Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1900-10-25
THE GROWING STOCK.
Teaching Chicks to RoOst-POints on
Separating the Sexes.


Separating the Sexes.
Teaching the chicks to rOOSt is often
a puzzle, particularly to beginners. Try
this method: Take a low box or a wide
board resting on block or brick and
put it where the chicks are accustomed
to sleep. Have it large enough so that
all the chicks can get on it. After they
are accustomed to it gradually raise it
until it is foot from the floor. Most
of the chicks will go on it. Any that
do not you should place on it night aft
er night until they will go of their own
accord. When all have learned to get
up on the board, take it away and put
at the same height rGosts four or five
inches wide. Here Is another that
sometimes works WELL Put one or two
peaceable old fowls OF either sex or Il
few chickens that have learned to rOost
in with the lot you wish to teach, wide
roosts being furnished, not too high
from the ground. Lcghorns generally
need no instruction, and mixed lots of
chicks containing Leghorns generally
follow their example very rapidly.
Don't think, though, that you can
teach all chickens TO roost. Some breed
ers of Asiatics never allow their fowls
to roost, and when you have stock
from such fowls you are apt to find
that some of the chicks will never go to
roost Of their own accord.
A great deal is said of the necessity
;,c
that it should be done as soon as sex
can be determined. In Asiatics it is
not often necessary until the chicks are
pretty well grown. In fowls of the
Mediterranean varieties separation
must be made quite early. In Ameri
can varieties it depends on the stock
and the stage of development of the
individual cockerels. Frequently the
removal Of a few of the cockerels dis
posed to annoy the pullets makes it
possible to keep males and females
peaceably together until well along in
the season. In many cases the separa-
tion can be made early as well as later,
the chicks being divided into small lots
anyway and it being just as easy to
separate by sex, but where it Is not
convenient to separate the sexes they
may often be kept together by remOv-
ing those cockerels disposed to make
trouble
What is of much greater Importance
than separation according to sex is as
sortment according to size. Except in
very rare cases, when chicks of differ
ent sizes are kept together the smaller
ones have to take a lot of roughing
from the others. Whenever any of the
chicks in flock are seen to be suffer
ing from this sort of treatment, they
should be removed from it. For this
same cause the best development of all
the good cockeTels one has is hard to
secure. AS the birds mature it is seen
that one or two Chose which rule the
fiock) stand out superior to the others
in general condition. Remove these,
and one or two others will quickly sur
prise you by the rapidity with which
they shape up. The best way is to
keep every male bird by himself or
with few hens or pullets after he be-
gins to assert his individuality. Not
many breeders have facilities for do
ing this The next best thing is to
keep them in as small flocks as possible
and have them so nearly matched in
size and strength that none will be
much imposed on. Most breeders keep
entirely too many cockerels over to sell
for stock purposes. The birds that sell
for only 81 or So each in the spring it
does not pay to winter, yet thousands
of them are carried through every sea-
son. and thousands go to the pot in
March and April every year which
ought to have gone to the frying pan
seven or eight months earlier.-Farm
Poultry.