There is always a temptation to feed chicks too soon after they are
hatched. We should always wait at least twenty-four hours to give them
a chance to become thoroughly dry. The general custom of giving wet
cornmeal for the first feed is wrong. Always feed chicks on dry food
and you will avoid a great deal of sickness. An excellent first food
is hard-boiled egg and corn bread made from cornmeal and water without
salt and thoroughly baked until it may be crumbled. Only feed a little
at a time, but feed often. Five times a day is none too much for
two-week-old chicks.
One successful poultryman I am acquainted with gives, as the first
feed, dog biscuit crushed. All the small grains are good if they are
cracked so that the chicks can eat them. The standard mixture sold by
poultry men under the name “chick food” is probably the best. It
consists of cracked wheat, rye, and corn, millet seed, pinhead
oatmeal, grit, and oyster shells. Do not feed meat to chicks until
their pin feathers begin to show, when they may have some well-cooked
lean meat, three times a week.
There is quite an art in setting a hen properly. They always prefer a
dry, dark place. If we are sure that there are no rats around, there
is no better place to set a hen than on the ground. This is as they
sit in nature and it usually seems to be the case that a hen that
steals her nest will bring out more chicks than one that we have
coddled. Eggs that we are saving for hatching should be kept in a cool
place but never allowed to freeze. They should be turned every day
until they are set. Hens eggs will hatch in about twenty-one days.
The eggs that have failed to hatch at this time may be discarded. When
we move a broody hen we must be sure that she will stay on her new
nest before we give her any eggs. Test her with a china egg or a
doorknob. If she stays on for two nights we may safely give her the
setting. It is always better when convenient to set a hen where she
first makes her nest. If she must be moved, do it at night with as
little disturbance as possible. It is always a good plan to shut in a
sitting hen and let her out once a day Hockey Cards Trade for feed and exercise. Do not
worry if in your judgment she remains off the nest too long. The eggs
require cooling to develop the air chamber properly, and as a rule the
hen knows best.
Young chickens are subject to a great many diseases, but if they are
kept dry and warm, and if they have dry food, most of the troubles may
be avoided. With all poultry, lice are a great pest. Old fowls can
dust themselves and in a measure keep the pest in check, but little
chicks are comparatively helpless. The big gray lice will be found on
a chicks neck near the head. The remedy for this is to grease the
feathers with vaseline on the head and neck. The small white lice can
be controlled by dusting the chicks with insect powder and by keeping
the brooder absolutely clean. A weekly coat of whitewash to which some
carbolic acid has been added will keep lice in check in poultry houses
and is an excellent plan. Hen-hatched chicks are usually more subject
to lice than those hatched In incubators and raised in brooders, as
they become infected from the mother. Some people say that chicks have
lice on them when they are hatched, but this is not so.
