each 100 chicks, moisten with sweet milk and feed it on clean boards, what the chicks will eat up clean in some, twenty minutes.  Give them one feed of this each day for three days if the weather is dry.  Clean the brooders and runs daily, then dust white with air-slacked lime and cover the lime with a sprinkling of clean sand.  Rake and clean up the yards where they range and never let them eat any of their grain or food out of dirt and filth.  You cannot doctor such small chicks and must depend upon the coal oil in the drinking water.  Keep the water fresh, but add the coal oil until the chicks are relieved.

Open-Front Chicken Houses.

In what direction shall I face open-front poultry houses?

North or northeast is the proper direction to face the open fronts of poultry houses and coops in the Pacific Coast climate.  The prevailing winds are from the south and southeast in the winter, and from the west and southwest in the summer.  The occasional north winds or “northers,” may be called dry winds, in fact, are an indication of dry weather, and so do not harm the fowls even when cold.  We like the upper half of the north-end or slide of our poultry houses open with inch-mesh covering the open space and the eaves extending several inches as a protection.  In case of an unusual storm from that direction, one thickness of burlap may be tacked to the edge of the extending eaves, and to the lower part of the opening.  This will admit plenty of fresh air while breaking the force of the wind.  We also have a large trap door for the use of the fowls, in the solid lower part of the open end, and the large door, for cleaning and sunning the house, in the west side.

A Point on Mating.

I have fine roosters a year old this April; would you advise keeping them for mating with the same hens next season, or do you advise selling each year and getting fresh stock?

The young males will be all right to mate with the same hens next season - that is, if they come through the molt with vigor.  They will be just two years old and at their best.  The molt is the test for both, hens and cocks.  If they show no signs of ailing or weakness during that period, it is proof of the proper stamina and vigor.

Age for Mating.

At what age may a cockerel be mated with hens?

From nine months to a year is the proper age to mate a Leghorn cockerel. 
Cockerels of the larger breeds should not be mated before a year old.

White-Yolk Eggs.

Why are eggs watery and light-colored?

The trouble is in the feed somewhere.  Too much green feed, especially green feed that springs from wet, soggy ground, will sometimes make the eggs watery.  Or if you are feeding more mash feed than dry grain, it will have that tendency.  Some people claim that the feed a hen eats does not affect the egg at all; but if it does not, why do eggs differ in color and quality?  Eggs that are laid by hens fed wholly on wheat, or the by-products of wheat, such as bran, shorts or middlings, all have a pale yolk.  Now feed the hens some green feed — any kind will do — and the eggs from the same hens will have a yolk several degrees or shades darker.