HATCHING AND RBiARING 21 



The reason for this is largely the exercise they take dur- 

 ing the day in the open air and the freedom they enjoy 

 from stuffy, poorly ventilated and perhaps overheated 

 coops or brooders at night. If it were possible to reproduce 

 these conditions, chicles in brooders or with hens in brood 

 coops would be equally strong and fit for their life work. 

 But in actual practice we find conditions much different in a 

 majority of cases. We find brooders and brooder houses 

 to which the pure air of nature is denied admittance or in 

 which so much filth exists that the air ic quickly contami- 

 nated and loses its power to sustain the chick; wo find chicks 

 crowding at night in brooders and allowed to overheat by 

 careless operators; we find hens with broods confined in 

 coops which offer excellent protection from wind and rain 

 but which are closed tightly at night, thereby preventing 

 proper ventilation and in summer time raising the tempera- 

 ture to a high degree. Reverse these conditions and we 

 approach the conditions afforded by the hen of the stolen 

 nest which reared her brood in the open air and produced 

 chicks with strong constitutions. 



Foods and Feeding. 



The manner of feeding and caring for the chicks has 

 fully as much to do with their growth and development 

 as the exact make-up of the ration. A scientific feeder 

 can figure out on paper a perfectly balanced ration contain- 

 ing exactly the right proportion of protein and carbohy- 

 drates, together with mineral matter, or ash, for the bony 

 structure of the bird. This ration may be fed at regular 

 intervals and yet fail to produce proper growth, or indeed 

 to prevent a high death rate. The failure of such a ration 

 to produce good results is not the fault of the chemist that 

 compounded it or the ration itself, but is because the con- 

 ditions surrounding the chicks are such that they cannot 

 make proper use of it after they consume it. 



Good food is useful only when it is properly assimilated 

 and becomes a part of the blood, flesh and bone of the living 

 body and this assimilation is possible only when the diges- 

 tive organs are healthy. A well-ordered digestive apparatus 

 in such cases depends almost solely upon the proper warmth. 



