined (dead) air under such hovers and no possibility 
 of chicks crowding each other back against a back wall and 
 smothering some. Of course such a brooder house costs 
 more than a cheaply built and inadequately heated one, but 
 it "raises the chicks," and therefore pays the added cost 
 over and over again, instead of aiding to pass them along 
 to the fertilizer heap. 
 
 Must Be Well Hatched. 
 
 Chicks to grow well must be well hatched. It is a seri- 
 ous handicap to the baby life to have great difficulty In 
 getting out of the shell; sometimes the struggle for exclu- 
 sion is so violent and e,xhausting that the chick has little 
 chance of making a live of it. There are various causes for 
 this, such as too high or too low average temperature in the 
 incubator, irregularity of temperature, and other eccentrici- 
 ties; poor eggs, owing to the laying stock being out of con- 
 dition, is another potent cause. With the well made, up- 
 to-date and well ventilated incubators of to-day there is 
 no reason for poorly hatched chicks if directions are closely 
 
 Colony Houses and Yards for Maturing the Crowing Stock on the Farm of J. D. ISevlus. 
 
 farm house parlor), we tested about half the eggs, and told 
 them they hadn't ventilated the incubator at all (appar- 
 ently), and their eggs were only about half fertile, so they 
 were only entitled to about one hundred and fifty chickens 
 anyway. 
 
 The air was "blue" there for a little while, but talking 
 did no good, and while they in their lurid dreams had pic- 
 tured a chicken hatching from every egg (in winter at 
 that!), the potent fact was their work was a failure. They 
 had already incubated over two thousand eggs and 
 hatched less than three hundred chickens, and the 
 brooder house showed at a glance the moment we 
 entered it that no one could "raise" chickens in it. 
 There was a "chill" in the air that went to the mar- 
 row, and chicks cannot possibly be grown in such an atmos- 
 phere. The brooder house had been built with half-dried 
 lumber, after freezing weather came in the early winter, and 
 to save fifty dollars or so a beater two sizes too small had 
 been bought. There was no heat except the two flow and 
 two return pipes under the hovers, and the hovers were 
 close up against the partition along the walk. Compare 
 such a defective brooder house with the one in use at Lake- 
 wood Farm, illustrated on pages 14 and 15 — A New 
 Jei-sey Brooding House. There is a brooder house equip- 
 ped with abundant heating pipes under the hovers, having a 
 bank of auxiliary heating pipes along the walk, to warm 
 the house, and an adequate heater for the coldest weather. 
 Then there is an electric regulator connected with a thermo- 
 stat under one of the hovers, and which opens or closes the 
 
 followed, provided, of course, that the eggs are good and 
 strong. The most important thing is that the right tem- 
 perature be maintained in the incubator, and that it be 
 steadily maintained. It is wiser to err upon the side of a 
 bit too high temperature than letting it run low; it is the 
 opinion of incubator operators that just a little too much 
 is better than running the risk of the temperature going 
 too low. This is especially true in winter hatching. As a 
 general rule, the colder the weather the stronger (or slight- 
 ly higher) the average temperature should be. 
 
 Running an Incubator. 
 
 The daily task of running an incubator consists of turn- 
 ing the eggs twice a day, morning and night, and daily fill- 
 ing and trimming the lamp. Ordinarily the lamp trimming 
 can best be done about the middle of the afternoon, in the 
 interval between feeding the chicks and before the last 
 feeding of the hens. About the seventh day the eggs should 
 be tested, which is the simple operation of passing the eggs, 
 wiUi the large end up, before a testing light and notiug it 
 the egg contains a living germ. The germ is a dark (almost 
 black), spider-like spot upon the side of the yolk, and the 
 stronger and darker the germ appears the better. An egg 
 which is absolutely clear is infertile, and should be saved 
 out to be eaten in omelettes or scrambled, or sold to the 
 bake shop to be used in cooking. Now and then a dead 
 germ will be found, evidenced by reddish circles about the 
 yolk or a generally cloudy appearance of the egg. These 
 should be thrown in the manure pile, or may be fed to hoga. 
 
:o 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 After the test there will be fewer eggs left in the ma- 
 chine, but as each egg contains a life and life means aaimal 
 heat, we may soon expect to note a slight increase in the 
 temperature. This should be met by slightly turning down 
 the nut on the regulator rod each day, or every other day, 
 as the conditions seem to require. The directions sent out 
 with each incubator are the guide to follow, and these direc- 
 tions say 103 degrees is the proper temperature to maintain. 
 As we said above, we would err on the side of a bit more 
 than the designated temperature, rather than fall below it. 
 Onfe of the most successful incubator operators of our ac- 
 quaintance does not pretend to keep his machines at ex- 
 actly 103. He say.? that atmospheric conditions vary, caus- 
 ing variations in temperature, and if he keeps between 101 
 and 105, with an average close to 103, he gets good hatches 
 of strong, vigorous chicks. 
 
 Most operators test the eggs a second time about the fif- 
 teenth day. testing out the dead germs and leaving in only 
 the strong and vigorous germs. An expert operator can tell 
 on the fifteenth day pretty nearly how many chicks he 
 will get from the hatch, so familiar does he become with 
 appearance and condition o^the strong, vigorous embryo 
 chicks. 
 
 When the first chicks begin to pip the shells close the 
 ventilator slides almost wholly and keep the doors of the in- 
 cubator closed until the liatch is well over: it is better to 
 leave the machine entirely alone for the twenty-four to 
 thirty-six hours during which the chicks are hatching. A 
 good, strong heat even up to 104 or 104%, is desirable at 
 hatching time, as the chicks come out faster and better. 
 When the hatch is well over open the ventilating slides 
 again, to give the baby chicks more air, but do not take 
 them from the incubator till twenty^four houi-s after the 
 hatch is over. 
 
 Brooding and Feeding the Chicks. 
 
 The temperature under the brooder hovers should be 
 about 95 degrees at first, gradually lowering it to 90 degrees 
 when the chicks are about a week old, and thus dropping 
 about five degrees each week. An experienced chicken 
 raiser says he wants the heat under the hovers to be 90 
 when the chicks are put in, and that their heat will bring 
 the temperature up to about 95 degrees; lower it to 90 by 
 end of the first week, 85 at end of second week, 80 at end 
 of third week, 75 at end of fourth week, and so on. In such 
 a brooder house as the one at Lakewood Farm (mentioned 
 •above), the hover pipes are about three inches from sand 
 floor in the small pens next the heater where the baby 
 chicks are put. The space between pipes and floor gradually 
 increases until it is about eight inches at the end furthest 
 from the heater where the oldest chicks are brooded. It 
 is the custom to move the chicks along as thej' increase in 
 size, they being driven from pen to pen through a sliding 
 gate in the partition between the pens. 
 
 One of the most successful broiler raisers of my acquain- 
 tance has smaller brooder houses (ten of them), each about 
 sixty feet long, and the chicks are never moved from the 
 pens in which they are first put until they are taken out to 
 dress for market. 
 
