The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1321 
Ailing Chicks 
On June 11 we got 500 baby chicks, 
White Leghorns. We had a new house, 
fresh earth floor, chopped hay for litter; 
new drinking tins, clean trays and plenty 
of fresh water; also oyster shell at hand. 
We have a correct brooder, and it has 
given fine success, varying hardly a de¬ 
gree. # We even had a cot in the house, 
staying there at night till they were two 
weeks old. Up till July 3 they were sim¬ 
ply fine, only lost 10, and all the rest hop¬ 
ping and flying all around. Since the hot 
spell they have been dying, first six and 
seven, now anywhere from 12 to 20 a 
day. A few of them seem to have one eye 
swollen, but only a few. All the rest just 
drop their heads, feathers all ruffled up, 
and wings on the ground. Most of them 
get under the hover and stand there, some 
against the stove; they seem to be so cold 
and stay •where the heat is. We have kept 
the fire night and day. What is the 
trouble? M. K. 
New Jersey. • 
These chickens, had reached the age 
when fatalities usually occur if the flock 
has escaped the troubles of earlier chick- 
hood. Almost any chick that succeeds in 
successfully emerging from the shell can 
be counted upon to live for a week : from 
then, up to three weeks, white diarrhoea 
in its various forms takes its toll, if pres¬ 
ent, and then for two or three weeks ill- 
fated chicks that have escaped disease, 
or at least its obvious manifestations, so 
far. “just die.” They have no diarrhma 
and no catarrhal symptoms of the eyes or 
respiratory passages. They become 
droopy, plumage is roughened, they hud¬ 
dle or stand with drooped head by them¬ 
selves, trot rather than walk, eat little, 
grow emaciated and are finally picked up 
dead. All this means, of course, that 
some disease is present ,and different dis¬ 
eases caused by various germs and fungi 
are probably responsible for this condi¬ 
tion. Primarily, the reason for these loss- 
some diease is present, and different dis¬ 
eased condition is the result of lack of 
ability to resist the causes that are a 1 - 
ways present, and the best way to avoid ! 
that condition is to secure increased vital¬ 
ity, rather than to attempt the practically 
impossible task of removing the causes. 
Disease germs and fungi are omnipresent; 
it is only the natural power of resistance 
that saves either the lower animals or the 
higher from succumbing to their ravages. 
While all known centers of possible in¬ 
fection should be cleaned tip, the best 
safeguard of health is a body.so. abound¬ 
ing in vigor that disease germs are foiled 
in any attempt to gain mastery over it. 
To gain this vigor in the chick, we must 
go ever further back than the egg from 
which it was hatched. If we have no 
control over breeding pen. we have little 
over the destiny of the progeny. Two 
chicks may look exactly alike when 
hatched ; one may possess an inherent 
vigor that will carry him safely through 
all the ills of poultrydom. and the other 
may succumb to the first malign influence 
that he meets, whether that be in his first 
or any subsequent week of life. This is 
well illustrated in two small flocks now 
under the writer’s care. One flock of 26. 
hatched under hens on June 2, has lost 
one member; the rest are so full of gin¬ 
ger that it is hardly safe to go into the 
yard with them. It is an open question 
whether it will be possible to kill one of 
the cockerels when he is wanted for the 
table. The other flock, incubator hatched 
from hens that had been forced for laying 
all Winter and brought out June 16. has 
lost a dozen or more out of its original 
101. and others are to go. They are 
“just dying.” as yours died. The difference 
in the two flocks is a difference in inherit¬ 
ed vitality ; they have been fed and cared 
for in exactly the same way. the smaller 
flock having only the advantage of being a 
small flock. 
To discuss the conditions which insure 
or destroy vitality in chicks would be to 
cover pretty much the whole ground of 
poultry culture. Space will not permit it 
here. This much, as having a possible 
bearing upon your case, may bo said: 
Late hatched chicks, particularly from 
flocks that have been confined and forced 
for laying through the preceding Winter, i 
do not possess the vitality of earlier [ 
broods, and will ordinarily be found to [ 
suffer as yours are suffering from the I 
third to the sixth week of their lives. 
Had these chicks been hatched during the 
first week in April, you might have had 
quite a different story to tell. It is pos¬ 
sible. of course, that there have been de¬ 
fects in your management that would ac¬ 
count for your troubles, but they do not 
show in your statement. m. b. d. 
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