1466 The Cornell Reading-Courses 



By careful observation from the beginning, the person who feeds the 

 chicks may learn to know them and will be able to detect at once a 

 change in their condition that the casual observer would never see. For 

 instance, carelessness in feeding may induce a slight digestive disorder. 

 If the condition is observed at once the evil may be corrected, while con- 

 tinued carelessness will cause serious loss to the owner. Persistent care 

 and watchfulness will very often prevent trouble and loss. The removal 

 of damp litter will obviate a menace to every chick in the brooder, 

 as one of the common molds, Aspergillus, adapts itself readily to the 

 membrane lining the air passages and air sacs of the chick, sometimes 

 causing high mortality. If a bright-colored cord carelessly dropped in 

 the brooder is allowed to remain there, this indigestible material will 

 probably be swallowed, perhaps by two chicks, one at each end of the 

 string. If the ravelings that become loosened on the cloth around the 

 hover are not removed, chicks may be strangled. These are only 

 a few of many complications that should be avoided. 



It cannot be too strongly emphasized that untiring care is absolutely 

 essential to the success of any method of chick feeding. Young chickens 

 are very small creatures and the loss of a few may seem a trifling matter; 

 but in a flock of fifty, one chick is two per cent of the flock. Any 

 method of feeding is expensive if it permits a high mortality. Vigilance 

 will often greatly reduce mortality. 



general details of feeding 



Time of first feeding. — It is believed that the chick derives nourish- 

 ment from the yolk of the egg, which is enclosed within its abdomen just 

 before it breaks from the shell; and that too early feeding prevents, or at 

 least hinders, the proper absorption of this yolk. Chicks begin to show 

 signs of hunger thirty-six to forty-eight hours after hatching. They peck 

 at one another's toes and beaks and rush to the front of the incubator 

 when they hear a tapping on the glass door. If given water, they drink 

 eagerly. They are usually transferred to the brooder at this time and 

 are then given their first meal. 



The first meal. — Whatever the method of feeding may be, the first food 

 should contain grit, charcoal, and granulated bone, all of very small-sized 

 grains. These should be mixed with the other foods in sufficient quantity 

 to be easily noticed. Cracked grain may be fed at first in a shallow tray 

 or dish containing a small quantity of bran. If a dry mash is used, this 

 will take the place of the bran. Moist food should be given in trays ten 

 or twelve inches wide, having low vertical sides to prevent loss of the 

 food; enough of these trays should be used to furnish plenty of feeding 

 surface. Bone meal should be supplied in the first moist food given. 