 On another very successful broiler (and roaster) farm, 
 they have removed the hovers from the brooder pens, built 
 up the sand floor an inch higher, and the chicks put their 
 backs up against the warm pipes. — juFt as they do against 
 the hen's body when brooded by a hen. It looks comical 
 to see the chicks under and between the hover pipes, their 
 tiny heads sticking above the pipes quite frequently. The 
 owners say they get better results since they removed the 
 hovers, that the chicks grow better and faster. On page 78 
 
 we give an illustration made from a photograph of the in- 
 terior of a brooding house on the Jordan Farm, where no 
 hovers are used. 
 
 Feeding the Chicks. 
 
 Feeding has been the stumbling block over which many 
 a would-be broiler raiser has fallen. The dismal wail of 
 "bowel trouble," usually caused by improper feeding tal- 
 though too much or too little heat, or a "chill" may contrib- 
 ute) has marked the beginning of failure. Here is where 
 the great gain in feeding methods has come in, of which 
 we spoke at the outset, and which has brought about what 
 appears now to be a revolution. Instead of the mixed 
 messes of meals, etc., the ready mixed chick foods, consist- 
 ing of a large variety of seeds and grains, are fed; with the 
 gr.atifying result of comparatively little infant mortality 
 and a much more rapid growth. 
 
 The frontispiece of the August, 1903. Reliable Poultry 
 Journal was a group made of photos from life, of White 
 Wyandotte chicks of different ages, and the article describ- 
 ing them gives the following weights of the chicks: 
 
 Newly hatched chicks, per pair 4 ounces 
 
 Four days old chicks, per pair 4 ounces 
 
 Ten days old chicks, per pair S ounces 
 
 Three weeks old chicks, per pair 16 ounces 
 
 Four weeks old chicks, per pair Impounds 
 
 Eight weeks old chicks, per pair 4 pounds 
 
 Ten weeks old chicks, per pair 6 pounds 
 
 Experienced broiler raisers expect to bring broiler 
 chicks to two pounds weight (apiece) in ten or eleven weeks, 
 and here we have eight weeks old chicks of full two pounds 
 weight, and ten weeks old chicks weighing three pounds 
 apiece. That difference of two to three weeks clipped off 
 from the old time ten to eleven weeks considered necessary 
 to grow a two-pound broiler makes a tremendous gain in 
 profits. A saving of twenty to twenty-five per cent in time 
 greatly increases the capacity of the brooder houses, as well 
 as saves so much labor and food; and this in addition to 
 the practical elimination of the vexing "bowel trouble" 
 problem and the dreaded infant mortality. Assuming that 
 the business paid a fair profit as formerly conducted, such 
 a saving of time and labor will greatly increase the profits. 
 
 This most successful broiler raiser's method of feeding 
 is worth quoting, by way of getting "a point of view." It 
 was given as follows: "The chicks are fed five times a day 
 on hulled oats mostly, wich a little cracked wheat and millet 
 seed added. The cracked wheat is changed to whole wheat 
 when they are about a week or ten days old, and cracked 
 core is fed after they are a week older, which brings ihem 
 to three weeks of age. After this they were fed three times 
 a day; a mash in the morning, -.vheat at noon and cracked 
 corn at night, with a feed of cut fresh bone the middle of 
 the afternoon. The mash is made of either corn meal or 
 gluten meal, and wheat bran, with a ration of meat meal, 
 light at first and more of it towards the 'finishing off.' 
 Green food they get each afternoon, in the shape of lawn 
 mower clippings when fne grass is growing; later in the 
 shape of rape. In winter finely cut clover is steamed and 
 fed them." 
 
 Feeding, he claims, is the crucial point. Said he, "A 
 careless or indifferent feeder will do more harm and waste 
 more food than the profits amount to. The test of good 
 feeding is to keep the chicks just a trifle hungry, and the 
 best judgment of the feeder should be brought to bear. His 
 rule is to give no food to a pen if there is any left uneaten 
 from the last feeding. Many chick raisers mistakably think 
 that one feeding missed is a step in growth lost. In a lim- 
 ited sense this is true, but a greater loss in growth comes 
 from the chicks overeating and the appetite becoming 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 cloyed. Not only does a careless feeder waste the food, but 
 he puts the chicks out of condition and checks their growth 
 by cloying them, by taking away their appetite. If food is 
 left, before them all the time they will actually eat less, and 
 make a slower growth than if fed judiciously and kept a lit- 
 tle bit hungry. 
 
 Another writer, describing the methods of a New Jer- 
 sey broiler raiser, says: "At first the chicks are fed the in- 
 fertile eggs, cooked, mixed with bread crumbs and rolled 
 oats; then gradually corn meal and bran are added to the 
 ration. 
 
 "Fattening these small birds is a difficult problem. The 
 natural tendency is to make growth instead of laying on 
 fat. For the last ten days before killing the ration consists 
 of two parts corn meal, one part bran, about ten per cent 
 cottonseed meal and from twenty-five to thirty per cent 
 beef scraps. This seems like a heavy feeding of meat, and 
 of course would not do for chicks that are to be raised to 
 maturity. The proper weight for killing, twelve ounces, 
 is reached at about six weeks; however, some 
 reach that weight sooner than others." 
 
 Tills writer gives six weeks as the time of 
 raising these twelve-ounce squab broilers by 
 that feeding method. The White Wyandotte 
 chicks told about in the Reliable Poultry Jour- 
 nal, and whose weights are given above, grew to 
 the same weight in exactly four weeks; a saving 
 of thirty-three and a third per cent of time, 
 brooder house room and labor. That saving 
 would! fully double the profits, and that saving 
 is made by the improved method of feeding, 
 by feeding a ready mixed ration of seeds and 
 grains. 
 
 Marketing the Broilers. 
 
 Most broiler chickens are marketed "dry 
 picked." This is partly due to the fact that 
 the people educated up to appreciating fine 
 broilers are critical, and the better appearance 
 of the dry picked chicken both enhances its 
 value and increases the consumptive demand. 
 Most of the picking is done by professionals, 
 who are paid so much apiece, and who go from 
 one broiler plant to another as work is offered. The usual 
 price paid for picking broilers is three to four cents 
 apiece, and the picker engaged to pick them not infrequently 
 employs "pinners" to assist him. He does the killing and 
 "rough-picking," and passes the chicks on to the pinners 
 to finish; the pin feathering and cleaning up requiring 
 patience and nimble fingers. 
 
 Several excellent articles on "How to Kill and Dry 
 Pick," by competent authorities have appeared in leading 
 poultry journals, in which the process is most carefully de- 
 scribed and the illustrations, showing the different move- 
 ments, greatly aid to a clear understanding of the operation. 
 We recommend a close study of these articles to those in;er- 
 ested in dry picking, 
 
 Nice Work Important. 
 
