43 



THE CHICK BOOK 



and the number of insects and worms obtainable on range. 

 Green food or bulky vegetable food should be fed daily and 

 as regularly as a horse or cow is fed hay. It is just as es- 

 sential 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 ratio 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 



A Flock ot Chicks That Will Grow Fast It Well Fed. 



•excefpt green food, which is imperative in either case, and it 

 saves much energy which would be expended 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 maturity 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 

 lor water, nitrogen will not serve, and any ration that is not 

 "balanced as it should be feeds one side and starves the other. 

 If any system of feeding could be devised 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 ratio of protein (albuminoids) to carbohydrates, 

 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 

 ra certain percentage of animal protein will be highly suc- 

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

 ition in the midst 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, as the husk or shell 

 acts as a sitimulant to intestinal action, but an excess causes 

 irritation and bowel trouble. 



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 small scale this method will answer, but where 

 large numbers 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. 



Unless we can furnish a uniform and constant supply of 

 heat of the right temperature trouble begins, and once 



begun there seems to be 

 no end. Get this one fact 

 clearly inl your mind, that 

 warmth is more essential 

 than food in handling an 

 incubator brdod. 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 faltaJ. The 

 chemical and nutritive 

 changes that foiod must 

 undergo in the digestive 

 process can only be carried 

 on at a high temperature. 

 This is the vital tempera- 

 ture; below it the process 

 ceases. This at once checks 

 nutrition. Etoctors describe 

 health as the perfect har- 

 mony of nutritious 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 &s 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 exer- 

 cise in an outside run in moderately cold weather when they 

 can take in the sunshine. If left to their choice, they will 

 seek the warmth before they become chilled to the danger 

 point, provided they know where to find it. Here is where 

 the artificial brooder is better than many old hens, that 

 often keep going, no matter how cold it is, while the chicks 

 cry and beg for the warmth that is denied them. Their 

 plaintive peep is sure sign of dlsicamfort, and whenever 

 it is heard it is high time they were looked after. Where 

 chicks are to be raised by the thousands for market, arti- 

 ficial incubating and brooding must be adopted, as it would 

 require too much help at too great an outlay to make it 

 profitable with hens under the natural method. Three sit- 

 ting hens would cause me more trouble and annoyance than 

 one incubator, and with their broods would require as much 

 attention as a brooder house holding several thousand. 



