72 PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 



after hatching It will be seen that the yellowish fluid 

 of the yolk is passing from the yolk through the connect- 

 ing tube into the digestive system and some of it ap- 

 pears to be working back to the gizzard. 



This yolk 'nutriment is digested and furnishes suf- 

 ficient sustenance for the chick during several days. 

 The chicks are thus given ample opportunity to collect 

 grains of sand or gravel and pass them down the diges- 

 tive tract to the gizzard, there to be utilized as mill- 

 stones for grinding the fibrous grains and other hard 

 foods to be eaten later. 



It is right to supply the chicks, immediately after 

 hatching, with bright, attractive bits of grit for this 

 purpose. Pure, fresh water may also be placed within 

 reach and kept at hand so that they can drink at will. 

 Simply grit and water is their proper fare for the first 

 three days and by this seeming starvation is avoided 

 the danger of digestive disorders which might have 

 fatal results. 



If through mistaken kindness the attendant begins 

 feeding the chicks promptly after hatching, they are 

 liable to get kernels of grain in the gizzard before the 

 grinding stones are in place. Worse than this, if the 

 digestive tract is filled with food eaten by the chick, 

 the flow of the contents of the yolk into the intestinal 

 canal is diminished or stopped. The yolk instead of 

 dwindling to minute size or vanishing after a week or 

 more, remains large, its contents ferment, and the chick 

 suffers a lingering death. 



The poultryman should satisfy himself by personal 

 examination, as to these points. If chicks die or are 

 killed by accident, open them and make a study of this 

 matter of yolk absorption. The skin of the abdomen *s 

 easily torn open by the fingers and the yolk, intestines 

 and gizzard exposed to view. If, after the chick is a 

 week old, the yolk remains large and full or is distended 

 with thin liquid and gases, fermentation has been pro- 

 ducing poisons fatal to the chick's life. If after the 

 chick is two weeks old, the yolk is not to be found or 



