The Feathered World.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 427, 29 September 1898, Page 19

The Feathered World.

What is the best food for young chicks, asks another querist ? For the first day or two hard boiled eggs, mixed with coarse oatmeal, will bring them plong nicely. Then well-boiled oatmeal, mixed with sharps of the best quality, is the best available food, as in New Zealand it is almost impossible to obtain the ground oats, a material which, in my opinion, is absolutely the finest food for the successful rearing of chickens. The difficulty here is to get the oafs ground sufficiently fine. They must be ground, husks and all, about as fine as sharps, and. if they can be so ground, then chicken-rearers have a staple food that is second to none for both flesh and bone formation.

I hear that the hatching season is progressing satisfactorily,|and that several fanciers already have plenty of young to select winneis from.

I have lately been asked whether it is advisable to damp the eggs at all during sitting operations. In hot and dry weather I always sprinkle the eggs for three days before they are due to hatch, but if the weather is at all damp, the hen, after a run, brings back with her sufficient moisture for the purpose. D.H.