REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE 123 



young chick to eat. Consider for a moment, and you 

 will realize that the hen in a wild state could not possi- 

 bly feed corn to her young. For the sake of argu- 

 ment, however, suppose that corn did ripen at a time 

 when it would be possible for the hen to procure it 

 for her brood, the size of the kernel is so great that 

 the small chick could not possibly swallow it. Thus 

 Nature plainly points out that corn, for young chicks, 

 is not the proper food. 



A Balanced Food 



On The Corning Egg Farm the question of chick 

 food that could properly be called " chick food " has 

 been a study for years, the problem being to procure 

 a balanced ration containing, as closely as possible, 

 the ingredients intended by Nature for a young chick 

 to eat and thrive on. Many experiments were made 

 with different mixtures, both with chicks running with 

 natural mothers and with those being reared in the 

 Brooder House, and it was found that in all cases 

 where corn was fed in the mixture the results were 

 bad. The youngsters running with the hen did not 

 show the large mortality which those did in the 

 Brooder House, but even the broods running with the 

 hen did not do nearly so well where the corn was 

 fed, as did those not having this ingredient in their | 

 food. 



The great mortality in young chicks is produced 

 by the upsetting of their digestive organs. Corn is 



