RELIABLE POULTRY REMEDIES 



nal organs of the bird to digest the foods administered. The undigested 

 foods act as an irritant and diarrhoea results. All conditions of bad hy- 

 giene, careless feeding, too little or too much heat, impure drinking water, 

 infected food and unsanitary surroundings are all causes of diarrhoea. 



Chilling a Common Cause 



With early hatched chicks undoubtedly chilling and exposure is com- 

 monly a cause of bowel trouble. When the weather is cold little chicks 

 need much more heat and hovering than when the weather is warm. There 

 is very little danger of overheating brooder chicks in wintry weather, or 

 when the outside temperature is below 50 degrees. When the outside tem- 

 perature gets to 66 degrees and upwards great care must be taken not to 

 overheat the chicks. Flocks that would readily stand a temperature of 

 110 or 115 under the hover of the brooder in cold weather would, when the 

 outside (outdoor) temperature stands at 75, be seriously injured by long 

 exposure to any temperature above 100, for the reason that there is not suffi- 

 cient difference between the temperature under the hover and that immed- 

 iately outside in the hover apartment, and the chicks do not have the same 

 opportunity to get away from the heat that they did when the weather was 

 colder. Crowding chicks in poorly ventilated coops and brooders where 

 they are subjected to stifling heat and an insufficient supply of pure air is a 

 prolific source of trouble. All of these causes are easily avoided. 



Little chicks require to be kept comfortably warm at all. times whether 

 they are reared under a hen or in a brooder and just what temperature is 

 comfortably warm is one that will have to be decided by the care-taker 

 through observation of the chicks. A great deal depends upon the particu- 

 lar brood under observation. Chilling and overheating must both be avoided 

 if diarrhoea is to be prevented. Late hatched broods more commonly have 

 diarrhoeal trouble than earlier ones because they frequently are less care- 

 fully tended than early broods and because of weather conditions. 



Indiscretions in feeding or careless feeding are undoubtedly the most 

 prolific causes of diarrhoea and "white diarrhoea" in chicks, with the pos- 

 sible exception of chilling. If the chickens are given an opportunity to bal- 

 ance their rations for themselves, being supplied with a liberal variety of 

 necessary foods, there will seldom be any trouble from this source. It is 

 only where chicks are kept on short rations and starved into eating things 

 that are not good for them, or fed on too one-sided a ration, that digestive 

 troubles are common. Chickens are naturally healthy and hardy if bred 

 from good, sound, healthy breeding stock and they are not as a rule subject 

 to digestive disorders when a reasonable amount of common sense is em- 

 ployed in taking care of them. 



Too heavy grain and meat feeding with an insufficient supply of raw 



vegetable food, or perhaps none at all, is a common cause of digestive dis- 



• turbances resulting in diarrhoea. When chicks have free range upon grass 



land and there is plenty of fresh crisp grass and tender green stuff for them 



68 



