26 



THE CHICK BOOK 



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should be very light and never more than enough to satisfy 

 the chicks for the time. 



Exercise Necessary for Health. 

 Elvery inducement should be offered the youngsters to 

 ecratch and dig and the exercising apartment In the brooder 

 and the adjacent pen in the house should be thickly carpeted 

 •with some good scratching material to that end. Hay chafC 

 is one of the best things for this purpose and can be easily 

 obtained. Any one who stores or feeds hay has more or 

 less of it and is usually glad to get rid of it. It contains 

 many small seeds and bits of clover, which the little fellows 

 make good use of and for which they will search diligently 

 if healthy and not too well supplied by the attendant. The 

 temperature of the brooder house should not be too high. 

 Some will deny that it is well to heat the house at all, and 

 many, either from preference or lack of equipment, supply 

 no heat to the house except that which escapes from the 

 brooders. When the chicks are small, however, I believe 



chick, and the science of feeding will be wonderfully sim- 

 plified. 



Pure, fresh water should be always accessible if a dry 

 grain ration Is fed. Opinions differ as to the advisability of 

 supplying water when feeding a mash ration and some poul- 

 trymen seem to have greater success when giving water and. 

 others when withholding it. The writer's opinion is that 

 no water need be given for the first two or three weeks 

 when feeding a moist mash, and that chicks will do well 

 without it. 



From the Fourth to the Eighth Week. 



Whatever method of feeding is employed for the first 

 three or four weeks, the scheme to be followed for a few 

 succeeding weeks may be the same. 



The degree of heat will have been gradually reduced to 

 eighty at the end of four weeks and may be further reduced 

 to seventy at the end of six weeks, where it may remain so- 

 long as the chicks need a hover. No more heat Is needed in. 



Interior View of Brooder House, with Pipe System, Hovers on White Leghorn Poultry Yards. 



that a moderate degree of heat, about sixty degree, is desir- 

 able in cold weather in that it enables the chicksi to spend 

 more time on the floor of the pen getting up their muscle. 

 It should be remembered that sixty degrees recorded when 

 the thermometer is three feet above the floor is not sixty 

 degrees down where the chicks are. Place the thermometer 

 within a few inches of the floor. 



The best manner of feeding is the one that will best 

 promote exercise. If dry food in the form of grain is given 

 it Is best, especially in cold weather, when the little birds 

 cannot get outdoors to exercise, to mix this in the litter 

 and compel them to scratch it out. 



Pure Air of First Importance. 



In rearing chicks pure air is a very important factor 

 that seldom gets due recognition. Cheap as it is, and neces- 

 sary for the vital processes concerned In maintaining and 

 developing all forms of energy, it is not unusual to find 

 brooder houses with no provision for any where near an 

 adequate supply. Brooder stoves and heaters are burning 

 out what little oxygen there is while owners and managers 

 are wildly endeavoring to figure out some Intricately bal- 

 anced ration to reduce the frightful mortality. Provide plenty 

 of good air under the hovers and wherever elsei there is a 



the house than is necessary to remove the chill in the air iu 

 cold weather. 



A gradual change from the baby food of the first four 

 weeks to the more substantial diet of mash, cracked corn 

 and wheat should be accomplished In ten days or two weeks. 

 This is a period of growth; and the chicks should have all 

 the food they can make use of. More fresh air, exercise, 

 and as much outside run as possible are potent factors in. 

 their development. Green food must be furnished. If in 

 spring and the grass has started, fresh short grass cut in 

 the fields when the dew is on, is the best to be had, next to- 

 that obtained by free range. But if nothing green is growing. 

 a supply of cabbage, mangel wurzels, and clover meal for 

 the mash (one or all three) Is the best that can be offered 

 and Is of substantial value. 



I have had success feeding a simple mash of two-thirds 

 wheat bran, one-third corn meal, with ten per cent of beet 

 scraps added, fed three times a day — morning, noon and 

 night, with an allowance of wheat at mid-forenoon and of 

 cracked corn at mid-afternoon. Grit and charcoal should he- 

 kept in the pen, preferably in a hopper where it will be clean. 



No more food should be given at any time than will be- 

 consumed at once and if any mash is left it should be takeni 



