Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-07-18
Sarm Copies.
POULTRY ON THE FARM.

my tomahawk and scalping knife. sharp
en- up my old pencil, and give poultry
breeders such a talking to" as they new
er had in all their born days (the Lord
knows they need ltD. but now | am GO
ing to talk about raising chickens from
the time they leave the shell until they
are old enough to get along without the
care of the mother hen.
When the chicks are pecking their way
out of their shells, let them alone. Let
the old hen alone. There isn't the slight
est danger of your letting her alone too
much. About ninety-nine per cent. more
chicks have "died adjoining" because the
old hens were fused with too much
than were eyer killed by "carelessness"
or clumsiness on the hens part. If let
alone the hen Will, in about nine hundred
and nInety-nine cases out of thousand,
stay on the nest until she matches every
hatchable egg; and if you continue to let
her alone she will stick to the nest for
several hours after the chicks are out. If
left undisturbed until she is ready to
leave the nest of her own free will, you
will find that when she does leave, her
chicks are''up and coming and
lively, with bright eyes, restless little feet,
and disposition to peck at things. Then
the question, "What are you going to do
with them?" comes up. OF course you
can, if you choose, turn them oyer to the
tender mercies of a ''brooder, but |
wouldn't, not unless / wanted to raise
several hundred or several thousand in a
season. The farmer, or farmers wife or
daughter, or anybody else who lives on a
farm, and does not raise over two or
three hundred chickens a year, and does
not get them until some time during APP
ril and May, has no earthly use for any
brooder except hens. | know it is quite
the fashion to run down the old hen mo-
Their, but for all that the old hen is a bet
ter brooder than any combination of wood
or iron ever put together.
Have your coop ready for your hen and
her brood and put them into it, 1t does
not make bit of difference what kind of
a coop it's, provided it is clean. has a
top or roof tight enough to shed rain, and
is large enough for the hen and her fam
lily. Whether you have a floor in the coop
or not should depend altogether upon
circumstances, and the chief circumstan-
ces are rats. If the rats are troublesome.
have floor to the coop; and also make
it so that it can be closed up and snug at
night; but if you are not 'pestered'' with
rats, make your coop without floor.
When placing your coops look out and
place them so that water will not run I'M
der them when it rains. a hen does not
/ like to wake up in the middle of the night
and find herself sitting in puddle of wa
ter any better than you would; and such
accidents would be rather hard on the
chicks, too.
When you leave the hen and chicks on
the nest until the hen leaves of her own
free will. the chicks are ready for food
just about the time the hen starts out in
search of it, and when you get the family
housed in coop give them something to
eat.
Now, if you want to feed those chicks
hard-boied eggs and bread or cracker
crumbs, you can do so, but it is not nee
essary. If you have some scraps of stale
bread, biscuit. "johnny cake bits of cold
potato,-and you will have, if you save
them up for your chick-a-biddies.- Just
soak them enough so they will crumble
easily, and feed your chicks that Ifvou
don't happen to have any scraps on hand,
stir up ''johnny cake" of corn meal and
sour milk, with a bit of salt and soda,
bake till done, and then crumble and feed
to your chicks. After few days, feed
corn meal and shorts, one part of shorts
to two parts of meal, scalded so as to
make stiff dough. When ten days old
begin feeding cracked corn and wheat.
They will soon learn to swallow the
grains. For the first two weeks or 50
feed five times day; then if you give
the hen full liberty through the day (and
it is better to do this when the weather
is pleasanD you can reduce the meals to
four, and when month old only three
meals need be given. In wet weather
keep the hen confined to the coop. and
feed the chickens oftener. Move the
coops to fresh spot of ground often e.
enough to keep them clean. If there are
floors in the coop, they should be covered
with dry earth, which should be renewed
often.
Chicks cared for in this way will, if the
parent stock was good be strong and
healthy.-[Fanny Field, in American