1944 The Cornell Reading-Courses 



frequent periods. This care should begin before the chicks are put 

 in the brooders and should continue throughout the entire time of brood- 

 ing. As soon as the litter becomes damp or soiled, it should be removed, 

 and the pens should be thoroughly swept and disinfected before the litter 

 is renewed. To a considerable degree, careful cleaning will prevent the 

 tracking of filth into the food. The food dishes should be cleaned fre- 

 quently in order to prevent contamination of the food supply, and the 

 dishes for water should be washed once daily and scalded once each week. 

 Drinking water should be supplied in vessels of such a form as will render 

 impossible the fouHng of the water by the chicks. Food should never 

 be allowed to acciunulate in the litter, since it is thus likely to become 

 spoiled and unfit for the chicks. Neglect of sanitary precautions fur- 

 nishes a fruitful source of disease. 



Fresh, untainted food.— Spoiled food or musty food of any kind should 

 never be given to young chickens. Moistened food spoils very quickly in 

 summer, and for this reason only a quantity sufficient for one meal should 

 be mixed and any food that becomes even slightly soured or moldy should 

 be thrown away. Cracked grain often heats and becomes musty and, if 

 fed, will cause serious bowel trouble in chicks; therefore, if only one 

 ingredient in a quantity of chick feed of this kind has become musty 

 while in storage or in any other manner, the entire lot should be discarded. 

 Beef scrap manufactured from tainted meats may also prove dangerous 

 food. A convenient method of testing beef scrap is to warm a small 

 quantity by holding it in the hand. If the odor of the warm beef scrap 

 is like that of cooked or even scorched meat, there is probably nothing 

 unwholesome about it; but if the odor is similar to that of decaying flesh, 

 the scrap is wholly unfit for young chickens. Slight mustiness in grain 

 may be detected in the same way. 



Quantity and quality of food. — It will readily be conceded that if chicks 

 are not given sufficient food to supply their bodily requirements, they 

 cannot be expected to grow satisfactorily. It is equally true that the 

 food may be abundant but of such a quality that it will not yield sufficient 

 nourishment. For example, chicks fed on a ration consisting largely 

 of bran or some other material containing a large proportion of indigestible 

 fiber could not eat enough of the food to supply the needs of their bodies, 

 although their crops might be constantly full. On the other hand, chicks 

 fed chiefly on beef scrap or on sour milk curd would, in their efforts to 

 fiU their crops, get more food material than they could possibly digest. 

 In the first case the chicks would be starved, and in the second they 

 would be overfed. Chick foods sometimes contain a high percentage 

 of small seeds encased in a hard shell, such as millet. The digestive 

 organs of young chickens may not be able to crush this shell, and the 



