570 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



When once it feels and sees the source of heat and comfort, it will 

 almost invariably return to it. 



The importance of a high temperature in a brooder cannot be 

 overestimated. It is vitally important. Heat brought the young 

 chick into the world and lack of heat will take it out of the world. 

 Without warmth chickens do not sleep well. They huddle, i. e., they 

 are compelled to stand up to avoid being trampeled to death. A 

 chicken cannot sleep standing. Without sleep a chicken does not 

 rest. Without rest a chicken cannot grow. Sleep and rest are as 

 important to a chicken as to a baby. A large part of the slow growth 

 and mortality with young chickens is caused by lack of sleep, due to 

 lack of heat. (Cornell B. 246.) 



Care of Chicks. Where the chicks are to be raised on a large 

 scale the brooder house heated by hot water pipes is the most eco- 

 nomical, for in this case there is only one fire to attend, and the work 

 of feeding and watering the chicks can be done much easier than 

 when the chicks are scattered about in individual brooders. In fact 

 outside brooders are not very satisfactory. Unless an enormous 

 amount of care and attention be given to them the temperature is 

 sure to vary so much that the chicks do not thrive. In addition the 

 work has to be done out of doors in aill sorts of weather, making it 

 disagreeable and costly to perform. 



Feeding. Next in importance to the temperature at which the 

 little chicks are kept is the food which they receive. In the case of a 

 chick nature provides for its sustenance until it is able to run about 

 and obtain food partly by its own efforts. The food material thus 

 provided consists of the contents of the yolk sack which is slipped 

 into the abdominal cavity a few hours before the chick is hatched. 

 The yolk sack is connected with the intestine toy a duct through which 

 the semi-fluid mass passes into the digestive system where it is 

 absorbed. It is due to this provision that it is not wise to feed chicks 

 until they are two or three days old. If fed too soon or too much 

 there seems to be a tendency for the material which is present in 

 the yolk sack to remain unabsorbed. When this occurs putrefactive 

 changes soon begin to take place, some of the products thus formed 

 pass into the circulatory system of the chick, bowel trouble results, 

 and the chick dies. Not only may the non-absorption of the con- 

 tents of the yolk sack be caused by feeding too soon or too much, 

 but it is quite probable that this trouble may also be caused by the 

 breeding stock being too fat or otherwise out of condition, or by 

 too variable a temperature or by a lack of sufficient ventilation dur- 

 ing the incubation of the eggs. 



During the first two or three days after the chicks are hatched 

 they require warmth and the opportunity to gain strength rather 

 than to receive food. They should be supplied with water, however, 

 and it will do no harm if they have a little fine chick grit at which 

 to peck. After the second day they are usually fed as follows: The 

 infertile eggs are boiled and run through a food chopper, shell and 

 all. The ground egg is then thoroughly mixed with five or six 

 times its bulk of rolled oats. This mixture constitutes the first and 