 It is of great importance that the work be nicely (care- 
 fully) done, as a torn and marred chick is less attractive 
 and fetcheu a lower prices. The successful broiler raiser 
 qucted above pays five cents per chick tor killing and pick- 
 ing, and when we commented upon the rather higher price 
 than is generally paid he said: "I would rather pay that 
 price and have the chicks carefully picked, the man picking 
 fifty to sixty chickens a day, than to have a man earn the 
 same amount of money by hurriedly picking one hundred a 
 day. It is quite easy for a picker to 'skimp' his work, and 
 
 the broilers would be a cheaper looking lot in consequence, 
 s'lirinking the price perhaps four or five cents a pound." In 
 other words, quality pays in broilers as well as in other 
 things, and the fact that this man's broilers frequently bring 
 him five cents a pound above the highest market quotations, 
 approves the policy of paying the picker a good enough 
 price to insure having the chicks carefully picked. 
 
 A good many farmere and small poultry growers ship 
 their chickens alive to a commission dealer, who, in turn, 
 sells them to a picker, who kills, dresses and markets them. 
 Almost always these chicks shipped in alive, are not really 
 good broilei's; they are usually "lean" and thin, not plump 
 and round, not well-fattened. A good business is done in 
 buying up these "range" chickens, feeding them a fattening 
 ration for two to three weeks, and then dressing them for 
 market; which is somewhat similar to the fattening done 
 in England and France, the birds there being almost always 
 bought from farmers and small growers, brought to the fat- 
 tening station and fattened for market. There is a substan- 
 
 Welt Grown Light Brahma Youngsters, 
 
 tial loss to the grower who does not fatten his own chick- 
 ens; selling them in the "lean" condition means that they 
 are very poor in quality and sell at a low price if marketed 
 at once, if bought by a fattener and put in good, marketable 
 condition the fattener gets the bulk of the profits; he gets 
 pay for the increase in quantity of flesh and the premium 
 paid for the better quality. 
 
 In an article published in the Reliable Poultry Journal 
 a few years ago, a writer said: "In dressing chickens 
 for market, they are killed by cutting the vein and penetrat- 
 ing the brain at a point well back in the roof of the mouth. 
 A deep cut at just the right point will so paralyze the nerves 
 of the bird that the Leathers will pick very easily, and much 
 of the trouble in tearing the skin will be avoided. The 
 chickens are dry picked. All the feathers are taken from 
 the carcass with the exception of the tips of the wings, and 
 from these all the quill feathers are picked. If the birds 
 have feathered legs these are also picked. The heads are 
 left on. and the entrails are net drawn. After picking and 
 carefully pin-feathering, they are dropped into huge tanks 
 of water and left a suitable time to cool. In hot weather 
 Ih'm water is iced in order to more quickly remove the ani- 
 mal heat. They are then rinsed and the blood cleaned 
 ficni their heads, and are laid on a bench for the water to 
 drain oft. After draining those that are nearest alike are 
 paired together, the legs being tied with twine, and they 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 are hung in a cool, dark room until the following morning, 
 when they are packed and shipped to market." 
 
 There Is Profit in Broilers. 
 
 That there is food money made in raising broilers a 
 careful study of the business reveals. There is a great 
 demand for this class of poultry meat, and of the best crade 
 there is never a sufficient supply; furthermore, the demand 
 is constantly increasing and will be still further increased 
 by a better average quality of broilers marketed. Another 
 point in favor of broiler raising is that the work-season of 
 broiler raising for the highest prices comes at a time 
 when other work is slack, hence the time utilized in 
 the broiler raising is not wanted in other departments of 
 the poultry work. Take advantage of the highest prices of 
 March, April and May, and produce the very best quality of 
 broiler chicks, and the resulting profits will be eminently 
 satisfactory. 
 
 The Best Varieties for Broilers. 
 
 The best broiler chick is one that is grown quickly and 
 fattens readily, is tine-boned and plump, full-breasted, has 
 a rich, yellow skin, and the strong constitution that will 
 stand forced feeding. Undoubtedly the American breeds 
 most nearly fill the bill. The white and buff varieties have 
 the added advantage of freedom from dark pin feathers. 
 
 Visits to the great market poultry raisers south of Bos- 
 ton reveal many varieties of stock, used with the Light 
 Brahma most in evidence; this is probably due to the fact 
 that while raising broilers for market they are by no means 
 exclusively broiler raisers, but grow large numbers of soft 
 roasting chickens and capons. Next to the Light Brahmas 
 a cross of Barred Plymouth Rock male on Light Brahma 
 female is popular, and the well-known market poultryman, 
 Mr. J. H. Curtiss, places the White Plymouth Rocks at the 
 very top of the list tor all-around utility qualities. The 
 same can be said of the "May R. Poultry Plant," while the 
 Mr. Twining quoted above grew his broilers from Barred 
 Plymouth Rock eggs bought of farmers living in his neigh- 
 borhood. In all cases excepting possibly the "May R. Poul- 
 try Plant" the stock described is "farmers' " stock of the 
 
 varieties, and would no doubt be found lacking in some 
 points essential in show birds. 
 
 Different Kinds of Broilers. 
 
 Frequent mention is made of "squab broilers," and yet 
 we do not recall ever seeing them quoted in the market 
 reports. Generally the squab broilers are little six or seven 
 weeks old chicks that weigh, dressed, three-quarters of a 
 pound to one pound each; they are split down the middle 
 and broiled for individual orders in high class hotels, res- 
 taurants and clubs. Mr. Duston tells us he "sold hundreds 
 weighing eight ounces each," which is half a pound, and are 
 the smallest broilers of which we have ever heard. There 
 is a quite steady sale for squab broilers throughout the 
 year, but, practically, all the trade is in the hands of dealers 
 who have the finest private family trade and that of the 
 swell hotels and clubs. 
 
 The broiler of commerce is a one and a half to two 
 pound chicken, is split in half and served, broiled 
 ("grilled") to two customers; a half to an individual cus- 
 tomer. In a few instances we have known of these tender 
 morsels of chicken flesh being stuffed and roasted, then 
 split in halves and served to two individual customers. 
 
 A change has been gradually coming about, in the intro- 
 duction of prepared (mixed) chick foods, and these special 
 foods have given remarkable results in quick growth. Mr. 
 Twining (quoted above) told us he couldn't grow a two 
 pound broiler in eight weeks; that it took him nine weeks 
 (on an average) to grow a one and a half pound broiler 
 and about eleven weeks to bring them to two pounds weight. 
 In the frontispiece of August, 1903, R. P. J. are shown some 
 White Wyandotte chicks that grew to two pounds apiece at 
 eight weeks old, and those chicks were not "forced" at all; 
 they were fed one of the special chick foods and made the 
 splendid growth there chronicled in the natural manner. 
 Obviously there is a decidedly greater profit in two pound 
 chicks at eight weeks old than in two pound chicks 
 at eleven weeks old; we cut off a fourth of the labor 
 and food-charge, and coal for heat, at a stroke. We have 
 seen that there was a goodly profit in the plump and juicy 
 broiler that grew to two pounds weight in eleven to twelve 
 weeks; it is easy to see a still greater profit in the same 
 product grown in eight weeks. A. F. Hl'NTER. 
 
