Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-11-07
FARM AND GARDEN
MATTERS OF INTEREST To- RU-
RAJ READERS.
THE RAISING OF CHICKENS
Practical and Scientific Suggestions
and Facts That May Prove of Ben
eht to FarmerS-What to Do and
How to do it-Flavor in Butter and
How 1t Is Caused.

There are many perpleXing things
for the chicken raiser. One of these
is what to feed very young chicks.
Where one raises but a small num-
Der during the season and has them
scattered along, Matching a few at
time, the question Of feed cuts but
small figure in the case. The table
scraps with slight additions make the
best of all feeds, and are ample for
the chicks, aS they are Matched in
small numbers, until they become old
enough to eat wheat cracked corn,
etc.
But in these later years, when farm
erS and villagers all over the country
are doubling and trebling their chicken
production to what they formerly did,
| and are now raising them by the hun
dreds, both naturally and artificially,
the matter of feeding becomes quite
an item, both as to expense and to in
81 re the health of the little ones.
When we raise them in such great
numbers it is essential that we use the
greatest care in feeding, particularly
for the first ten days or two weeks of
their lives, which | deem the most
critical period of their chickenhoOd,
feathering time being next in import
apce.
Almost every one who reads after
me has, or can get, milk. Bread is the
next requisite. If you have a hun
dred or two young ones of the same
age you will look t. some outside
means of supply for your dry bread.
The bakeries usually have stale bread
that you can buy at from one to two
cents a loaf. Do the best YOU can.
Get bread in some shape, if YOU have
to bake it ahead and let it dry for
yourselves. In cold weather warm the
milk to about luke warm. dip the
bread in and right out if in slices.
and then take it in your hand and
squeeze it ais near dry as YOU can and
crumble it down to the chicks: feed
this about four times day. Between
these feeds scatter some millet seed
around in their litter Gf brooder
chicks; keep this up for about ten
days, when you can begin to substi-
tute other things-cottag cheese with
thlckening of meal or bread is very
much relished. Do not fail to see that
they have access to plenty of fine
gravel or coarse sand, and you vii,
be surprised at how much they VIII
eat of it. Keep them warm. Getting
chilled the first few days, together
with improper feeding, will get away
with them faster than we can hatch
them.
Many of us that use hens for hatch
ing put twenty to thirty with one hen
and reset the others. This is all right
if the weather is warm, but if it is
cold, and they have not quite warn
coops, they will crowd each other out
and get chilled, and then the mortality
begins. Each morning we find two or
three to throw lover the garden WALL"
until whole brood is blOtted from the
face Of the earth. For when once this
bowel trouble gets a start it is hard
to check. That is what it really is.
You will notice the droppings are
Watery and streaked with white. As
an aid in correcting this trouble
would use Scalded milk to mOisten
their bread, and also give them lit
tie boiled rice; l have had several let
ters within a few days wanting a rem
edy for this dread fatality among
chicks. Do your very best to keep
your chicks from getting that way,
for they are hard to doctor. l believe
with warmth care, cleanliness and
the persistent use of the moistened
bread and millet, with fresh water
and sand, you will scarcely have any
trouble. When they get to be three or
four weeks old, or as soon as they can
eat it, | make steamed wheat one of
their staple articles of diet Take
kettle of wheat, cover it with water
and a lid, and let it cook just enough
to swell the grains about double their |
usual size, and then take it off: boil ,
ing too much it gets gummy and is |
not 50 good. This, with plenty Of |
cracked corn, oatmeal or cornmeaI |
mash, will take older ones through in |
open for lice, particularly with hens; /
they are dangerous Michigan Farmer.
The Flavor of Butter-For d good |
while it was supposed that the food !
of the COW was the source of the fla
vCr Of the butter produced from her
milk. That this is true to a certain |
extent, is disputed by no one who is |
we'll posted. If COW eats wild on
ions, such as infest a good many pas
lures, her butter will be favored to
such an extent that it is unfit for
market and unpalatable to almost any
one, no matter how much care is taken
to have the milk handled and the but
ter made in a cleanly manner. This
being the case, it stands to reason |,
that other kinds of food may affect
the flavor of butter, though it may
be to so small an extent, that it is
not particularly noticed. The fact that