194 SECOND THOUSAND QUESTIONS IN AGRICULTURE 



chicks are dying for lack of something to eat. Eggs are not natural 

 food for little chicks and while they can be fed to good advantage, 

 mixed with other things, too much egg constipates the little fellows 

 and does more harm than good. Give chicks grit, gfround oyster shell 

 and charcoal and get them interested in green feed, then they will 

 soon quit dying. 



Crippled Chickens. 



Why should chicks hatched in incubator be crippled in the knee joint, 

 often the bone is sticking through the flesh, while the ones hatched under 

 hens seldom are? 



The most common cause of the crippled condition of newly 

 hatched chicks is overheating of the incubator during the hatching 

 period. If this crippled condition develops in the brooder shortly 

 after hatching, instead of in the incubator, it is due to overheated 

 condition of the brooder floor. If the chicks are two or three weeks 

 old before the trouble occurs it is due to lack of bone-making 

 material in the food. 



Raising Ninety Per Cent of Chicks. 



How can I raise ninety to ninety-five per cent of the chicks I hatch? 



How to raise ninety to ninety-five per cent of chicks is not 

 answerable unless a person knew the stock the chicks came from 

 and the man behind them. The most vital things in chick raising are 

 first to see that they are not fed too soon after hatching, then 

 fed right at regular times; kept free from colds, clean and com- 

 fortable, and have green food. I have raised 100 per cent of chicks 

 by hand, but could never trust hens to do quite so well. 



Breaking Hens of Egg-Eating 

 Why do hens eat eggs, and ivhat is the cure ifor it? 



Hens eat eggs because they get the taste by eating fresh egg 

 shells thrown to them or by accidentally breaking eggs in the nest. 

 Once we effectually broke our hens from this practice. A hole 

 was broken in one end of each of a few eggs and plenty of red 

 cayenne pepper was inserted. These pepper eggs were laid in the 

 nests of the egg-eating hens and it was not long afterward that we 

 saw certain hens going about the yard with mouths wide open 

 trying to cool off. 



Bad Odor and Taste of Eggs. 



Why do some of our eggs smell and taste bad. Is it a fault of any 

 breed? 



The fault probably lies either in the feed or in the individual 

 hen. Sometimes, a hen is found that retains an egg so long before 

 laying that decomposition sets in. If you happened to breed from that 

 particular hen, you would of course get more than one in your flock 



