CHAPTER VI.REARING CHICKS TO MATURITY.
One of the chief things to remember in raising young chicks to maturity is that we must keep them growing at all times. A check intheir growth will retard their growth severely, and this must be avoided by the one that wants his chicks to get into winter laying condition before the cold weather comes. We will now consider a few important factors that are necessary to bring our chicks along to rapid growth.
Of course, where free, unrestricted range is possible, the chicks will progress faster than when cooped up in a small yard. If no free range is possible, it will be found advantageous to at least let the chicks run about the yard of the lot. In this manner, they can pick up considerable food in the shape of worms, insects, etc., that will furnish valuable growing food for them. Let me repeat again the necessity of having milk in some form as a constituent of the chicks’ food. Any food that comes from an animal, whether it be milk or a part of the animal itself, is highly essential to the growth of the chick. Such foods contain an element known as vitamines, which scientists have recently discovered contribute greatly to the growth and upkeep of a growing animal. Vitamines are also found to some extent in green feeds, such as carrots, cabbages, mangoes, etc. Even well cured alfalfa hay contains this importantelement. It is quite obvious, therefore, that if the chicks are out roaming around the yard or range, they not only secure the exercise that is necessary for their proper development, but they also pick up insects, as has been mentioned, and considerable green feed, such as grass, weeds, and various other odds and ends.
If a fair sized lot or range is to be had, then it will be found a great aid to make a little house for the chicks to live in during the nights on the range, although care must be exercised that they be protected from enemies, such as rats, crows, skunks, weasels, owls, etc. Such a house need not be expensive at all if it be made out of an old packing box that will protect the chicks from rain and enemies.
Another quite essential feature for the promotion of the maximum growth of the chicks during the warm summer months is the provision for shade. If there are some trees about the yard or range, this will answer the purpose satisfactorily, but if there are no trees where the chicks roam, then some artificial shade is advised. Some people plant corn for this purpose, allowing the chicks to rangeamong the corn plants when the corn has grown sufficiently high. The chicks will not harm the corn, so two ends can be accomplished by this means. Others provide this shade by gathering old brush together and making an artificial shade in this manner. During the hot days of summer, the chicks will suffer from the heat to a marked degree if exposed to the hot rays of the sun. An ideal method used on many farms is to place the chicks in the orchard, where there is an orchard, and let the chicks roam in the shade of the orchard trees.
Where birds are necessarily confined to a small yard, one method that has been worked out satisfactorily, is to fence the yard off into two or more divisions, and to plow up the land. Then various crops can be sown at different intervals, so that when one range, or division, is consumed by the chicks, they can be turned into another division where the forage crop is up and ready to be consumed. As soon as the chicks are turned out of the first lot, this lot can be immediately plowed up again, and some more seeds planted, so that this range will be ready for the chicks when the second lot furnishes no more nourishment for them. It mightbe added here that many town flocks of full grown birds are maintained, by this very system, and it has worked out very nicely. Such grains as buckwheat, rye, oats, peas, and soy beans are all excellent crops to sow in this manner, using oats and peas for the first crop, because they mature quicker than the other crops mentioned.
If the chicks have access to a fair amount of range they will not need a great deal of grain as a ration. However, it is always advisable to feed some grains to keep the birds continually growing as fast as possible. It has been proved conclusively that the first gains made by the growing chicks are the cheapest, in regard to the cost of feed, so let us keep this in mind during the time when we have them on range. To accomplish this end, it is well to have a dry mash of the kind of grains that are fairly rich in the substance called protein always available in the hopper. The reason for this need of protein feed is simply that the growing bird uses this element largely in the growth of its body. Protein goes to make up the bony framework of the body, and the muscles, tendons, etc. Therefore, feedscontaining protein, or a fair amount of it at least, should be ground up, and kept before the birds. Oats, bran, or middlings, wheat and barley, are all fairly rich in protein, and some of these feeds, in a finely ground condition, should be included. It is also well to add some corn meal, although this feed is not high in protein, it supplies a great amount of energy for the bird to move around with. As soon as the birds are old enough commence to feed cracked grains. As has been said in a previous chapter, the bird has no teeth, so must rely upon grit to grind this feed in the gizzard.
Therefore, unless the birds have a wide range, this grit must be artificially supplied. Then the birds can help themselves to their needs, and suffer no digestive troubles. Fresh water must be before the birds at all times, and if no natural source is available, such as a running stream or brook, then fresh water must be placed in some sanitary container out in the yard or range.
From four to six months from the time the chick is hatched, it should be ready to start laying eggs. The chick first has to get its growth and maturity, and then there is an apparentresting period for a few weeks, to allow the organs of the bird to get ready for egg production. We will next consider how we shall feed these birds, granting that we now have them ready to produce the eggs.