ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING 



light are fruitful causes of high mortality, notwithstanding the 

 fact that young chicks are generally allowed as much liberty 

 as is consistent with satisfactory growth. 



PREVALENCE OF TUBERCULOSIS 



More than 15 per cent, of the post-mortems in this study 

 revealed the presence of tuberculosis — the bacillus was located 

 in the dark, poorly ventilated brooders, and it was here that 

 the chicks contracted this most insidious disease. Many a 

 person casually examining a brooder is misled by the fact that 

 it is scrupulously clean and absolutely louseless, and overlook 

 the danger of infection from tuberculosis, a disease very prev- 

 alent among fowls. German statistics show that 10 per cent. 

 of the adult fowls killed in that country are tuberculous. 



Of the 15.1 per cent, tuber- 

 culous fowls examined in this 

 study, 113 chicks had tubercles 

 in the lungs, 5 on the walls of 

 the heart, 5 on the walls of the 

 gizzard, and 1 on the intestines. 

 The lungs, then, appear to be 

 the principal seat of infection, 

 over 90 per cent, of the diseas- 

 ed chickens having tuberculoiis 

 lungs. Tuberculosis is to be 

 suspected when whitish, cheesy 

 lumps appear on any of the in- 

 ternal organs, and, as a matter 

 of precaution, the lungs of fowls 

 should not be utilized as food. 



Sunlight was found to be 

 the most efficient and cheapest 

 germicide. Affected hovers were 

 removed from the brooders and 

 set in the full sunlight and al- 

 lowed to air for a day. This 

 simple expedient reduced the 

 evidence of tuberculosis in the 

 . infected brooders from 50 per 

 cent, to only 3 per cent. 



Congestion of the lungs, due 

 to sudden alterations of the 

 temperature and exposure, 

 claimed a large percentage of 

 victims, 243 chickens, or 29.4 

 per cent, of the mortahty, being 

 attributed, more or less correct- 

 ly, to this trouble. 



41— WHITE LEGHORNS IN A LONG CLOSED-FRONT HOUSE 



DIGESTIVE DIFFICULTIES 



But the greatest interest attaches to the study of those 

 cases showing symptoms of indigestion. Of the 826 chicks 

 which died of disease, 625, or 75.6 per cent, had more or less 

 trouble with the gall bladder — closure of the gall duct, leading 

 to an enormous accumulation of gall, and a paleness of the 

 intestines. This condition is readily recognizable in the living 

 chick. The green gall stains adjacent organs and the abdo- 

 minal wall and a distinctly green erea is conspiouous outside 

 ths abdominal wall, close to the posterior edge of the breast 

 bone, on the right side of the midline. The affected area ap- 

 pears as though mortification had set in, even before death. 



To ascertain the cause of this accumulation of gall and 

 consequent mortality, a feeding experiment was instituted. 

 Four pens of approximately 50 chicks each, all conditions being 

 identical, were fed a varying ration. 



To pen No. 1 equal parts of egg (from the incubator) liver, 

 and grain, boiled together and chopped fine, were fed. Green 



food in abundance, consisting of sliced onion, oat sprouts, etc.i 

 was fed. 



To pen No. 2 was fed grain and green stuff — no animal 

 protein. The mortality in this pen was 9 . 5 per cent., of which 

 75 per cent, was due to digestive trouble. 



To pen No. 3 grain alone was fed — animal protein and 

 green stuff were omitted. Mortality 32.7 per cent., of which 

 76.5 per cent, was due to digestive trouble. 



To pen No. 4 was given egg, liver and green stuff — no grain. 

 In this case the mortality was 63 . 7 per cent., of which 85 . 8 per 

 cent, was due to digestive trouble. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF A BALANCED RATION 



This feeding experiment very strikingly indicates the ne- 

 cessity of a well-balanced ra- 

 tion for young chicks. If 

 chicks immediately after or even 

 before death show this green 

 area on the right side, the 

 amount of meat in the diet 

 should be increased. The weights 

 of the chickens surviving in the 

 above feeding experiment, taken 

 at the close of the test, very 

 forcibly demonstrated the fact 

 that the increased amount of 

 animal protein, in combination 

 with the grain ration, not only 

 reduced the mortality due to 

 indigestion, but also caused a 

 more rapid growth than was 

 observed in the case of chicks 

 not similarly fed. 



For the purpose of provid- 

 ing a better balanced ration for 

 young chicks, the author has 

 instituted a, feeding experiment 

 of his own, using blood meal 

 as a source of animal protein. 

 Blood meal is well-known as a 

 specific in calf scours, and from 

 its abnormally high content of 

 animal protein, its use in feeding 

 young chicks is expected to re- 

 duce to a minimum the mortal- 

 ity from bowel trouble. Compar- 

 ed with animal protein derived 

 from other sources, such as beef 

 scrap, its use would appear to be more economical, yet it is 

 not thought desirable to make blood meal the only source of 

 animal protein in feeding young chicks. 



A NEW EGG TESTER 



AN ORDINARY CALCIUM CARBIDE BICYCLE 

 LANTERN WILL GIVE ADMIRABLE RESULTS 



J. D. STEVENS 



THE following may be of interest to many incubator 

 operators who, Uke the writer, ride a bicycle, and fre- 

 quently have to avail themselves of the use of a bicycle 

 lantern in getting hoihe on a dark night. 



The lantern we use is a calcium carbide which, as is well 

 known, needs only the appKcation of water to generate acet- 



50 



