76 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



Mr. Rice says : "If we can solve this one problem the cause of 

 the anaemic condition of chicks that follows this failure to absorb 

 the yolk of the egg more money will be saved in one year to the 

 farmers and poultry raisers of New York state than it costs to run 

 the State Agricultural College for ten years." 



Mr. Rice says he is confident that environment has little, if any- 

 thing, to do with the disease, as has been generally supposed. 

 When he first began his investigations, this theory was worked 

 upon and followed up, but as the investigation progressed it was 

 found that the same conditions existed under almost any and all 

 circumstances in dry places, in damp places, in light brooding 

 houses and in dark brooding houses ; in fact, he found no conditions 

 under which this trouble did not exist. Mr. Rice is confident, how- 

 ever, that the investigations being conducted will ultimately solve 

 the problem. 



Until this problem is solved we shall have to be content with the 

 theories of the different breeders and hatchers, and as one I feel 

 confident from my own experiments and experiences that the deaths 

 from diarrhoea, or in fact almost all the deaths of brooder chicks 

 before three weeks of age, come from faulty incubation. The tem- 

 perature has been either too hot or too cold, usually the former, or 

 the ventilation has been at fault, or the chicks have been chilled in 

 carrying them to the brooder, or fed too soon, before the digestive 

 organs were ready to digest the food. 



Elbow Room Needed 



Mr. Hunter, the veteran poultry man, says: "With incubator 

 chicks raised in brooders, elbow room seems to be a most important 

 factor, and want of elbow room is one cause for the great mortality 

 in brooder chicks." 



It is quite natural to suppose that a brooder which is three feet 

 square is abundant room for seventy-five or a hundred chicks, and 

 indeed it is for the chicks as they come out of the incubator, and 

 if we do not want them to grow it might be all right to crowd them 

 into the brooder, but these chicks will be almost twice as large at 

 three weeks old as when they are hatched and will require twice 

 as much! room or will suffer for it. 



Fifty chickens are as many as should be put into any brooder. 

 To increase the number beyond that point will induce crowding, 

 which kills some and stunts others, and will prevent the quick, 

 healthy growth that is necessary for all young animals. Ample 

 brooder room is the first and chief requisite for the health and com- 

 fort of the chicks. The next requisite is oxygen- In other words, 

 plenty of fresh, warm air, but no drafts in the brooder. Here is 

 one of the great faults with many brooders, as for example the hot 

 water pipe brooders in use in many brooder houses. Those hot 

 water pipes merely heat the air that is already within the hovers, 

 which air is practically confined to the hovers by the felt curtain 

 in front, provided to keep in the heat. It does that, but it also en- 

 closes the air, which the chicks have to breathe over and over again. 



