Oatmeal is probably the best grain food for chicks.  Oats cannot be suitably prepared, however, in a common feed-mill.  The hulled oats are what is wanted.  They can be purchased as the common rolled oats, or sometimes as cut or pin-head oatmeal.  The latter form would be preferred, but either of these is an excellent chick feed.  Oats in these forms are expensive and should be purchased in bulk, not in packages.  If too expensive, oats should be used only for a few days, when they may be replaced by cheaper grains.  Cracked corn is the best and cheapest chick food.  Flaxseed could be used in small quantities.  Kaffir-corn, wheat, cow-peas—­in fact any wholesome grain—­may be used, the more variety the better.  Farmers possessing feed-mills have no excuse for feeding chicks exclusively on one kind of grain.  If there is no way of grinding corn on the farm, oatmeal, millet seed and corn chop can be purchased.  At about one week of age whole Kaffir-corn, and, a little later whole wheat, can be used to replace the more expensive feeds.

Green or bulky food of some kind is necessary to the healthy growth of young chickens.  Chickens fed in litter from clover or alfalfa will pick up many bits of leaves.  This answers the purpose fairly well, but it is advisable to feed some leafy vegetable, as kale or lettuce.  The chicks should be gotten on some growing green crop as soon as possible.

Chickens are not by nature vegetarians.  They require some meat to thrive.  It has been proven in several experiments that young chickens with an allowance of meat foods make much better growth than chickens with a vegetable diet, even when the chemical constituents and the variety of the two rations are practically the same.

Very few farmers feed any meat whatever.  They rely on insects to supply the deficiency.  This would be all right if the insects were plentiful and lasted throughout the year, but as conditions are it will pay the farmer to supplement this source of food with the commercial meat foods.

Fresh bone, cut by bone-cutters, is an excellent source of the meat and mineral matter needed by growing chicks.  If one is handy to a butcher shop that will agree to furnish fresh bones at little or no cost, it will pay to get a bone-mill, but the cost of the mill and labor of grinding are considerable items, and unless the supply of bones is reliable and convenient this source of meat foods is not to be depended upon.

The best way to feed beef-scrap is to keep a supply in the hopper so the chickens may help themselves.  In case meat food is given, bone-meal, fed in small quantities, will form a valuable addition to their ration.  Infertile eggs from incubators, as well as by-products of the dairy, can be used to help out in the animal-food portion of the ration.  Chickens may be given all the milk they will drink.  It is generally recommended that this be given clabbered.

Feeding Laying Hens.