FEEDING CHICKS EROM HATCHING TO WEANING 



45 



much better results than indifferent care under better 

 conditions. 



In presenting the subject of feeding for many differ- 

 ent conditions and for different purposes it is necessary 

 sometimes strongly to emphasize points as they apply to 

 one set of conditions which under an entirely different 

 set of conditions require but little attention. The reader 

 should therefore always note carefully to what circumstan- 

 ces certain emphatic instructions do apply, and to what they 



COOPS FOR HEN AND CHICKS USED AT THE GOVERNMENT POULTRY 



FARM, BELTSVILLE, MARYLAND 

 Photo from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



do not apply. Failing to do this, poultry keepers often do 

 a great deal of unnecessary work. This may not make 

 any particular difference when the flock is small, and 

 when the work of caring for it is considered recreation, 



f u ut where poultry keeping is on a commercial basis un- 

 ecessary work is always to be avoided. 

 Comfort and Warmth the First Requirement 

 The first point to consider in caring for young chick- 

 ens is to keep them comfortable. For them comfort 

 eans warmth and dryness especially for the first few 

 days. A hen that is hatching a brood of chicks is usually 

 reluctant to leave the nest from the time that the eggs 

 begin to pip until the chicks are all out, dried off nicely, 

 and themselves begin to explore the vicinity of the nest. 

 She will go without feed or drink rather than move at this 

 crisis, and if she has been well fed and is in good con- 

 dition she appears none the worse for a two or three 

 day's fast. She stays on the nest and keeps the chicks 

 snug, warm, and dry. They do not need feed for from 36 

 to 48 hours after leaving the egg, as the yolk of the egg, 

 which is absorbed through the rec- 

 tum just before the chick hatches, 

 furnishes nourishment until the chick 

 is able to get about well, and to take 

 an interest in things that it can pick 

 up and swallow. 



The exact period for which the yolk 

 affords sufficient nourishment has not 

 been determined, nor is there really 

 any need that it should be, nor can 

 one see how it could be done even 

 to satisfy a natural curiosity on the 

 point. We can learn by observation 

 that chicks frequently begin to pick 

 up feed when about 24 hours old: 

 that they rarely do under 24 hours; 

 that chicks in the same brood will be- 

 gin to eat some in about 24 hours, 

 others not for 36, or perhaps about 

 48 hours; and that almost all chicks 



that have good vitality will begin to take feed quite freely 

 by the time they are two days old. We know also by 

 observation that chicks can go as long as 72 hours after 

 hatching without feed, and apparently be none the worse 

 for it; yet we will also find some chicks that seem to be 

 weakened if kept without feed as long as that. It cannot 

 be positively said that the lack of feed caused weakness 

 noted, for these cases generally occur in lots of chicks 

 shipped after hatching, and all the circumstances of the 

 shipment may not be known. 



However that may be, while the 

 poultry keeper who is so situated that 

 he has to take chances on chicks that 

 may be full three days old before 

 they reach him and get their first 

 feed, can do so with the assurance 

 that the risk in keeping them without 

 feed for so long is the least risk in 

 transportation, this is a risk which 

 need not be taken except in such cir- 

 cumstances. Ordinarily there is no 

 occasion to keep them without feed 

 so long, and the chicks may be fed 

 as soon as they begin to show that 

 they are looking for something more 

 than warmth and comfort. 



It is frequently said that chicks 

 are injured by feeding too soon. This 



was maintained by many regarded as good authority 

 when nearly all chicks were hatched and brooded with 

 hens. It is not now so strongly held with regard to chicks 

 under natural methods, but many assert that too early 

 feeding must be avoided in handling chicks artificially. 

 The circumstances upon which this opinion is based are 

 not anywhere set forth so fully and clearly as to show 

 that early feeding was without doubt the cause of trou- 

 ble, and it would be illogical to admit that if chicks under 

 natural methods are not injured by early feeding, artifi- 

 cially hatched and brooded chicks may be with all con- 

 ditions right. But while taking this position we may re- 

 cognize it as entirely reasonable to suppose that there 

 are many chickens which as a result of wrong temper- 

 ature in incubation, or in brooding, have a slight ten- 

 dency to bowel trouble which nature takes care of more 

 readily if they take no feed into the system until at a 

 suitable degree of temperature, and with rest and quiet, 

 the organs are normal. The case here is precisely the 

 same as when at any later period in life chickens and fowls 

 have conditions of the digestive tract when they are 



BROODER HOUSE USED AT THE MAINE EXPERIMENT STATION 



The movable fence is used only to confine the chicks to space 



near the house while very small. 



