December, 1913 



THE OAliiJl'^N AND FIELD. 



333 



to 1)0 \or\- imu'h nood of cx- 

 lieriiiu-ntal fciilinj,' with low j^t.-de 

 hirils, the lijiuiiss yiww are i.xi Iht 

 hen for host lu-ii. Still it w.i-^ a 

 well meant effort. 



— Moisture and \ enlilation. -- 



Kxporinionts "were carried on to 

 detertnino tlvo cifl'oct of various do- 

 •jrecs of moisture and \-«ntilation 

 in artificial incubation." We .should 

 say that on this .showinji it is 

 ' Sudden Death.' However the 

 averajje fio;ures on 7 lots, i.e., 75 

 per cent, fertility, just over ,SO per 

 cent, hatch, ju.st under 50 per cent, 

 dead in shell and 22 per cent, de- 

 formed or weak, would probabl\- be 

 about the averaije. ^lany people 

 o;et worse and some, fortunately 

 for the per^Jetuation and increase 

 of the hen tribe, fjet more. The 

 experiment didn't hit an^-thing 

 much but it was a g'allant at- 

 tempt. It is satisfactory to be 

 forewarned that if you put loo etTtrs 

 in an incubator you may take ont 

 35 for infertilitv, 27 for dead in 

 shell, ,<6 live chicks, of which 18 

 will be deformed or weak. There 

 mav seem to be a couple missinej 

 thev were in the fractions. Taken 

 all round it takes two to three 

 eg'.sfs to make a chicken and that 

 is average going." 



♦ 



The Summer Chick. 



What is he ? Well, in a word, 

 about the most abused little mor- 

 tal on the face of the earth. Is it 

 really his own fault ? We think 

 not. Has he a place in profitable 

 poultrv keeping ? Yes. Is he as 

 valuable as his spring raised bro- 

 ther ? No. That .seems about to 

 .sum up the position. What are 

 the charges brought a?ainst him. 

 First, that the eggs he comes from 

 are not as fertile, that more die in 

 the shell and more when hatched 

 are poorly, weak and bad. So he 

 costs more to produce. Secondly, 

 that he eats more and prows less. 

 Thirdlv, that he is, well, not to 

 out too fine a point on it, apt to 

 be a " louselv," and fourthly, that 

 if be is a she, she misses the au- 

 tumn high priced ege even if she 

 does go .strong in spring. All of 

 which is more or less true. All the 

 same verv little of it is strictly 

 sneaking- his own fault or unavoid- 

 able. We are not advocating the 

 late hatched chick, we have had 

 more than enough of him at vari- 

 ous times, but he has never had 

 •aiiite a fair deal, we do not always 

 discriminate between what is his 

 fault and what is ours. The man 

 who can hatch all he wants in 

 September and October in any dry 



district is looking for trouble by 

 hatching at any other time, but 

 there are many who cannot and 

 lu.uu- who might regard the late 

 luitohod chick with a more favour- 

 able eye. The ideal ])oultry plant 

 would be ba.sed on egg prices the 

 same all the year round, continu- 

 ous hatchiuL''. which would mean 

 economy of incubator, brooder and 

 reariuiT accommodation with an 

 approximately 'constant income 

 from etvgs and cockerels and con- 

 stant food and labour expenses. 

 .\s it is there is a good deal of the 

 lirinciple of " feast and famine." 

 We have too many eggs, too many 

 chickens, too many cockerels, and 

 too much work some part of the 

 year, and not enough the- re- 

 mainder. If vou have £soo worth 

 of plant idle for six months it is 

 costing money and it .seems to iis 

 what we may call "the '-\rt^- other 

 time " chicken might fdl up some 

 of the .gaps. 



— We and the Chick. — 

 One of the obiections made is on 

 the score of fertility, etc. What- 

 ever foimdation there is in this is 

 our fault and not the chick's or 

 rather its parents. We have never 

 found that eggs from a pen mated 

 in summer, and kept with shade, 

 clean water, green stuff and free 

 of vermin give a better or wor.se 

 percentage than any other eggs. 