 
 I 
 
 .lf|li!|-|[A- 
 
 A View Showing Some of the Colony Houses Used by the Poultry Department of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, 
 Where Much Good Work is Done In the Interest of Frofltakle Poultry Raising. 
 
SUCCESS AT THE START, 
 
 Thirty-Three Hundred Chickens Alive and In Marketable Condition on the Plant of a Beginner— His Methods Dis- 
 cussed— His Plant Illustrated and Described, and It Only Remains to Estimate His Profits. 
 
 By P. R. Park. 
 
 THE town of Hingham, Mass., enjoys the distinction of 
 being the home of ex-Secretary Long of the U. S. 
 Navy, and one of the largest flocks of thrifty spring 
 chicltens in New England. The latter are to be 
 found at the home of Mr. H. G. Jordan, upon whose large 
 farm they are having an unusually favorable opportunity to 
 develop. They are improving all their chances. This seems 
 somewhat at variance with the supposedly established rule 
 that experience is necessary in order to produce large num- 
 bers of chicks and have them thrive from the start. Here 
 we have a comparatively inexperi- 
 enced owner, and the young man in 
 charge of the plant will, we think, take 
 no offense if we say he has had almost 
 no previous experience with incubators 
 and brooders; yet at the time of our 
 visit, the last of May, out of about 
 3,500 chicks hatched, they had almost 
 3,300 alive and promising to stay with 
 them until the hatchet intervened. Of 
 this mortality of 200, ninety died that 
 were hatched from a lot of three hun- 
 dred eggs purchased. Here we have 
 over three thousand chicks raised, we 
 may say, by beginners, and a healthier 
 and more robust lot it has not been 
 our pleasure to see. 
 
 We have tong been convinced that 
 luck does not enter into the keeping 
 of poultry. There are certain condi- 
 tions which must be met, and if these 
 are as they should be, there can be but 
 one result, namely, a g'ood lot of 
 chicks hatched from the eggs incubat- 
 ed, and a large number grown of those 
 hatched. We think two of the princi- 
 pal elements which have participated 
 
 In the success of the Jordan plant this season have been 
 ■cleanliness, both as regards old tstock and young, and a 
 novel method of brooding, which we have not seen before. 
 
 In the brooder house for the youngest chicks, as well as 
 the older ones, there is not a vestige of a hover of any kind, 
 simply eight lines of pipe, four running inward and four 
 return, kept at a uniform temperature by an electric regu- 
 lator. These pipes vary in height from two to three inches 
 in the primary class up to eight to ten inches for the larger 
 chicks. It is rather a novel sight to see one hundred and 
 fifty to one huudred and seventy-five chicks in a brood 
 warming their backs upon these pipes apparently the hap- 
 piest youngsters in existence without any vestige of the imi- 
 tations of Dame Nature that have prevailed in other brood- 
 ing systems. 
 
 The natural method, namely, eight to twelve chicks 
 cared for by one mother hen, is so distant and different 
 from the artificial method that imitations seem fruitless. 
 
 Venlilailog Openings In Celttng and Window in 
 Incubator Room on Jordan Poultry Plant. 
 
 The writer has long believed that the principal source of 
 mortality among brooder chicks is caused by improper air 
 and incorrect temperature surrounding the chicks the first 
 three weeks of their lives. With the novel method adopted 
 on this plant there can be no doubt that so long as the air 
 in the building is pure that of the hover must be equally so. 
 When Mr. Jordan first contemplated going into the 
 chicken business, he spent quite a little time visiting the 
 successful plants and also the other kind in his vicinity^ 
 and with rare foresight for a novice, traced most of the mor- 
 tality among the various flocks to the 
 absence of pure air surrounding the 
 chicks and stock in the several stages 
 of their deveilopment. When he con- 
 structed his plant, he kept these two 
 facts in mind, and as will be seen in 
 the view of his incubator room, he 
 gives an inlet for air through the top 
 and an outlet of two holes on the level 
 of the floor, one on each side of the 
 building opposite each other. Certain- 
 ly under these conditions it would be 
 impossible for foul air to stay for any 
 length of time in this room. 
 
 Following cut this idea, he has hia 
 brooder house built with a large num- 
 ber of windows in the south side, 
 insuring plenty of light and air on 
 favorable days, and he uses ventilators 
 in the middle of the house in bad 
 weather. Pipes, as will be seen in the 
 illustration, ai-e eight in number, four 
 outward and four return flows, abso- 
 lutely devoid of any hover, and the 
 temperature is kept at a uniform heat 
 by an electric regulator, near the 
 heater. This insures a steady tem- 
 probability of crowding, for with 
 the chicks have no occasion 
 
 perature with no 
 the correct temperature, 
 to crowd; and if the air in the building is right, that under 
 the pipes cannot fail to be equally pure. These pipes are 
 from eight to ten inches from the dirt floor of the house, the 
 distance being varied by the placing of more or less sand 
 in the runs as the chicks vary in age, thus starting in their 
 first or baby pen with only about three inches between the 
 sand and pipes, and in the end pen, from whicb they gradu- 
 ate to house number four, the distance is ten inches, thus 
 hardening them off for the cooler temperature of their next 
 home. 
 
 In this house the pipes are placed upon the wall and the 
 temperature of the building kept at from sixty to seventy 
 degrees, otherwise under the same conditions. 
 
 From this latter house they are moved to colony houses, 
 which we show in the view of the farm. The rule has been 
 this season to place one hundred and fifty chicks in each of 
 
74 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 these runs, commeDcing with the younger ones in the first, 
 which is five feet 'by ten feet, and as they grow 
 older, removing them to the large runs, which are 
 ten by ten feet. These flocks are unbroken until 
 they reach the colony houses, when they aim to keep 
 fifty in a house eight by eight feet. The chickens, how- 
 ever, have hatched so remarkably well this season that in 
 many cases they have been obliged to put over two hundred 
 in a pen, with seemingly no discomfort to the occupants. 
 
 The method of feeding may be equally of interest to 
 many, as this also is quite a radical departure from established 
 methods. Here we find chicks started upon nothing but 
 hard grain until they reach the age of four days, when they 
 are given a dish of ground beef scraps, which is kept con- 
 
 sorb all the beef scraps and cracked corn that their appetites 
 dictate is best for them, and with a supply of green cut 
 clover, of which the farm furnishes an abundance, they have 
 nothing to ask for in the way of food and care. That they 
 are improving under all these good things a visit to the 
 plant will convince the skeptical. 
 
