78 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



is, before the yolk is digested), the effort of digesting the new 

 food draws the nervous energy or gastric juices away from the part 

 containing the yolk, up to the crop and gizzard, and the yolk either 

 does not digest at all or digests so slowly that it brings on bowel 

 trouble, which at such an early age stunts the growth, if it does 

 not kill the chick. In a chick that is fed too early in life the yolk 

 will take, or may take, ten days to digest. You ask how I know 

 this. "By sad experience and post mortem examinations/' is my 

 reply. 



The brooder being warmed to a temperature of 95 degrees under 

 the hover, the floor should be covered with coarse, sharp sand, the 

 chicks carried carefully to the brooder, after remaining thirty-six 

 to forty-eight hours in the incubator. 



Feed Carefully 



The first few hours in the brooder they require no food but the 

 sand to eat and water to drink. The sand supplies the little giz- 

 zards with the necessary teeth or little grindstones, so that they are 

 ready to commence work when the food comes. Water I place in a 

 drinking fountain, so they cannot get into it and wet themselves. 

 I give them water from the first. I know some people do not, but 

 it has succeeded well with my chicks. At about four o'clock they 

 have the first meal. I scatter rolled breakfast oats on the sand. 

 The white flakes quickly attract their attention and they pick them 

 up. I also give them a fountain of fresh water and one of sweet 

 skimmed milk. It is surprising to see how quickly they learn to 

 eat and drink. In the evening I look 'in upon them and am pleased 

 when I see them spread over the hover floor, as it indicates that 

 they are comfortably warm and will not crowd or huddle during 

 the night. The first thing, in the morning I give them some more 

 rolled oats and some "chick feed." The "chick feed" I buy at the 

 poultry supply stores. It is composed of a variety of seeds or 

 grains, with a little charcoal, dried blood, or beef scraps and grit. 

 Sometimes I make my own chick feed by mixing cracked wheat, 

 kaffir corn, millet, steel cut oats, pearl barley and rolled oats to- 

 gether, adding charcoal and dried beef scraps- I put more wheat 

 and more oats into this mixture than any of the other grains. The 

 chick feed that I buy has in addition some other seeds, such as 

 rape or mustard, canary seed, hemp, etc. I buy chick feed to save 

 myself the trouble of mixing. Chick feed and rolled oats is their 

 main feed until they are six or eight weeks of age. I feed them five 

 times a day at first, and I always leave a little feed trough or hop- 

 per of chick feed where they can get it. I know this is contrary to 

 the advice of many, but I found the weaker ones did not get the 

 proper amount when all rushed for the food, and also it was a great 

 comfort to me, if anything detained me beyond the usual feeding 

 time, to know they had food before them. Also when fed at the 

 usual hour they were not so ravenously hungry ; they would not 

 overload their little stomachs. 



