Feeding Young Chickens 1459 



do this the remaining food should be removed, and no more should be 

 given until signs of hunger appear. The chicks should be kept in such 

 condition that they are eager for food at feeding times, but should be sent 

 to roost with full crops; and unless the attendant is to be at the broodei 

 by daylight or soon after, a little grain should be left in the litter at night 

 so that the chicks may find it the first thing in the morning. The best 

 time to stint the chicks is at the morning meal ; they are then more active 

 and will hunt vigorously for every scrap of food left in the litter. 



Cracked and ground grains. — Chicks appear to need both cracked and 

 grotmd grain: the latter because the nourishment is more easily and 

 quickly available, the former because the additional energy needed to 

 reduce the larger food to available form tends to strengthen the digestive 

 system. The difference in the mechanical condition of the food also 

 furnishes a variety in the ration, and the chicks tire less quickly of their 

 food. If ground food is given at night the crops of the chicks are more 

 quickly emptied than is the case when their evening meal is of cracked 

 grain. 



Animal foods. — Fowls seem to need animal food. In the natural state 

 the chicks are reared at a season when the supply of insects and earth- 

 worms is abundant, and the mother hen exerts herself to procure this 

 food for her brood. Since chicks reared in brooders are under artificial 

 conditions, the supply of insects is very limited and animal food of some 

 sort must be furnished to remedy this deficiency. The material generally 

 preferred for this purpose is beef scrap. If fresh and untainted this gives 

 very good results, when fed in such a manner that the chicks are not 

 obliged to eat more of it than they desire. In an experiment conducted 

 at this Station in 1909,* chicks allowed free access to beef scrap from 

 the first meal ate, in the first six weeks, 5 to 8 per cent of total food 

 in this material. In another experiment, the data of which have not 

 been published, the chicks that had hopper-fed beef scrap with cracked 

 grain and ground food, consumed in beef scrap, during the first eight 

 weeks, 8 to 10 per cent of their total food, excluding green food, and the 

 results were apparently good. One flock, however, was given the mash 

 mixture and beef scrap, with no cracked grain. For this flock the 

 quantity of beef scrap consumed was more at times than all the other 

 food. Eighty-nine per cent of these chicks died of digestive . troubles 

 before they were seven weeks old, probably because of their abnormal 

 consumption of a highly concentrated food. 



Infertile eggs are sometimes used for the animal food. These should 

 be given with caution, however, as they are very concentrated and may 

 cause digestive troubles if fed in too large quantity. 



* See " Seven Methods of Feeding Young Chickens," Bulletin 282, Cornell University Agricultural 

 Experiment Station. 