 Mr. Jordan buys nothing but the best of grain and beef 
 scraps, for the keen business foresight with which he man- 
 ages one of Boston's most successful coal handling estab- 
 lishments, has convinced him that it is not the cost of the 
 food or equipments that ruins the unsuccessful poultryman, 
 the mortality of the youngsters between the age of one and 
 four weeks being the cause assigned for nearly every case 
 whore the "plant did not pay." 
 
 A Promising rtoclt in Front of One vf tite Brooding Houses on the Jordan Plant, 
 
 stantly before them through the rest of their happy lives. 
 This way of providing food gives all an equal chance and 
 there is no possibility of there being any of the grain so;:r, 
 to cause bowel trouble and other ailments. The chicks are 
 given the run cf a yard after they reach the age of seven 
 days, which yards are also kept pure by the growing of 
 green stuff between season^. 
 
 After they reach the age of six weeks, cracked corn is 
 added to their diet, and is kept ahvays before them. This 
 system of feeding is, we think, the only one that couid be 
 carried out with such large flocks as we find on this plant. 
 Under the old system of mash feeding, the rush and scram- 
 ble for their share soon make it a case of the survival cf 
 the fittest, and the younger and weaker ones do not get 
 their proportion of the rations, so the gap between them 
 and their more successful brothers grows wider with each 
 day. linder this system each one has plenty of time to ab- 
 
 The previous experience of the foreman, Mr. Young, 
 with poultry is represented practically by a cipher, he hav- 
 ing lived in the state of New Jersey on a large stock farm, 
 with no sperrial liking for the poultry business, simply un- 
 dertaking it at Mr. Jordan's request, possibly until he could 
 get an experienced man. The success which came to him 
 from the first rapidly interested him in the business, and 
 at the present time he is fascinated with the business as the 
 rankest enthusiast of years' standing. 
 
 There is a sanitarium in East Bridgewater for curing 
 consumption in the human family simply by makng the 
 patients sleep out of doors, or what amounts to that, winter 
 and summer, and why should not the chicken man adopt 
 for his feathered pets, who are much more creatures of the 
 air than the human family, similar methods? 
 
 That Mr. Jordan's plant will be a success this season is 
 an assured fact, for at the present time the Boston market 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 75 
 
 is paying for soft roasting chicks 37 cents per pound, and 
 he has three separate buyers offering 30 cents a pound alive 
 at his door. All the niale birds have been caponized and 
 cannot fail to suit the most fasitidious market In the coun- 
 try, namely, Boston. 
 
 Jealous neighboi-s are telling Mr. Jordan and his fore- 
 man that they cannot repeat their this season's success 
 another year. Whether they can or not, of course, time 
 only will tell, but Mr. Young is very confident, and we think 
 with good reason, that if given the same conditions, he can 
 repeat the success and better it in some particulars. We 
 would offer him only a few suggestions — that a little more 
 
 elbow room be given the growing stock and a number of 
 the three hundred and sixty-five broad acres which Mr. Jor- 
 dan owns be added to the yards now used in caring for the 
 birds after they leave the brooder house. We suggest also 
 that they be allowed to pick their own clover instead of 
 bringing it to them. Good grazing land is, in our opinion, 
 as important to the successful and cheap growing of poultry 
 as to that of any other class of stock. Good birds have no 
 opportunity to develop on a sand bank, and should not oe 
 forced to exist there. Bugs and worms make up a large 
 part of their living and these are not to be found without 
 plenty of good grass for them to grow among. 
 
 PROFITABLE ROASTING CHICKENS, 
 
 flow Large, Soft-Meated Chickens Are Produced for the Season of High Prices—The Advantage of the Balanced 
 Ration— Caponlzlng the Males to Be Sold as Roasters— A Profitable Adjunct on the Farm. 
 
 By A, F. Hunter. 
 
 THAT there is a goodly profit in growing soft roasting 
 chickens for market is very evident to the student 
 of poultry conditions, and there are many poultry 
 growers who maintain that the turning of eggs into 
 chickens and growing them to soft-roaster size is not only 
 the most profitable, but is the most satisfactory line of poul- 
 try work. When talking one time with Mr. Rankin about the 
 profitableness of poultry work, we stated that we could make 
 three dollars profit in a year from a pullet that came to lay- 
 ing maturity in October, laid one hundred and fifty to one 
 hundred and seventy-five eggs within a year, and then was 
 sold to market. "\'es," said Mr. Rankin, "and I can make for- 
 ty dollars a year profit from the same bird, by turning her 
 eggs into chickens and growing them to market size." As ex- 
 perienced growers estimate that there is a hundred per cent 
 profit in the business, it would need that eighty chickens 
 be grown to roaster size and average to sell at a dollar each 
 to give the forty dollars profit Mr. Rankin said he could 
 make, and as an experienced poultry grower recently told 
 me he planned to raise about two thousand chickens a year, 
 and that they cleaned up about one thousand dollars a year 
 profit, apparently Mr. Rankin's forty dollars a year profit 
 per hen, if her eggs are turned into chickens and the chick- 
 ens grown to soft-roasters, is reasonable. 
 
 Obviously the price at which the chickens are sold has 
 not a little to do with the amount of profit in the business. 
 and as soft-roasting chickens are highest in price in May 
 and June, with March, April, July and August giving good 
 prices, it is the chickens raised especially for marketing 
 •during those months that pay the best profits. In the an- 
 nual circular of Messrs. Rudd & Son, of Boston, the prices 
 for roasters were given as follows: 
 
 Month. Prices. 
 
 January 15 to 20c 
 
 February 20 to 22c 
 
 March 20 to 25c 
 
 April 20 to 250 
 
 May 25 to 30c 
 
 June 30 to 40c 
 
 July 36 to 25c 
 
 August 20 to 23c 
 
 September 14 to 20c 
 
 October. November and December 12 to ISc 
 
 It takes four or five months to grow a chicken to from 
 tour to six pounds weight, and with May and June giving 
 the highest prices, it is evident that the chickens should be 
 hatched in January and February to be grown for market- 
 ing in the months of highest prices. As a matter of fact, 
 we find soft-roaster growers hatching their chickens all 
 through the late fall and winter, as the supply of hatchable 
 eggs permits, and they are marketing the chickens all along 
 from March to July, as the demand of the market and the 
 condition of the chickens warrants. 
 
