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BEARING CHICKENS.
In rearing chickens oni a small space,
the run is best beaten down hard. so that
it can be scraped and swept clean daily.
Fresh ground is life to the chicken. One
of our most successful breeders rightly
attaches much importance to his system
of keeping chickens in limited, areas con
stantly supplied with fresh green sods to
seratch and pick at. And those young
sters work at those sods as if their 'life
depended on it. A complete change" of
ground is a great help to chickens when
they start to shift for themselves. At
the critical feathering stage they some
times get droopy and out of sorts. Tonics
can be tried, but the best tonic is a
change of ground, either on the grass,
in the orchard, or where they have access
to a patch sown with greenstuff-rape,
cabbages, kale. lucerne, or anything that
will harbour insect life, and at thie same
time provide green picking for the grow.
ing chicks. It keeps them on the work,
developing their bodies and feeding on
lit-bits that will help to build them up
and keep-them in vigorous-health, u
little at a time and early and often
should be the rule in feeding chicks on
"wet'" food. stale, befouled, or sour
food is the most prolilic cause of bowel
complaints, and this is one reason whv~
"dry" feeding with the popular chicken
mixtulres has comle so oluch into vogue.
If soft food is given it must be sweet and
fresh. HT'ard-loiled egg, which many give,
if not lthoroughly crushed up and well
mixed oil with bread crumbs, oatmeal,
pollard, or the like, is apt to cause
bowel trouble, while dampness or over
crowding likewias produce it. Powdered
wood charcoal is an excellent digestive
and corrective, and a feed or two of rice
boiled in milk, given rather dry, Will put
matters right, if the trouble has not be
come acute, alnd is should never be al
lowed to reach that stage.
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