BROODING 



27 



the main food for a growing chick. Add to this a little millet 

 or chopped sunflower seed with a little (very little) cut green 

 bone or lean meat daily after they are ten days old, the 

 amount depending on the season and the number of insects 

 and worms obtainable on range. Green food or bulky vege- 

 table food should be fed daily and as regularly as a horse or 

 cow is fed hay. It is just as essential and serves the same 

 purpose in the digestive process in one case as in the other. 

 Accustom them to eat whole wheat, buckwheat and cracked 

 corn as soon as possible. , 



A Preference for Soft Food 



Our preference and that of many others, especially 

 where the chicks are raised for market, is soft food, for two 

 reasons: First, because we can combine all the necessary 

 elements and secure the proper ration of food constituents 

 at each feeding. They cannot select certain seeds or parti- 

 cles which they prefer and waste the remainder, as they will 

 in dry feed. They usually hunt out all the millet seed first, 

 as this is "candy" to the little chicks and a luxury even to 

 old hens. Bury a handful under a haystack and they will 

 leave no straw unturned until they find it. No matter how 

 accurately we figure out our dry feed ration, we can't force 

 them to eat. the less palatable after they have filled up on 

 "candy" and our calculations are knocked out. Second, be- 

 cause a soft, properly compounded food needs no accessories 

 .except green food, which is imperative in either case, and it 

 saves much energy which would 

 be expened by the chicks in 

 grinding it. Bear in mind, we 

 are raising these chicks for profit 

 and not as pets. We must, 

 therefore, force them to the limit 

 of their ability to eat, digest, 

 assimilate and grow. Quick ma- 

 turity is what we desire. In 

 order to achieve this we must 

 meet all the demands made by 

 the growing powers for material 

 to grow on. You can't deceive 

 nature. If it calls for nitrogen, 

 carbon will not answer; if it calls 

 for water, nitrogen will not serve,' 

 and any ration that is not bal- 

 anced as it should be feed's one 

 side and starves the other. If any 

 system of feeding could be de- 

 vised whereby we could mature a 

 chick in four weeks, we should all 

 quickly adopt it, and if we were 

 raising chicks exclusively for 

 market we should not depart 

 from it. Again, a ration may be 

 balanced and its ration of pro- 

 tein (albuminoids) to carbohy- 

 drates, free fat, and mineral salts 

 properly determined and yet fail, 

 as it surely will if the protein is 



derived exclusively from vegetable or grain sources. 

 The experiment stations have lately proved this fact, 

 which some of us discovered long ago by costly 

 experience, at that time our only teacher. A ration 

 bearing precisely the same nutritive ratio but with a 

 certain percentage of animal protein will be highly suc- 

 cessful, but if lacking it they famish and die from starva- 

 tion in the ^idst of apparent plenty. A chick properly fed 

 will be very eager for the next feed. 'When they are not 

 there is danger ahead. Never feed all they will eat up by 

 lingering over the feed-trough. They will overload their 



crops if permitted and where dry food is given, especially 

 rolled oats, the swelling takes place in the crop faster than 

 the food is passed into the gizzard and often proves fatal. 

 An excess of bran is also dangerous. A little is necessary 

 in some cases and desirable in others, 

 acts as a stimulant to intestinal action, 

 irritation and bowel trouble. 



as the husk or shell 

 but an excess causes. 



Artificial Brooding 



The above is comparatively an easy matter to follow, 

 for when natural brooding is employed more than half of 

 our anxiety is removed, and when the business is to be con- 

 ducted on a sjnall scale this method will answer, but where 

 large nuipbers are to be hatched and grown, any but the 

 artificial system would be entirely too laborious and out of 

 the question. The above being fully understood, the only 

 change to be considered is artificial brooding. |p| 



Unless we can furnish a uniform and constant supply of 

 heaij of the right temperature trouble begins, and once be- 

 gun there seems to be no end. Get this one fact clearly in 

 your mind, that warmth .is more essential than food in hand- 

 ling an incubator brood. They will manage to live on almost 

 any kind of food even if they do not grow and thrive, but 

 variable heat in the brooder is fatal. The chemical and nutri- 

 tive changes that food must undergo in the digestive process 

 can only be carried on at a high temperature. This is the 

 vital temperature; below it the process ceases. This at once 



PROFITABLE PETS 

 ■ The above thrifty flo.ck of- Barred Plymouth Rock chicks tells plainer than words where the boys helps 

 to profit the f^rm. On this farm the brooders were placed in the orchard where the chicks were sheltered 

 from the sun and stormy weather besides being' protected to an extent from hawks and other enemies.— 

 F. L. Sewell. 



checks nutrition. Doctors describe health as the perfect 

 harmony of n'ufritious changes, or physiological ease. If 

 the temperature of the body falls below the vital point, 

 nutrition is disturbed and disease follows. If the chick is 

 chilled before the yolk is fully absorbed, nothing will save it. 

 The nutritive process has been checked. 'What food is taken 

 afterward passes wholly or partly undigested and death soon 

 follows. Fatal as cold is when prolonged to discomfort, it 

 is necessary after the chick has learned where to run to 

 hover and get warm, to allow them a little exercise in an 

 outside run in- moderately cold weather when they can take 



