Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1875-09-01

Raising Chickens,

Raising Chickens.
The London Fn.cier's Ga.cHe gives the
following sensible advice from personal
experience:
Most of IL are surrounded 10y Il lot OF
growing chicken, ut the present time, some
older and some Younger, but perhaps the
majority. considering the season, Just
about leaving the hens. And wore, or
Two need not be ;tmi-s about their thriving
~ We wish them to do. First Of all,
great deal will depend upon not feeding
them too often. Many and many an anna
turr splits on this rock, feeding hi chick
ems rs often when six OF eight weeks old
~ he did when only say Il fOrtni ght out
of the shell, and thus never giving them
time to get any real appetite, without
which nothing viii hcalthily grow. 1t j.
very well 10 feed newly matched birds, say
every two hours, though not even then l.
it very well. unless care is taken that not
- scrap Of food be left after each feed, but
the whole two hours passed with no OPP
pOrtunity of eating anything but grass,
insects, and 80 ON. That is the . great
secret, the patent process; if amy haven't
thought of il. let them begin now, and after
each feed of the little chicks, unless they
have to be left for some time, Scrttpe all
TtHtui,lS III foot ddcdG. But rs they GROW
the time between feeds must be extended
and ut two months old they ought not to
be fed oftencr than every four hours 1t
not only saves trouble and food, but
makes larger growth. Water, on the
contrary, will, of course be ALWAYS bv
them, and let it always he fresh, ALWAYS
clean, always cool A. to the food itself,
every week brings Us qucs'i ions Us to what
Is the best food. Any sound. wholesome
food is good; thriving Young animals
don need to he brought up to any hard
and-fast line, and dietcd like regiment
of soldiers. There are, perhaps, only two
things really to be summed, vii. Don't
feed entirely on maize, ground or whole ::
and >, don't use any great quantity of
bran OF coarse polIard-wc say coarse
pollard. because i'll some parts, the fine
''Sharp-,' or middlings, are called pollard
y very flvorite mixture of ours is half
S?ratt's or Browns or any good cooked
food, and half finely ground oats and it
j. Il lavorite with chickens, too. Then, if
short, or for Il change, we mix sharps and
barley meal, or boil some maize or Undi-
any meal, which is GOOD in part, bat as
we said, do not feed chiefly upon it; and it
l. good once or twice day, with large
breeds, to mix with soft meat a portion of
minced or boiled greavcs, or other animal
food, and the bone dust so much >rOknu
of. There can be little or no doubt that the
immense size shown by some exhibitors,
IS due to the large use of meat Each
must Judge for himself about this; for our
own part we do not approve of ovcr-much
forcing, and generally find that these idcn-
teal successful exhibitors of such mon
STEERS do rot breed from these huge speci-
mems, but from others of Il more mOdcr-
ate size Then for grain-and we would
IL Il rule feed with grain ll,t-we have
wheat, barley, buckwhcat, oats. and the
clean white Dari so much used of late.
After COON trial of it, we again give from
per -onal experience, most emphatic ties. i
Inonv in favor of this grain Old and
Young birds are f nd of it and it has the
merit OF being easily seen and picked up
from the ground. We trust the supply
will not fail. 1t has the great ADVANTAGE
of scarcely swelling at All in the crop.
Shelter shade, occupation-al these
scarcely need mention The later can al
ways be given, even in very small wards.
by digging up a square foot or two, deep.
every day, or gettin~a an occasional shovel
ful of horse manure. As to shelter. at
this season the birds do nearly if not
quite as well when allowed to sleep in the
same cOops in which the hen brooded
them; and where this can be done. ON n
I'trge grass run, it often saves much troub-
|" IN marking the different broo Is. II al
50 Keeps them from wanting to perch 50
soon. which is of course bad for heavy
sorts. though small birds can rOo>t rs soon
IL they can do 50. We used to bed oar
BrthmaS on straw; but this wear our man
J. trying an inch deep of SawdU~t instead
AMI 80 far reports in favor of the plan
over the other; We give the hint for what
1t i worth. They do not seem to eat it.
and 1t certainly keeps away the fees
One more thing. In due time Kill of rio
Orousy. Beginners do not like to do this
they think tine birds may turn out pretty
well. and 20 keep on Il lot far too many for
their space in most cases. Now take
This aS 4 rule None but the very
most skilfull breeders can breed more than
two-tllrd~ that are fit for ANYTHING but the
table; very, very many really clever men
cannot exceed half. 4 beginner cannot
expect by rare good luck with first rat,
breeding pen. exceed this therefore. max,
1t an myariable rule. unlp>, YOU know the
birds are good to Kill off One-thir,l a, soor
rs they are large enough to eat. You vii
make room, and those left Will grow finer
and keep cleaner. y Very little later ex
ccPt a before, You know they are good
Nil OF one-!ourth of what are lcft-wo
speak, let it be remembered, for people
who know that they ;rc breeding from
really good stock, and can see distinc,
promise in their yards-and You will fint
IN the end You did about right, even witt
the best OF stock; many Of course need tc
Xii far more OF separating the cocker
els and pullets we need hardly speak, cx
cept to say that it must be done far earlier
with some hreeds->uch is Houdans-
than with others. \ distinct development
Of comb and wattles i 4 SIGN it is time tc
make arrangements for il, if peace Is tc
he P:eSrrved, and the cocAcrel> are &c
grow and thrive