 In a great poultry growing section of South Jertey 
 there are chickens hatched late, say in June and July, and 
 grown to an average size of about six pounds, or as large as 
 they can he grown and still retain the "soft" condition of 
 flesh, then dressed for market; if the market conditions do 
 not warrant their being sold at once thoy are put in cold- 
 storage and held until wanted. An illustration of this I saw 
 at the poultry shipping depot of Mr. Thomas Allen, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1902. Mr. Allen's teams had brought in about 
 two tons of soft-roasting chickens that day, and they 
 were being packed in barrels to go into cold-storage to await 
 the market demand. Mr. Allen told me he had paid one 
 man that day forty dollars for thirty-three birds, an average 
 of about one dollar and twenty cents apiece, and he said 
 those birds were probably hatched in July, which would 
 make them about seven months old when killed for market. 
 Visiting the great poultry section south of Boston last 
 November I found poultrymen with one to two thousand 
 chickens already out. started on the road to become soft- 
 roasters. The Messrs. Farrar Brnihers, of Assinippi, had 
 over two thousand chickens then, and were going on to 
 about forty-five hundred, which is their usual number; the 
 Jordan Farm had then over a thousand growing and were 
 hatching right along. The Messrs. Farrar get their chickens 
 to from four to six pounds weight, and report their highest 
 price last season as thirty-two cents, with an average for the 
 whole season of about twenty-five cents a pound. At that 
 average price their birds sold for one dollar to one dollar 
 and fifty cents apiece, with a mean price of one dollar and 
 twenty-five cents apiece, and something like fifty per cent 
 of that may be fairly estimated as profit; in other words, 
 
76 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 they make about one hundred per cent on the cost of hatch- 
 ing and raising a four to six pound soft-roasting chicken. 
 
 The Breeds Preferred. 
 
 In nearly all cases it is found that the Asiatic, or crosses 
 of Asiatic and American varieties are used to make these 
 extra fine soft-roasters. In the poultry section south of 
 Boston from which so many roasters come to market the 
 Light Brahma is the breed used; in south Jersey it is gener- 
 ally a cross of Light Brahma-Partridge Cochin, or of Light 
 Brahma-Plymouth Rock. It is necessary that the birds be 
 of great size normally, then they will attain the desired 
 large size while still having the essential "soft" flesh of the 
 young chicken. A change in conditions is gradually coming 
 about, however, partly due to the farmers of south Jersey 
 taking thought of the profitableness of the egg side of the 
 Business, which is bringing the better laying American varie- 
 ties into favor. Then, too, the introduction of improved meth- 
 ods of feeding, making it possible to grow a Plymouth Rock 
 chicken (for example) to as great size and more quickly than 
 an Asiatic, is causing a gradual change in front, even in the 
 great stronghold of the Brahmas south of Boston. In a 
 recent number of Reliable Poultry Journal is an illustration 
 of a pair of soft-roasters that made the astonishing growth 
 to twenty-three pounds, alive, at six months old, and the 
 larger one weighed eleven pounds dressed. Those chickens 
 were Barrea Plymouth Rocks, and that wonderful growth in 
 six months is an eye-opener. Those chickens were grown 
 by one of those south-shore poultry growers and dressed for 
 market by the great market poultrymen of that section, 
 Messrs. J. H. Curtiss & Brother. The change of front in that 
 section was indicated by a remark made to me by Mr. Cur- 
 tiss a few days ago, when he emphatically stated that he con- 
 sidered the White Plymouth Rock to be the best all-around 
 variety of fowls in the world. When we remember that he 
 is a life-long lover of the Light Brahmas, and has always 
 considered them the best market poultry variety, we may 
 well be surprised at such a change. The explanation lies in 
 the simple fact of the quicker growth of the Rocks by the 
 improved method of feeding the prepared (and accurately 
 balanced) ration. 
 
 The Males Are Caponized. 
 
 All the males are caponized by these south-shore poul- 
 try growers, even though almost all of them are sold as soft- 
 roasters; but very, very few of them go to market as capons. 
 They are caponized at about three months old, and the gain 
 is :n the fact of their more peaceful disposition. The unca- 
 ponized cockerel is of a most pugnacious and quarrelsome 
 disposition, and his quarreling hinders his growth, besides 
 the greater activity promoting the hardening of the flesh. 
 As it is essential that the flesh be "soft," it is easy to under- 
 stand that capouizing is necessary to the keeping of the 
 right condition. In the south-shore section of which we 
 hava been writing there are many thousand chickens raised 
 each year, and Mr. J. H. Curtiss, who is an expert caponizer, 
 caponizes the males for scores of the poultrymen. For this 
 service he charges four dollars per hundred chickens, and 
 is much in demand among his neighbors. The influence of 
 such a man as Mr. Curtiss, in promoting the growing of 
 "better poultry and more of it," is beyond estimating. With- 
 in a half dozen miles of his home there are from thirty to 
 fifty thousand chickens grown for market each year, all fine 
 soft-roasters and capons, and the importance of that small 
 section of country as a poultry center is made manifest by 
 its having given a name to a superior quality of chickens 
 grown there; "south-shore" chickens are quoted as the 
 highest standard for quality! 
 
 As a Farm-Product. 
 
 The poultry growing above described is chiefly in the 
 hands of those who make a specialty of growing fine soft- 
 roa.sters for market, but that the business is highly profit- 
 able to farmers, who make the growing of two or three or 
 four hundred chickens for market annually an adjunct of 
 their regular farm work, there is ample evidence. In the 
 south Jersey section of which I wrote the chickens are al- 
 most entirely grown by farmers. In the Reliable Poultry 
 Journal not long ago, I described these south Jersey poultry 
 growers as follows: "It may not be quite fair to speak of 
 these poultry growers as 'poultrymen,' because, as a rule, 
 the birds are grown on the farms as a branch of farm work, 
 and are mostly grown by the women of the farms, while the 
 men are engaged in the regular farm occupations; two or 
 three hundred up to five hundred would be the usual yearly 
 product of a farm. It needs but a little arithmetic to dem- 
 onstrate that a branch of farm work which produces three 
 hundred (or even two hundred) roasting chickens which 
 bring one dollar to one dollar and twenty-flve cents apiece 
 when sold is a quite important department of the farm; we 
 doubt whether any other one department produces so much 
 cash income for the amount of labor and capital expended! 
 
 "Comparatively few of these poultry growers use incu- 
 bators; the bulk of the chickens are hen-hatched. Incuba- 
 tors were attempted here and there some years ago, but the 
 generally poor results discouraged their use; latterly, since 
 a better class of incubators is being put out, they are com- 
 ing to be used more. It is interesting, too, to know that 
 these choicest chickens are not artificially fattened — no 
 cramming machine is used. They are put into large coops, 
 that are four feet wide by six to ten feet long, with a 
 trough along the front to hold the food. The food is a corn 
 meal mash, mixed up with skim-milk when it can be ob- 
 tained. Sometimes the milk supply is not equal to the 
 demand and then water is used. The fattening takes from 
 four to six weeks. 
 
