Feeding the chicks.

You have your own method of feeding baby chicks. If it has given you good results, there is no reason why you should change. But if your losses have been large, maybe the trouble is in the feeding. A chick is a delicate morsel of life, and the wrong sort of nourishment may be as fatal as a severe chilling or a roasting spell of overheating it.

The following advice on feeding chicks is sensible and good. It may give you an idea. Sorry we haven't got the writer's name.

"We cannot advise you too strongly not to feed baby chicks until they are at least 48 hours old. As a baby chick absorbs the yolk of the egg just before breaking the shell, it has sufficient nourishment in that for 48 hours.

"Keep the chicks warm and comfortable. If they are hen-hatched, darken the nest they are in and see that they are not disturbed. Do not fail, however, to feed the hen, as it will keep her quiet.

"We have had good success in having slices of bread placed in the oven, baked good and hard, then crushed with a rolling pin or meat grinder; the baked bread will take the place, for the first day at least, of grit and food.

"See that clean, fresh water and the chill taken off is given them. You can easily teach them to drink by dipping their bills in the water.

"The next feed should consist of baked Johnny cake, broken up in very small pieces or hard-boiled eggs mixed with stale bread. The regular rolled oats will also furnish a good feed.

"After the second day, they should be fed four or five times a day, using only a small amount at each feeding. They should never, at any time, have more than they will eat up clean. Remember, over-feeding will do more harm than under-feeding.

"Keep your chicks exercising and be sure to feed them regularly. The above feeds should be used for the first week. You can then gradually feed them any of the numerous chick feeds on the market, or a home mixture of equal parts of finely cracked wheat, cracked corn and rolled oats, to which can be added a small quantity of broken rice or millet, with a portion of small charcoal, all hard grain to be fed in litter to make them exercise.

"The recipe for Johnny cake is as follows: corn meal, five pounds; infertile eggs, six; baking soda, one tablespoon; when eggs are not available, use double quantity of baking soda; and add one pound of sifted beef scraps. After the chicks are ten days old, a mash should be kept before them and will take the place of the Johnny cake or bread."

One suggestion we would add to the above. The first food a chick gets should be a sip of sweet skim milk. And skim milk or butter milk should be kept before them. Sour milk -- but not too sour -- is perfectly safe, but we like it to be sweet just at first. Seems somehow like it ought to be a little better. --Farm Life, April 1929