72 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



if you have chosen to believe that they " will get along 

 all right " when crowded. They will not I Don t bank 

 on it. 



Many people wonder how it is that infant chicks can 

 be shipped halfway across the country and arrive in 

 good condition. It is because they are suppUed by Nature 

 with nutriment for a short period. It may even be bet- 

 ter for them to be thus out of the way of a too kind 

 feeder for the first two or three days. If chicks are 

 kept quiet and warm, with not too much light, — in 

 other words, if they are not stimulated by the conditions 

 provided, — they will not be anxious to eat until they 

 really need food. If stimulated, they will be likely to 

 eat too soon, and will thus upset the work of the diges- 

 tive apparatus at the beginning. 



When they begin to manifest active interest in things 

 about them, it is usually time to offer feed, in small 

 quantity at the first. I notice Dr. N. W. Sanborn says, 

 " My chicks remain on the tray of the machine until 

 thoroughly dry ; then the tray is removed, and the 

 chicks stay on the floor of the incubator for a day and a 

 half." His brooder, warmed to lOO degrees, with the 

 floor covered with litter, then receives them and offers 

 them an invitation to scratch a little. A board confines 

 them within four inches of the hover, so that they can- 

 not become chilled by losing their bearings. Water is 

 before them, but they get no food other than the weed 

 seeds and clover leaves and grit found in the litter, until 

 four days old. He says : " The yolk that was absorbed 

 just before hatching supplies plenty of good food until 

 the fourth day, when I begin to give cracked wheat. 

 When the chicks are seven days old, a small hopper of 



