POULTRY SECRETS REVEALED. 57 



"peeps" dismally, the best thing is to end its misery; for if, by chance, 

 it recovers from a bad attack it will always be a stunted, worthless 

 bird. 



But while this disease is generally incurable, yet it is easily pre- 

 ventable. And the "secret" — so called — of avoiding it is first, to hatch 

 right; second, to brood right; third, to feed right. 



Careful tests show that artificially hatched and brooded chicks 

 are more liable to attacks than are those hatched by hens. This should 

 not be the case, and would not be the case if we understood the 

 business as well as the hen does. 



We don't. We never can. 



But if we would equalize matters we should use incubators and 

 heated brooders early in the season, and employ hens later. 



Chilling is fatal. A fireless brooder is all very well in warm 

 weather; but any man who offers to sell a "system" for keeping chicks 

 in a heatless brooder, out of doors, in zero weather, is a knave. Have 

 nothing to do with such a person. 



Keep the chicks comfortably warm, don't overcrowd, feed as 

 directed, and your early hatched birds will seldom have any bowel 

 trouble. 



While chilling is fatal, over-heating is equally so. Chicks can 

 safely endure much more heat in late winter or early spring than in 

 the summer. Therefore "mother" your late hatched chicks with hens 

 or fireless brooders. 



The fine spun theories of salaried people; the "tweedle dum and 

 tweedle dee" arguments over the source of this disease have no practi- 

 cal value. You can prevent white diarrhoea. You cannot "cure" it. 



