HATCHING AND REARING 



39 



from getting chilled as there is no chance for the life of 

 a chilled chick. Although I am making it appear that there 

 are no end of difficulties I do not wish to discourage any- 

 one, but rather to start him on the right road. To show 

 the other side of the picture I would like to say that last 

 summer I took sixty baby chicks frorii Sedalia, Missouri, 

 to Des Moines, Iowa, and from there to Lincoln, Nebraska, 

 and then to Pueblo, Colorado, attending all the state- fairs 

 at these places, without losing one. These chicks traveled 

 in all about 2,000 miles and spent several weeks in stuffy 

 showrooms and with the exception of three are all living 

 today. Of course, this could not have been done had I not 

 exercised great- care looking after them; at the same time 

 it shows the hardiness of the youngsters. 



First Weeks the Important Time. 



The first few weeks is the most important time in the 

 chickens' lives, the time when their little onstitutions are 

 being built up, as it were, and this is when they require 

 your attention. When your hen was hatching her thirteen 

 eggs you were always prepared for the loss of a few of the 

 chicks; so now, when you are running an incubator and 

 using a brooder, don't be surprised that a few of the chicks 

 die, but just compare the number you lose now with the 

 number you used to lose and see if your percentage of lo^s 

 is not smaller since you adopted the inodern method. I 

 know it is in my own case and I know it will be in yours 

 if you act upon these suggestions. 



