Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1916-03-22
POULTRY

CONSULTING DEPARTMENT


Starting chicks right means much
IN their early development and future.
A great amount Of the poor success
in brooding young chicks is due to i'm
proper feeding for the first few days.
in many cases the only feed right
young chicks receive is table scraps
or whatever happens to be handy as
feed at the time.
Considering the short time in which
a chick out of shell will double in
weight, no feed is too good or too
expensive for young chicks for the
first weeks of their lives. The chick
out of the shell needs nothing and
should have nothing to eat till it is
about as hours old. At birth it has
in its body undissolved yolk and other
substance for perfect nourishment to
asst for about two days. The first
hing in order is not to feed till the
chick becomes hungry, which fact
may be known to their greater rest
essness and wanting to peck at differ
mt things and at each other. This
a sign that they are hungry and
ire ready for substantial food.
There is no animal that will make
better use of high priced feed than
7oung chicks. Having in mind mar
get prices of meat animals, lambs,
pigs or calves of the pfimest sorts will
seldom ever command price of more
han 10 cents poud, while young
chickens of early Matching may be
sold as broilers at from 20 to 80 cents
1 pound. These prices are from two to
shree times as much as can be secured
or any other market animals. And
'or this reason one can afford to feed
Toung chicks any expensive feed that
.eeps them healthy and makes them
yrow. Oatmeal, for instance, could
rot be fed with economy to pigs or
:alves, yet it can be fed with profit
% chicks.
One of the very best feeds for
young chicks is oatmeal, or rolled oats
IN various forms, such as is used for
breakfast food. Oats are very nour-
ishing and they seem to agree per-
fectly with young birds. Wheat bran
is next in value, with cornmeal or
Smelly cracked corn as next best. A
safe and good feed for chicks when
they are old enough to eat is a mix
ture of about two parts rolled oats
and one part wheat bran, fed dry.
This may be fed till the birds are four
or five days old After this time they
should have a greater variety in their
bill of fare. A good dry mash for
young chickens after they are five
lays or week old may be made by
mixing one pound of oatmeal, two
rounds of cornmeal and four pounds
Of wheat bran. Also. a small tea
spoonful of salt may be mixed with
oh - ft.1 -
powdered charcoal.
Meat of some kind is important in
the feed of little chickens after they
are about two weeks old. 1t the chick
ems are running with hens where they
ran secure bugs or worms, these will
satisfy their appetites for meat. How
ever, where they are confined in close
coops or brooders, they should have a
small quantity of dry beef scraps once
each day or every alternate day. A
bag of commercial beef scraps will be
enough for whole season for large
flock of little chickens, with perhaps
son,e for the laying hens. We have
found that it pays to feed beef scraps
to ali chickens during the year except
ut seasons when insects and worms OF
the range are abundant.
From the beginning of life till ma
tur,ty wheat bran should Always DC
fed in the food mixture for chickens.
1t contains considerable protein, quite
4 large proportion of mineral matter
and it furnishes bulk in the ration
especially important whore birds car
mn s,crre all the green matter they
will eat. A sclf-feeding hopper filled
with bran should be in the poultry
house or yard where chickens of all
ages can eat from it at will. 1t is n
relatively cheap and very valuable
poultry food. Bone meal also, ground
about the size of rice grains, is goUd
for little chickens and laying mems.
II is best fed from hopper to poul-
try cf all ages.
More little chickens die of bowel
trouble than from all other causes
combined. The general preventive of
this is TO keep the coops and brooders
as well as feeding and drinking yes
sells clean and to keep the feet and
bodies of the young birds dry and
warm at all times. Coops and brood
ers must be on high and dry ground
and have dry and well-bedded floors.
Ii is not enough to have simply broad
floors; they must be covered with
chaff, fine cut straw or similar mate
rial, to make the floor dry and warm
and to prevent it from becoming soiled
and filthy. This floor covering must
be removed and renewed as often as
it is necessary to maintain the floor
in dry and sanitary condition.
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as
the first principles Sincerity is tie