River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1889-03-14
FEEDING CHICKENS.
important Considerations That Are Neg
lected by Many Poultry Raisers.

4
lected by Many Poultry Raisers.
How shall we feed our chickens? |
answer: With common sense. Yes,
rood, old-fashioned common sense is
he best guide in all things. He who
| eeds without thought. or who fails to
notice results, is a poor feeder.
The continued use of wet, sloppy
Gods, or those that are astringent, will
| sause a greater deathrate than all the
| neglect of letting them care for them
selves, either extreme being poor poll
". 1t is best until the chicks are two
weeks old to feed in the forenoon corn
bread. baked hard and crumbled into
,calded milk, with no other liquid to
| rink; feeding in the afternoon cracked
sorn. millet, canary seed and wheat.
In every farm-yard on grass-plot these
chickens, in the morning, wash their
little legs in the dew, drinking the
same, each drop of dew being a full
swallow for them. Constant drinking,
especially if the water be not clear and
pure, results in diarrhea, which takes
| off many of them. When lax state
of the bowels is noticed. scalded milk
should be given. Taking away the
water soon restores them to normal
condition.
After the chicks are two weeks old,
pure water should be placed where
they can 20 to it at all times. Their
food should be principally cracked
corn, wheat, barley and oats. The
morning meal should be a mush oil
meal and bran scalded the night before
and covered. which ought TO be thor
oughly cooked, and warm when fed.
The balance of the day the chicks will
roam the fields and gather insects and
grass food, returning now and then to
| the feed boxes to take a kernel or two
of grain. Thus they spend the day.
1t should be the rule that fully one
/ half of all food should be of a meat
and vegetable nature, for this demand
is necessary for a full maximum growth
in muscle and plumage. Confined in
yards, deprived of the morning dew
and the insect life that is easily capt
ured in the morning, the birds lose es-
sential elements of food. Few persons
consider this and furnish proper sub
stitute. Some may tell you they raise
their chicks without water. But before
you try to raise yours without water,
be certain that it is under the condi-
tons. For to try the experiment with
your flocks that are deprived of grass
runs and rambles in the dew, will
surely result in your defeat at the
country fair in competition with your
neighbor. You would also be guilty
of cruelty to your flock. This run in
the dew is the bath which secures the
golden colored legs and adds bright
ness and beauty. The man who
hopes to raise a large number OF
chicks on a city lot, with no shade,
by feeding upon corn that has per
cent. bone, IL per cent. muscle and 4
per cent. of fat with the hearts of the
chicks going at the rate of $50 beats
per minute, must indeed be sanguine.
| We have seen such men under an UNI
brella, gazing at their painting flock,
and feeling veXed that they were doing
so poorly. He should have known
that what return they gave him in
eggs and growth was in spite of poor
care and negligence on his part. Con
fine one hundred men on one thousand
feet of land, compel them to spend
each day in the hot sun, fed on fat
meat, even though they perspire
(fowls never do, would we be sur
prised if cholera thinned their ranks?
Then why be surprised that cholera
visits your fowls under like circum-
stances? My fault-fnding friend, it is
not cats, rats, foxes and the cholera
it is your personal neglect that has
! prevented your success in this bust
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