74 



CHICK BOOK 



amount of light, toward which all the chicks crowd, causing 

 them to trample and cripple each other. This has been the 

 cause of the greatest loss with us. The packages having all 

 the burlap covering are much to be preferred to those having 

 the half wooden and half burlap covering as in the latter 

 package all the chicks crowd into the part with the burlap 

 cover and cause congestion in that part. It seems to me 

 that it is important to have conditions in all parts of the 

 package uniform. The wooden box with all burlap covering 

 fulfills all the requirements in this regard and would be a 

 very acceptable package were it not for the liability of the 

 burlap getting torn or displaced. 



Many times we have had losses through the curiosity 

 and sympathy of the public and express agents. A box of 

 live baby chicks, with their plaintive chirruping, seems to 

 be a matter of special interest to the curious public and 

 often the most curious cannot refrain from lifting an edge 

 of the burlap to get a look at the little fellows. Once dis- 

 turbed the burlap rarely goes back to its original position, 

 leaving an opening, which, though slight, is a source of danger, 

 as it admits a shaft of direct light causing the crowding 

 mentioned above. 



Another cause of occasional loss to us is that express 

 agents in handling the shipments will allow their sympathies 

 to get the better of them. While we attempt to regulate 

 all shipments so they will arrive at a convenient time for 

 delivery to the consignee, some- 

 times connections are not made 

 as we plan, and occasionally the 

 consignee fails to do his part, 

 and the chic'ks are obliged to re- 

 main in the express office for a 

 day or so. 



One case I have in mind was 

 a shipment to a neighboring state 

 which arrived at its destination 

 on a Friday. The agent there 

 immediately sent postal notice 

 to the owner that the chicks 

 had arrived, but either the pos- 

 tal was not delivered or the con- 

 signee did not respond as quickly 

 as he should. In any case the 

 chicks had to remain in the express 



office for some two or three days, over Sunday I think. 

 The continual peeping of the chicks appealed to the agent's 

 tender heart and it seemed to him no more than common 

 humanity to remove the chicks from their comfortable box 

 to the floor of the big drafty room and feed them. While 

 his intentions were no doubt of the best, his judgment was 

 in error and the result was a very heavy loss among the 

 chicks almost immediately. 



Probably the feed was not what it should have been for 

 a first feed, but the main thing to keep in mind is that the 

 chicks should not be removed from the warm box except to 

 be placed in a, good warm brooder, or under a hen, where 

 they have access to the heat so essential to their welfare. 

 Those who are acquainted with fireless brooders or who 

 have it in mind that the chicks have been shipped in boxes 

 unsuppUed with heat may consider this inconsistent teach- 

 ing, but such is not the case, as heat is supplied in the ship- 

 ping boxes, as in fireless brooders, by the bodies of the 

 chicks themselves. They are so crowded in the small quar- 

 ters as to keep the heat as high as 95 degrees, which is the 

 ordinary brooder heat. 



Here lies the secret of chick shipping: Packing them 

 so closely and confining them to such a limited amount of 

 air that the proper temperature is maintained by the heat 

 thrown off from the bodies. It seems hardly possible that 



THE SEFTON LIVE CHICK BOX 

 This cut illustrates the style of box recommended by 

 F. W. Briggs for shipping day-old chicks. 



a thermometer will register 95 degrees in a box packed for 

 shipment, but repeated experiments have proven this to be 

 true and heat supplied in this way has the advantage of being 

 constant and regular. 



The matter of ventilation in the boxes must be carefully 

 considered, but I think there is more danger of having too 

 much than too little. The lung capacity of a day-old chick 

 is, of course, small and it requires only a very small hol^ to 

 furnish sufficient oxygen for 25 or 50 of them. If too much 

 ventilation is supplied it will only reduce the temperature 

 in the box and do injury to the chicks. It is necessary and 

 in fact better to furnish only enough ventilation to keep the 

 air from becoming vitiated. 



As in the case of air so also with light; the amount 

 should be limited. The darker the chick apartment is kept, 

 the quieter will the chicks be and the less will be the likeli- 

 hood of injury from jostling and trampling. A hole in the 

 box large enough to admit the proper amount of air is quite 

 sufficient for admitting light. 



A Good Shipping Box 



The package we have now adopted in view of past ex- 

 periences is shown in the accompanying illustration and con- 

 sists of a light but substantial box made of heavy corrugated 

 card-board and is much like the boxes in which ladies get 

 their suits or coats from dry goods stores in size and shape, 

 except that it is much more 

 substantial. It is reinforced with 

 wire at the corners. Being lighter 

 than the old wooden boxes, it 

 will save express charges, and it 

 is fully as secure. These boxes 

 are made in 25, 50 and 100 chick 

 sizes, the two larger sizes being 

 divided into compartments hold- 

 ing 25 chicks each. This seems 

 to be about the best number of 

 chicks to place in one compart- 

 ment as when 50 or 100 chicks are 

 shipped in one compartment, 

 whenever crowding occiirs as in 

 cases mentioned above, serious 

 results are sure to follow for 

 those unfortunate chicks that get 

 trampled. Holes are made in the sides of the boxes for 

 furnishing sufficient air to each compartment, varying in size 

 and number according to the outside temperature and the 

 locality into which the chicks are to be shipped. Careful 

 judgment has to be exercised in this regard. 



The floor of the box is fitted with some material on 

 which the chicks can get secure foot-hold to prevent them 

 slipping around and this is covered with a half inch pr so of 

 cut clover, providing a comfortable, warm litter for them 

 to lie in. The cover of the box is fitted down closely and the 

 package securely tied up as in no case should it be opened 

 and the chicks exposed until they reach their destination. 



Chicks Need No Feed at First 



Many people seem to feel that it is cruelty to animals 

 to start chicks off on a long journey with no feed and to pro- 

 vide no arrangements for their being fed en route. The 

 development of the day-old chick business has been instruc- 

 tive to poultrymen as it has shown them the wisdom of with- 

 holding feed from chicks quite a time after incubation. Re- 

 ports I have received from chicks sent out seem to show me 

 forcibly that the lack of food, for three or four days, is of 

 benefit rather than of injury to the chicks, as lots that have 

 been shipped long distances have almost invariably done well. 

 The mortality for the first ten days appears to be less than 



