24 Hubbard's poultry secrets. 



another nest in the same orchard. This nest contained eggs 

 that were not yet hatched, so I continued my hunt and in the 

 next orchard I found a nest of newly hatched robins. This 

 gave me a chance to find out which food caused the wtiite 

 diarrhea. I decided to test the chick feed first. The only 

 way to make the test was to feed one robin chick feed, and 

 not feed the other at all. I knew the mother would feed them 

 both. Therefore, I marked one with red ink so I would 

 know it. Three times a day I fed that robin a half a thimble 

 full of chick feed, and on the seventh day of feeding, the young 

 robin became sick with white diarrhea, and on the eleventh 

 day he died. To continue my test, I went back to the other 

 orchard and found the first nest. By this time the eggs were 

 hatched and the robins were about four days old. This gave 

 me a chance to test the worms. I fed them three times a day. 

 In this test I found no white diarrhea. I continued feeding- 

 them until they were all feathered and ready to leave the 

 nest. This proved to me that it was the chick feed that 

 caused the white diarrhea and killed my first pair of robins. 

 It also proved to me that nature never intended that a young 

 robin should be fed on hard dry grains. 



It also proved that if you want to be successful you must 

 study nature and follow along natural lines. I then said to 

 myself, "It isn't any Wonder that fifty per cent, of all chick- 

 ens hatched in this country die before they reach the age of 

 six weeks." The reason is that we are not following along na- 

 ture's lines as nature intended we should. 



I set a hen and when she had hatched the chicks I decided 

 not to feed them at all, but to watch her with her flock and 

 study her habits and method of feeding. For the test, I 

 choose a pit game hen as I knew she would have a wilder na- 

 ture than a common hen , and care for her flock as nature 

 taught her when fowls were in the wild state. I choose a 



