Feeding Young Chickens • 1945 



chicks may thus eat a large quantity of the grain while obtaining little 

 nourishment from it. 



Young chickens should be given as much wholesome food as they will 

 eat, but they should be made to clean it up once a day. If they fail to 

 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 brooder 

 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 

 ground 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 form 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 experiment station in 1909, chicks allowed free access to beef 

 scrap from the first meal ate, during the first six weeks, from 5 to 8 per 

 cent of their 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, from 8 to 10 per cent of their total food, 

 excluding green food; the results were apparently good. One flock, how- 

 ever, 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 



