THE CHICK BOOK 



35 



one end of coop and so that it will be in the shade through 

 the middle of the day. In front of these coops I place a 

 small yard in which I shut the chicks for the first two or 

 three days, till they get used to their new quarters, then I 

 open the yards and let them have full range, always feeding 

 and watering in or near the coops. In this way of brooding 

 I have had the greatest success raising chicks. 



My experience has taught me that it is almost impossi- 

 ble to raise chicks that are. riot properly incubated, when 

 the weather gets real warm I find it necessary to cool the 

 eggs for a long time. I leave them out of the incubator 

 and leave the door open from an hour to an hour and a half 

 till they are thoroughly cooled, and then the chicks will 

 hatch out strong and quick and are easily raised. 



I find It best not to put more than fifty chicks in one 

 brood coop, as they will do much better than though there 



were more in one coop. Fifty chicks in a coop the size that 

 I have described will do well and grow one-third faster than 

 one hundred In the same coop; even if you make the coop 

 twice the size, the fifty will do far l)etter than one hundred 

 or more In one lot. 



My method of feeding young chicks is as follows: For 

 the first five days I give them nothing but steel cut oats 

 and dry wheat bran, keeping grit and fresh water before 

 them at all times. For the next five days I feed much the 

 same with a yttle variety added, such as cornbread made 

 out of corn meal and wheat bran. I also feed a little 

 cracked wheat. After they are ten days or two weeks old 

 I begin to feed cracked corn, whole wheat, a little millet and 

 sugar cane seed, green cut bone twice a week and later on 

 a few sunfiower seeds. Chicks are like Yankees, they like 

 a variety. WILLIAM WEBB. 



HATCHING AND RAISING THE CHICKS. 



A Discussion of Simple, Practical Methods of Hatching, Brooding, Growing, Fattening and Maturing Chicks, Wherein 



Exercise and Pure Air Play Prominent Parts. 



By H. A. Nourse. 



m 



AN has invented and built machines to supplant the 



hen in the motherly functions of hatching and 



raising, but the old hen still has a monopoly of the 



egg producing branch of the business. Still she 



can supply such eggs as hatch strong, vigorous chicks only 



when she is well taken care of. 



The matter of conditioning the breeding stock is not a 

 difficult or intricate proposition. If the birds are kept in 

 good fiesh, not fat, and have plenty of good food, fresh air 

 and exercise, there will be no trouble getting fertile eggs 

 that will hatch. Eggs with weak germs will sometimes 

 hatch well, but the chicks will not be worth the trouble. 



Eggs intended for hatching should not be chilled, but in 

 cold weather should be collected very frequently and placed 

 In a dry room where the temperature is about stationary at 

 45 degrees. Although it is desirable to set all eggs as soon 

 as possible after they are collected, they may be held for 

 two weeks without much deterioration if the above condi- 

 tions prevail. Cases are recorded where eggs have been 

 kept four and even six weeks, and have hatched. Only such 

 eggs ^ould be selected for incubation as are of medium size 

 and good shape, with perfect or nearly perfect shells. Small 

 or extra large eggs seldom give good results and porous 

 shells allow too rapid evaporation or too rapid absorption, 

 as the condition of the surrounding air varies. 



S'rom Shell to Brooder. 



It is not difficult to secure good hatches from good eggs; 

 almost any one having a good machine can obtain a satis- 

 factory hatch. Authorities differ somewhat as to the bene- 

 fits derived from cooling the eggs and a few deny that any 

 good can come of the practice; but the consensus of opinion 

 seems to be that reasonable cooling is decidedly beneficial. 

 In cold weather the best hatches seem to be secured from 

 eggs whicb are cooled slightly the twelfth day and for an 

 increasing period each day until the eighteenth, inclusive, 

 when they are allowed to reriiain out of the machine until 

 the shells feel but slightly warm to the touch; but in warm 

 weather they are cooled a few minutes on" the fifth and the 

 time increased daily up to the eighteenth day, after which 

 they should not be touched again. On this day they remain 



out fifteen or twenty minutes and sometimes, on a very 

 warm day, for a half hour. Cooling should be done when 

 turning the eggs at evening. Do not disturb the trays 1 rom 

 this time until the hatch is complete. When all the chicks 

 appear to be pretty well dried, open the machine, remove 

 the trays and closing the door, except a minute crack for 

 better ventilation, leave the little fellows in the egg chamber 

 for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, gradually decreasing 

 the temperature until the thermometer registers ninety-five 

 at the end of twenty-four hours. As the thermometer hangs 

 above the chicks, it is probably a degree less at the chicks' 

 heads. I have found this plan to work very satisfactorily. 

 The chicks go into the brooder accustomed to a lower tem- 

 perature and ready to eat anything that they can find. I 

 believe that most machines do not furnish enough fresh air 

 for the little chicks after they are well dried off and open 

 the door just a little that they may be supplied. 



The temperature of the brooder should be fixed at nine- 

 ty before the chicks are put in, as its complement of chicks 

 adds two to five degrees when they are under the hover. 

 Feeding the Little Chicks. 



So many different methods of feeding brooder chicks are 

 advised by people whose experience and success entitle 

 them to consideration, that what one man says should be 

 taken merely as an opinion until one tries it and finds it 

 satisfactory for his own use. For years I believed that 

 nothing could equal the time honored corn meal cake baked 

 hard and fed dry to the baby chicks. I doubt if anything 

 can beat it much to-day, but the prepared chick feeds, now 

 on the market, offer a well balanced ration of dry grains 

 with the proper allowance of beef scrap, grit, charcoal, etc., 

 in a convenient form and at a reasonable price. 



I believe that chicks often get too much food when they- 

 are first placed in the brooder and that heavy losses fre- 

 quently occur from that cause alone. The best results have 

 been obtained when the chicks were left in the incubator for 

 a day and a half without food after the liatch has been com- 

 pleted, and when placed in the brooder fed one light feed 

 the first day, two the second and three the third. Beginning 

 on the fourth day five feeds may be fed daily; but they 



