70 THE CHICK BOOK 



• After the test there will be fewer eggs left in the ma- we give an illustration made fram a ^^^^^ °^^^^^ '^^ 



chine, but as each egg contains a life and life means animal terior of a brooding house on tne Jorad,u 



heat, we may soon expect to note a slight increase in the hovers are used. 



temperature. This should be met by slightly turning down Feeding the Chicks, 

 the nut on the regulator rod each day, or every other day, Feeding has been the stumbling block over which many 

 as the conditions seem to require. The directions sent out ^ ^y^i^.b^ broiler raiser has fallen. The dismal wail of 

 with each Incubator are the guide to follow, and these direc- .,-^^^^^ trouble," usually caused by improper feeding (al- 

 tions say 103 degrees is the proper temperature to maintain, ^j^^^^^j^ ^^^ ^^^^ oj. too little heat, or a "chill" may contrib- 

 As we said above, we would err on the side of a bit more ^^^^ ^^^ marked the beginning of failure. Here is where 

 thar. the designated temperature, rather than tall below it. ^^^ ^^^^j, ^^.^^ ^^ feeding methods has come in, of which 

 One of the most successful incubator operators of our ac- ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^.j^^ outset, and which has brought about what 

 quaintance does not pretend to keep his machines at ex- g^^pg^j.^ ^^^ to be a revolution. Instead of the mixed 

 actly 103. He says that atmospheric conditions vary, caus- ^^^^^^ ^^ ^eals, etc., the ready mixed chick foods, consist- 

 ing variations in temperature, and if he keeps between 101 .^^^ ^^ ^ j^^.^^ variety of seeds and grains, are fed; with the 

 and 105, with an average close to 103, he gets good hatches gj.a^tifyijjg result of comparatively little infant mortality 

 of strong, vigorous chicks. ^^^ ^ ^^^^^ more rapid growth. 



Most operators test the eggs a second time about the flf- ,pj^g frontispiece of the August, 1903, Reliable Poultry 



teenth day, testing out the dead germs and leaving in only j(jm.^g^i ^^ ^ group made of photos from life, of White 



the strong and vigorous germs. An expert operator can tell ij/^^yandotte chicks of different ages, and the article describ- 



on the fifteenth day pretty nearly how many chicks he .^^ ^^^^ ^.^^ ^^^ following weights of the chicks: 



will get from the hatch, so familiar does he become with minpes 



appearance and condition of the strong, vigorous embryo ^^ Cs td'cWckt'prpr l ! l i '. ! i ! l 4 ZcS 



chicks. Ten days old chicks, per pair 8 ounces 



When the first chicks begin to pip the shells close the Three weeks old chicks, per pair 16 ounces 



ventilator slides almost wholly and keep the doors of the in- Four weeks old chicks, per pair 1% POJJ^^s 



cubator Closed until the hatch is well over; it is better to ^^i::^rolTc^^^^%rp£^^.- ! i ! ! i ! ! 6 T^unS 

 leave the machine entirely alone for the twenty-four to 



thirty-six hours during which the chicks are hatching. A Experienced broiler raisers expect to bring broiler 



good, strong heat, even up to 104 or 1041^, is desirable at chicks to two pounds weight (apiece) in ten or eleven weeks, 



hatching time, as the chicks come out faster and better, and here we have eight weeks old chicks of full two pounds 



When the hatch is well over open the ventilating slides weight, and ten weeks old chicks weighing three pounds 



again, to give the baby chicks more air, but do not take apioce. That difference of two to three weeks clipped off 



them from the incubator till twenty-four hours after the from the old time ten to eleven weeks considered necessary 



hatch is over. to grow a two-pound broiler makes a tremendous gain in 



profits. A saving of twenty to twenty-five per cent in time 



Brooding and Feeding the Chicks. greatly increases the capacity of the brooder houses, as well 



The temperature under the brooder hovers should be as saves so much labor and food; and this in addition to 



about 95 degrees at first, gradually lowering it to 90 degrees the practical elimination of the vexing "bowel trouble" 



when the chicks are about a week old, and thus dropping problem and the dreaded infant mortality. Assuming that 



about five degrees each week. An experienced chicken the business paid a fair profit as formerly conducted, such 



raiser says he wants the heat under the hovers to be 90 a saving of tirne and labor will greatly Increase the profits, 



when the chicks are put in, and that their heat will bring This most successful broiler raiser's method of feeding 



the temperatur? up to about 95 degrees; lower it to 90 by is worth quoting, by way of getting "a point of view." It 



end of the first week, 85 at end of second week, 80 at end was given as follows: "The chicks are fed five times a day 



of third week, 75 at end of fourth week, and so on. In such on hulled oats mostly, with a little cracked wheat and millet 



a brooder house as the one at Lakewood Farm (mentioned seed added. The cracked wheat is changed to whole wheat 



above), the hover pipes are about three inches from sand when they are about a week or ten days old, and cracked 



floor in the small pens next the heater where the baby corn is fed after they are a week older, which brings them 



chicks are put. The space between pipes and floor gradually to three weeks of age. After this they were fed three times 



increases until it is about eight inches at the end furthest a day; a mash in the morning, wheat at noon and cracked 



from the heater where the oldest chicks are brooded. It corn at night, with a feed of cut fresh bone the middle of 



is the custom to move the chicks along as they increase in the afternoon. The mash is made of either corn meal or 



size, they being driven from pen to pen through a sliding gluten meal, and wheat bran, with a ration of meat meal, 



gate in the partition between the pens. light at first and more of it towards the 'finishing off." 



One of the most successful broiler raisers of my acquain- Green food they get each afternoon, in the shape of lawn 



tance has smaller brooder houses (ten of them), each about mower clippings when the grass is growing; later in the 



sixty feet long, and the chicks are never moved from the shape of rape. In winter finely cut clover is steamed and 



pens in which they are first put until they are taken out to" fed them." 



dress for market. Feeding, he claims, is the crucial point. Said he, "A 



. On another very successful broiler (and roaster) farm, careless or indifferent feeder will do more harm and waste 



they have removed the hovers from the brooder pens, built more food than the profits amount to. The test of good 



up the sand floor an inch higher, a.nd the chicks put their feeding is to keep the chicks just a trifle hungry, and the 



backs up against the warm pipes,— jupt as they do against best judgment of the feeder should be brought to bear. His 



the hen's body when brooded by a hen. It looks comical rule is to give no food to a pen if there is any left uneaten 



to see the chicks under and between the hover pipes, their from the last feeding. Many chick raisers mistakably. think 



tiny heads sticking above the pipes quite frequently. The that one feeding missed is a step in growth lost. In a lim- 

 owners say they get better results since they removed the ited sense this is true, but a greater loss in growth comes 



hovers, that the chicks grow better and faster. On page 78 from the chicks overeating and the appetite becoming 