 That the profit is not all for the grower of winter chick- 
 ens is also evident. I have before me the account of a poul- 
 try buyer, which shows the figures of the poultry sales of a 
 small farmer in Worcester county, Mass. These chickens 
 were hatched in the late winter, and sold alive during May 
 and June as soft-roasters of about four pounds weight. The 
 farmer said that branch of his farm work had paid him 
 over fifty dollars a month net profit for the six months' 
 work. The figures of the sales, taken from the buyer's book, 
 are as follows: 
 
 No. of Chickens. Sum Paid, 
 
 57 $ 52.90 
 
 52 48.95 
 
 104 94.87 
 
 106 95.04 
 
 106 98.72 
 
 75 69.96 
 
 63 51.10 
 
 68 58.50 
 
 45 39.12 
 
 51 27.79 
 
 727 $636.95 
 
 This is an average of about ninety cents per chicken, 
 and as the grower claimed that they cost to raise not far 
 from forty-five cents apiece and sold for just about double 
 that, he made about one hundred per cent profit on them. 
 He does not keep a hard and fast account with his chickens; 
 he knows they pay him a very substantial profit, and that 
 satisfies himi 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 7"! 
 
 The Demand Is Greater Than the Supply. 
 
 The market is never over supplied with the best quality 
 of poultry products, and this seems especially true of fine 
 soft-roasters. Marketmen tell us they can never get enough 
 of them to supply the demand, and such commonplace re- 
 marks as: "I could sell twice as many, if I could only get 
 them," is the answer to a question as to there being too 
 many of them grown. We all know the reply Webster made 
 to the man who asked if the legal profession wasn't over- 
 crowded, — "There is plenty room at the top." This applies 
 with especial aptness to the best soft-roasters we have been 
 describing. There may be an over-supply of a cheaper 
 grade, but of the best there is never enough to meet the 
 demand. The increase of wealth r.nd population has result- 
 
 It is a truism to say the best pays the best; we all know 
 that. And not only does it pay the best, but there is the 
 most satisfaction in growing the best! Here is a double 
 reward. We not only get the greater profit which comes 
 of producing the best, but we get the satisfaction of being 
 producers of a high-class article of food that is always in 
 demand in the market. It is the plump, full-breasted, fine 
 meated birds that the consumers want and are willing to 
 pay a good price for, — and if we but produce that article 
 our reward is sure. 
 
 A considerable study of the soft-roasting chicken re- 
 veals several surprises, and one of them is the almost in- 
 numerable methods of feeding employed. In fact, it is with- 
 in the bounds of truth to say, there is no one "method" of 
 
 Interior of a Brooding House on the Jordan Poultry Plants Showing Pipes for Warming tite fiouse. 
 
 ed in a steadily increasing demand for the best products of 
 the poultry man's art. Wealthy families, leading clubs, 
 hotels and high-class restaurants, all compete for the gilt- 
 edged soft-roasters of the e.xpert poultrymen, and they are 
 willing to pay almost any price, within reason, if the desired 
 quality is presented. In fact, they will pay what they have 
 to pay in order to get what they want. Poultrymen should 
 study the market requirements, and then strive to meet 
 them. The well-known fruit grower, Mr. J. H. Hale, of 
 Connecticut, in an address in which he urged fruit growers 
 to study the market conditions so as to know what the peo- 
 ple want, said: "The fine appearance opens the customer's 
 pocketbook, and then quality keeps it open." There is a 
 most important economic principle completely stated in 
 "those few words. The fine appearance of an article induces 
 a customer to buy, and good quality in the article keeps him 
 buying. 
 
 (.of 
 
 feeding; each poultryman feeds what he esteems to be a 
 good growing ration, and, indeed, this is the one es.sential 
 thing. The great point to be aimed at is a steady, con- 
 tinuous growth till market maturity is reached, then market 
 in the best condition. Within the past two or three years 
 prepa,red chick foods have come into very general use, and 
 have given .such excellent results they are likely to be still 
 more generally used. The method is to feed them exclusively 
 for the first five or six weeks, adding a little beef scraps 
 or meat meal, and after about six weeks adding cracked 
 corn to the ration. The essential thing is the increase of 
 the meat food and cracked corn until, the last half of the 
 period, half the ration is of those two foods. With this 
 ration a continuous and rapid growth is secured, and the 
 birds are in fine, fat condition all the time, and are ready 
 to market any time wanted. Of course such a rich ration 
 would not do for laying-breeding stock. Birds grown upon 
 
 r, 
 
(S 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 it would be soft, and wholly lacking in stamina, or con- 
 stitution. Where the birds are to be marketed by the time 
 they are four to seven months old the constitution need not 
 be considered, if the birds have sufficient to stand heavy 
 feeding and continue putting on good, fatted flesh. The 
 important thing is that growth shall be continuous and 
 rapid, and the best quality of flesh attained. 
 
 Marketing Soft-Boasters. 
 
 The chickens above described are all dry picked, and as 
 a rule are marketed by special dsalers. In the south shore 
 section the birds are generally sold alive, to such dealers as 
 Messrs, J. H. Curtiss & Brother, or Mr. Farrar, and picked 
 by their men. In the south Jersey section the birds are 
 
 visible under the skin of the breast. That discolored ap- 
 pearance of those two chickens distinctly marred their 
 otherwise fine appearance, and cheapened them. Experi- 
 enced caterers know that the juices of the meat are less 
 fine and not as pleasing to the palate where that decaying 
 bunch of food is left in the crops and gizzards, and refuse 
 to buy such chickens if better are getable. The seller has 
 sold a few more ounces of weight in each dozen birds, but 
 had lowered the price several times the gain in weight. 
 Lowering the quality invariably lowers the price of chicken 
 meat, just as of everything else in the world! 
 
 There is no one thing that poultry growers so much 
 need to learn as that good appearance and fine quality are 
 most important factors in their profits. 
 
 Interior Weiv of a Brooding Mouse, where no Hovers are Used, on the Jo!dan Poultry Plant, 
 
 mostly picked by the farmers, and bought up by such deal- 
 ers as Allen of Glassboro, who packs and ships them to New 
 York, Boston or Philadelphia, as the markets in those cities 
 warrant. 
 
 It is of the greatest importance that the work of pick- 
 ing bs nicely done. The tender, "soft" skin may be so torn 
 and marred that a decidedly lower price will be returned 
 for the birds. The importance of a good appearance cannot 
 be too frequently urged. It is safe to say that thousands 
 of dollars are lost to poultry growers each year because cf 
 their ignoring this point. Take the one simple matter of 
 the birds being starved (literally not fed or watered) for 
 twenty-four to thirty-six hours so that the crop and gizzard 
 shall be entirely empty at time of killing. Only yesterday 
 we stopped at a marketman's window in Boston to look at 
 a display of fine roasters. Two of them had not been 
 starved before killing and there was a small greenish crop 
 
 Many poultry growers cannot understand that it is the 
 "condition" in which stock arrives in the market that deter- 
 mines its value, and seem to think that because it was good 
 stuff when they sent it they should have the highest market 
 price for it. A shipper who sends chickens into the market 
 that chow the eftects of the soft weather will not receive the 
 price of that which is marketed bright and fresh. 
 