 Tf the conditions are the same the 

 results will be. 



With regard to the eating and 

 rrowincr. A healthy chick, whe- 

 ther spring or summer raised, will 

 eat the same, that is, about all 

 it can get. Tf vou are o-rowirtf' on 

 open runs in the flush of the spring 

 p^rass they will cost less of bought 

 food, but not one in teri is so 

 raised. Weieht for weight a lb. 

 of sumimer chick will not eat more 

 than a ft. of sprino- raised chick. 

 A lucerne patch with a sprinkler 

 will eet vevY close to s-^ripo- con- 

 ditions but a bare unshaded house 

 or ^-qrd will not. It is not the 

 chicks which make the diference ^t 

 is the conditions. 



The vermin question is responsi- 

 ble for a lot of summjer chick 

 troubles. Put him on the same 

 level" in this respect and a lot of 

 the difference in growth will dis- 

 appear. The late hatched pullet 

 certainly loses at the start but is 

 there any evidence that she does 

 not keep on loneer. It is not al- 

 together a question of the start, 

 in fact it is very miuch more a 

 qwestion of what she will have 

 done at the finish. How will the 

 Dec. -Mar. pullet pan out on her 

 two vea'rs' laving. On the cocker- 

 el side the advantae-e will be with 

 the late hatched bird, but this is 



onlv a matter of iienco, whe.pcas 

 the number of eggs is one of shil- 

 lings. Before we get tip and curse 

 the late hatche<l chicken, it would 

 onlv be fair to look back and ■ find 

 just how much of it was due to our 

 own tiredness, neglect, or lack of 

 knowledge. The late hatchwl bird 

 costs more work, but whether it 

 costs more monev ot e.irus less is 

 not proven. 



♦ 



Chicken Feeding. 



Bulletin ,^27 (New York Cornell 

 University) contains an interesting 

 account of a chicken rearing ex- 

 periment. There does not appear 

 to be anything abscl.itely new in 

 it. There are evidently at least 

 six ways of feeding a chick, and it 

 is puxzling to know which is the 

 better, but some definite conclu- 

 sions are arrived at. There are 

 some comparative figures which are 

 useful in themselves and interesting 

 as showing the similarity of me- 

 thods and results with our own. 



Seven hundred chicks were di- 

 vided into seven 'equal lots. The 

 total food consumed by each lot 

 was weighed, any eaten by those 

 which died being charged to the 

 lot of which they belonged, cost of 

 labour was also calculated. Brief- 

 ly, the experiment set out to show 

 how many out of 100 chicks would 

 be alive 12 weeks late and what 

 weight of food they would have 

 eaten, what it wou,d cost and also 

 cost of labour. Four lots were fed 

 cracked grain (probably maize) the 

 mash (maize meal, bran and pol- 

 lard) in some cases, was fed dry, 

 in some cases wet, moistened with 

 skim or granulated m.ilk. One lot 

 were fed on wet mash only. The 

 same food was given for the 12 

 weeks. One lot had a " speciality" 

 ration and one a " variety " ra- 

 tion, thev did not give any better 

 results than the others. 



Death rate. Except that one pen 

 went wrong at the start and lost 

 89 (which weighted the general 

 average throughout the test) the 

 mortality of the others was about 

 normal, 15 per cent. The best lot 

 lost 9, and the worst 25. The wet 

 mash chicks eat more, grew more 

 and cost more than either the dry 

 mash or no mash chickens, but 

 there is no practical evidence that 

 they paid more profit or in this 

 case showed less loss than the 

 others. \Vhite Leghorns wdre used, 

 not stated, but no doubt White 

 Leghorns were used. 



The average weight of the chicks 

 at 12 weeks was 1.117 lbs., the best 



