CHAPTER XLIX 



SHIPPING BABY CHICKS 



THE traffic in day-old chicks, or what is commonly 

 called, the "baby chick business," is not understood 

 by the general public. They cannot understand how 

 these little, one might say helpless, creatures can 

 be carried by the express companies for hundreds 

 of miles without either fooc' or water or artificial 

 heat. The layman, unfamiliar with poultry raising, 

 is apt to condemn it as bordering upon cruelty to 

 animals, but the man or woman who has given the 

 subject any study at all will soon be convinced that 

 such is not the case. 



The shipping of day-old chicks was carried on in 

 England some few years before it was attempted 

 in this country, but there the distances are not so 

 great, and it remained for the American poultry 

 breeders to demonstrate to the world that th'-y 

 could be safely shipped hundreds of miles with equal 

 success. 



The day-old chick business is not a difficult thing to 

 handle, provided several important details are care- 

 fully looked after. First, you must produce chicks with 

 the proper vitality, and this can only be brought 

 about by obtaining the eggs from good, healthy and 

 vigorous breeding stock, and then the proper incu- 

 bation of these eggs. Second, proper shipping boxes 



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