 .\n amusing case of this kind came up in Boston a few 
 years ago. A farmer sent a case containing two dozen 
 ducks on a Saturday morning in summer, and they lay in 
 the express office o\'er Sunday. When they reached the 
 commission dealer on Monday morning they were so "soft" 
 they were practically unfit for human food. Just as the 
 dealer got them open the keeper of an Italian boarding 
 house came in, looking for special bargains, and the 
 dealer called his attention to the ducks. The boarding 
 house man turned them over, felt of them, and then said 
 
THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 79 
 
 he'd give ten cents a pound for them. The oiler was ac- 
 cepted joyfully; the case quickly nailed up and delivered to 
 the buyer; and a letter written to the shipper detailing the 
 faces and enclosing a check for the full amount received; 
 the dealer was so glad to get them out of his place before 
 the food inspector got a whiff from them and condemned 
 them to the garbage cart he didn't say anything about com- 
 mission on the sale. The farmer came right in, raving: 
 said ducks were quoted at twenty-three cents a pound the 
 day he shipped them, that his ducks were as good as Blank's 
 that the dealer had returned twenty-three cents for, and he'd 
 have the full price for those ducks or he'd sue the dealer, 
 denounce him as a cheat, etc., etc. He didn't sue, the dealer 
 never saw or heard from him again, but that poor farmer 
 probably still thinks (it he is living) that the commission 
 
 A reader in Sandy Point, Maine, writes: "We have 
 been much interested in your articles in regard to the ship- 
 ments of eggs and poultry to Boston. We had an experience 
 which leads us to desire a littk- more information. We 
 have made a specialty of growing large roasters for our local 
 market, and up to last fall were unable to fully supply the 
 demand. The birds most desired are those weighing six to 
 eight pounds apiece, as the people say they have something 
 to out from (instead of picking bones) with birds of that 
 weight; but last fall the mills were obliged to close, throw- 
 ing many people out of employment, and the poultry market 
 here collapsed. We accordingly sent a portion of our sur- 
 plus to our egg commission merchants at Boston. The birds 
 were hatched late in May and the first shipment made 
 October 27th weighed sixty-five pounds to the dozen; the 
 
 ^rH^ 
 
 Bird's-eye View of a Part of the Jordan Poultry Plant. 
 
 dealer is a fraud and cheat, and put in his own pocket the 
 difference between ten and twenty-three cents a pound for 
 that lot of ducks! 
 
 The old, old saw: "Water always finds its level," ap- 
 plies with great force to poultry sent to market. If it is 
 stuff of the best quality be assured you will get the price 
 of the best; if it is only second, or third, or fourth rate 
 stuff be assured you will not get the price of the best. If 
 you send poultry to market and get only the price of second 
 or third quality stuff, don't sit down and swear that the 
 commission man is a cheat and fraud. Write him and ask 
 why he didn't give you the higher price, and then go to 
 work to improve the quality of your stuff until you can send 
 the best. Grow the best standard-breds, ship them to mar- 
 ket in the pink of condition, and you will have no worries 
 about the price! 
 
 second, made November 12th, weighed sixty-seven pounds 
 per dozen, and the third, made December 9th, weighed sev- 
 enty-two pounds per dozen. The first two lots sold at eigh- 
 teen cents d pound, then practically the top price, but the 
 third brought only sixteen cents a pound. Now in our local 
 market the last would have been regarded as the best, but 
 the Boston commission men wrote us they were "large, but 
 coarse and staggy," and they could not obtain the highest 
 price; that "soft-roasters" were wanted. These birds were 
 all of the same age, but the interval between Novmber 12th 
 and December 9th, while adding to the weight, placed them 
 in a lower class. 
 
 What we would like to know is: 
 First — When the soft-roaster becomes a stag? 
 Second— Did we not grow our birds fast enough, whefi at 
 five to five and one-half months old they dressed five and 
 
lAY 15 1905 
 
 80 
 
 THE CHICK BOOK 
 
 one-half to six pounds, or don't they want birds of that sizeS 
 
 Third— Should we have shipped them at four to five 
 pounds weight? 
 
 We want to meet conditions which will give us top 
 prices; it is easy to get bottom prices any time." 
 
 Replying to these questions: 
 
 First— Cockerels of different varieties become "staggy" 
 at different ages, and as you fail to mention the variety you 
 raise we arc in the dark. As most of the stock raised in 
 Maine is either Barred Plymouth Rocks, R. I. Reds or White 
 Wyandottes, we will assume that yours are of one of the 
 American varieties, and cockerels of those varieties begin to 
 get staggy when about six or seven months old, depending 
 on the treatment. The method of feeding has an influence 
 in hastening or retarding maturity. 
 
 Why didn't you ship your birds all in at once, and so 
 be rid of them? The dozen shipped November 12th brought 
 you twelve dollars and six cents, while the dozen sent in 
 December 9Lh brought you but eleven dollars and fifty-two 
 cents; you had fed them about four weeks longer and then 
 got less money for them. This is one of the commonest 
 mistakes of farmers, they don't market their stuff when it is 
 ready for market, but carry it along at a loss of the food 
 consumed and at the risk of getting a lower price. 
 
 Second — We think you didn't grow the birds fast 
 enough, when they only got to five and one-half to six 
 pounds at five to five and one-half months old, and they 
 would have been of a better quality of flesh, — would have 
 been "softer," if fed a quicker growing ration and brought 
 along earlier. That is another point on which many poul- 
 
 try raisers do not discriminate; they raise all the birds 
 alike, feeding them the same foods, whether they are to be 
 killed for market or raised for laying-breeding stock. Then, 
 too, the amount of range allowed them is a factor. PYee 
 range encourages the growth of muscle, and muscle is 
 "hard" flesh. If you want to grow fine, "soft" chickens do 
 not let them run all over the farm, — keep them confined to 
 moderate yards, and feed them more heavily of corn meal 
 and beef scraps (or meat meal). 
 
 You would probably have done better to have shipped 
 the birds at four to five pounds weight. The great bulk of 
 the trade prefers chickens weighing eight to ten pounds the 
 pair although there is a good sale for larger birds, and in 
 the spring l(say in March), the larger birds sell more read- 
 ily. If your local trade prefers large birds you should 
 caponize the cockerels, and then they are "soft" ever after, 
 and will grow to eight to ten pounds without becoming 
 "staggy." You are not obliged to sell them as capons be- 
 cause you have caponized them. The popular "south shore" 
 chickens of which you have bef^n reading are caponized, 
 but dressed and sold as soft-roasters. 
 
 Caponizing is so easily done, and is so great a benefit 
 in many ways, it is surprising that more poultry growers 
 do not adopt it. A set of special tools can be bought of 
 poultry supply dealers for about three dollars, and with it 
 the nagging, scrappy cockerels are easily turned into docile, 
 tractable birds, that have nothing to do but eat and grow. 
 They remain "soft," and their flesh doesn't harden into 
 muscle, as the cockerels do when they turn "staggy." Capon- 
 ize all the males not wanted tor breeding birds. 
 
 A. F. HUNTER. 
 
T£LL HOW TO 
 
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