PROGRESSIVE POULTRY RAISING 



should be carefully inspected by burying the nose in a 

 double handful to see whether there is any musty or 

 moldy taint. One may almost as well feed poison to 

 chicks as to feed grains that have heated or musted in the 

 bin. Much of the so-called white diarrhea found in the 

 Central and Western States is not a contagious disease 

 at all but a condition caused by one of two things ; feed- 

 ing too soon after the chicks are hatched or feeding grain 

 that is not perfectly sweet. 



In furnishing the chicks with the proper ingredients 

 for growth, it has been found that sour milk when used 

 in connection with the grains usually available in most 

 sections of the country, comes as near being what the 

 chick needs as anything that can be found. This is 

 emphasized in the following outline taken from Bulletin 

 No. 0,6 of the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. 



"On removing from the incubator 

 Sour Milk take each chick individually and dip 



the First its beak in sour milk in order to make 



Peed sure that milk is the first food taken 



into its system. Be sure that the 

 chick swallows two or three times before passing it on to 

 the box or basket in which it is to be carried to the brooder. 

 Extensive experiments have shown that milk is a quickly 

 and easily digested food and that it has a most favorable 

 influence in promoting growth and in reducing mortality 

 from all causes. It has been the practice at this station 

 not to give the chicks any water to drink until they are 

 eight or ten weeks old, provided they are given all the 

 milk they will consume. This method insures the con- 

 sumption of milk by all the chicks whereas, if both water 

 and milk are available, some of the chicks are likely to 

 drink only water. For best results sour milk should be 

 fed in a thickened condition but before the curd has 

 separated from the whey. The chicks seem to like it 

 best in this condition and will consume more than if it 

 is not yet thickened or if separation has taken place. 



Page Twenty-Three 



