Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-30
FARM AND ORCHARD.
HOW TO RAISE LITTLE CHICKENS MOST
SUCCESSFULLY.
why So Few People Make Profit Out
of Fowl-Breeding-The Farm
Workshop.

Mrs. L. L. DuIen, OF Ldhe AAOuSe' NHS
of the most valued correspondents OF this
department of the REcoRD-UNIoN, writes
as follows about raising little chickens:
"Poultrymen who have studied the mat
ter say that the fall is the best time to
raise little chickens on this coast. But
warm and dry quarters must be provided
for them; otherwise it is no more trouble
to take care of them than in the spring.
Judging from my own experience they are
less liable to vermin and disease, but L
would not advocate Matching chicks In an
incubator or raising them in brooder at
this season Of the year. Nothing can
equal good motherly old hen for keeping
The little chicks warm, and for the first
three DAYS they need warmth more than
anything else. They will hardly come out
to eat before s or 9 o'clock on cold morn
ings even when week old. | do not be-
Iieye the brooder has yet been made that
can be kept at Just the right temperature.
At 10 or II o'clock at night they may be
all right, but in the early morning, when
it is always colder, the little things Will
huddle together trying to keep warm, and
in a brooder holding forty or fifty little
chicks the strong ones crowd the weaker
ones and some will be smothered. The
old-fashioned way may be slow, but 1t Is
very safe. =
feeding little chicks as there are breeds of
poultry. Ny own method, though per-
haps not original or any better than any
one else's, is, think, very good. have
tabooed soft food Of any kind. what l
mean by soft food is anything mushy or
sticky. l bake bread made OF one part
corn-meal and two of graham -four, mixed
with sweet or sour milk, with enough salt
to make it palatable, and putting IN soda
or baking-pawder to make 1t light. When
taken from the oven the top crust Is quite
hard. After it is cold l sprinkle with
little warm water, which makes 1t moist
and erumbly. That is the first thing l
feed to my little chicks, not forgetting to
mix in little sand the first time or two,
for there is nothing in their crops to help
digest their food. Hard-boiled eggs,
milk curds, chopped potato, meat cut tine,
once day, are all good. In the third
day they can be fed grain, cracked wheat
or Egyptian corn, always grain for the
evening meal, no whole grain unless per-
hans EGYPTIAN corn until they are four or
five weeks old. Green food, sand, charcoal,
ground bone and shells are necessities.
Although | do not believe in the no water
theory. | do keep water out of their way
until they have been fed in the morning,
giving them for their first drink warm
milk or the water slightly warmed. Young
chicks are extremely fond of worms, and it
is worth the trouble of digging for them to
watch the chicks as they run and scramble
for the choice morsels. Chopped onions
are also good for poultry, both great and
small. Little chicks, like little children,
should be fed often-about every two hours
is the rule until they are three or four
weeks old. After that they can be fed
principally on grain, when it will not be
necessary to feed so often. Lice on the
chicks can be destroyed by using a MKT
ure of kerosene and lard, rubbing some on
the head and under the wings, serving the
hen the same way. And with proper at
tention to cleanliness, there is no reason
why they should not thrive"
FOR PRIDE Or PROFIT.
"The man who goes into fancy poultry
raising must do so with one of two pur-
poses and must abide by the result" said
Morgan Bates, editor of the AmerScdH
POULTRY Journal. off he make it an avoca-
ton he must be willing to look upon it as
labor of love, without regarding it finan
cial investment, taking profit or loss with
equanimity. Or he must go into it as bus
mess, devoting his entire time to it, and
raise fowls for the market. There is
promising field. There is money in 1t when
properly handled 1t is safe to say that a
man can make, on an investment of 81 200
In fowls, 81 apiece per year. For the
amount of capital put into it that is good
return. There is no danger of overstock-
ing the market either in 'broilers mean
ing Young, tender chickens-or eggs.
While this phase of the business is some
what discredited by the fanciers proper, it
is probably the surest side in financial
wav. You see there Is considerable differ
ence between what is called fancy fowls
and pure breeds While the fancy fowls
are raised mainly for the purpose of exhi-
bition and for the sake of fine appear
ance, bring out the ideal form of partic-
ular breed more and m0re closely, and
while for such fancy birds high prices are
paid and prizes are awarded at exhibitions,
It is different with the breed of pure stock.
Whoever raises fowls should by all means
raise pure breeds. What we see around
this city in farms and barnyards are the
scrub birds as rule, the 'dunghilP variety
as they are called. They are mixture of
everything, and that is bad all around.
The qualities that are good, let us say, in
a Houdan, are killed off by a cross with a
Cochin or Plymouth Rock, for instance,
aud there is never any telling what chick
ems of real mixed breeds will do, whether
they will turn out good egg producers or
bad ones, whether their meat will be tough
or tender.
THESE MoNGREL BIRDS,
Therefore. ought not to be bred. They
constantly help to deteriorate our national
stock of fowls still further. While it is,
therefore, not very profitable, as a rule, to
raise fancy poultry, strictly speaking, too
much attention being devoted to their APP
pearanee and too little to their qualities,
II is eminently practical and wise TO raise
pure-breed poultry, no matter Of which of
the leading kinds for they are all good
and each has its fine points Many of
these pure-breed fowls are made so that
they would be barred out at poultry shows,
but for utllitarian purposes they are the
best to raise. To sum it up: 1t is the man
who studies the subject intelligently, who
goes into poultry raising with view Of
learning and profting by experience, that
makes money by fowls. All men I'M
willing to do this are advised to stay ont
of it. No man out West has yet made q
fortune out Of fancy poultry raising, and no
one has gone into it as an exclusive bus
mess. But there is no reason why many
men shouldn't do so.
America holds high place among the
various civilized countries in the matter
of raising high-bred fowls, not only in the
Improvement of the existing stock, but
also in the matter of originating new
breeds. Among these latter the Plymouth
Rock Ia purely American variety, which
- -. $1,000 hattrnar, the