American Agriculturist, May 3, 1924 
Starting the Baby Chicks 
An A. A . Radio Talk Broadcast From WEAF 
T KNOW there are By F. W. OHM brooder; plenty of 
1 many folks in that Associate Editor , American Agriculturist that best of clisin- 
vast radio audience fectants, sunlight; the 
that nightly “listen in,’’ who are not the avoidance of drafts and dry, clean quarters 
least bit interested in poultry-keeping and are all likewise essential. Dampness is 
its kindred problems and I shall not feel especially dangerous and with it and un- 
at all disturbed if they “cut out” for my cleanliness we have an ideal condition for 
brief ten minutes while I talk to farmers 
and suburbanites whose problem right 
now is the raising of a flock of thrifty 
young chicks. The advantage is some¬ 
what in my favor for I cannot see you 
get up and walk out on me. 
The First Essential 
The proper raising of thrifty young 
birds is undoubtedly one of the very first 
essentials to success in poultry manage¬ 
ment. If the young birds are weak, 
and of low constitutional vigor, it is not 
reasonable to expect them to develop 
into profitable layers. And when we 
consider the price of poultry feeds to¬ 
day, we can not expect much profit from 
hens that never had the right start in 
life and are not equipped to stand the 
heavy strain of their producing period. 
Our commercial poultry men place this 
phase of their business on par with every 
other and possibly above it, for on the 
vigor and thrift of their young birds 
depends the future of their business. 
And rightly so, for they have strong 
competition to face, which bids fair to 
increase in the next few years when we 
consider the vast number of people who 
are going into the industry. Qur hen 
population has increased more rapidly 
than ever before, due to the fairly satis¬ 
factory prices that have been realized 
from well-managed flocks, at least as far 
as returns from other products of the 
farm are concerned. Experienced com¬ 
mercial poultrymen know this and that’s 
why their young stock gets the very best 
of care. It is the man with a small flock 
or merely a backyard flock who is usually 
at a loss when it comes to the problem 
before him. It is quite impossible to 
discuss in detail the various factors that 
enter into chick-raising in the time 
allotted. Therefore I am only going to 
touch on a few of the more important 
points and if you wish further informa¬ 
tion, I shall be only too pleased to have 
you write me. 
Start With Vigorous Stock 
First, we must start with chicks from 
healthy and vigorous parent stock. 
Like begets like, and a weak flock of 
breeders cannot be expected to produce 
a vigorous offspring. Likewise, hens that 
are not good layers cannot be expected 
to produce young birds that will later 
prove productive. Of course, if a male 
bird that comes from a heavy laying 
strain is placed at the head of a flock of 
weaker breeders his influence will count 
to some extent. But naturally, it is 
more desirable to have the whole breed¬ 
ing flock made up of high producers. 
If your flock is not especially productive 
it will pay you to buy day-old chicks 
from a hatchery that makes a specialty 
of breeding heavy layers and sells chicks 
from this parentage. The breeding 
stock in this case is absolutely known to 
be made up of heavy producers. 
That starts us with the right kind of 
stock. The next problem, then, is where 
shall we put them and what shall we 
feed them. Housing and feeding are so 
thoroughly discussed in the various 
publications of our colleges of agriculture 
that I shall not go into the subject to 
any extent. Sufficient to say the chicks 
should have ample room in the brooder 
and colony house later. Trying to put 
too many chicks in a brooder is a mistake 
that causes some of our most serious 
diseases and it is money in your pocket 
to guard against it. A lot of exercise 
for the chicks is mighty important, in 
fact absolutely necessary. They must 
have plenty of leg room. Other and 
equally important things to watch are; 
well-controlled temperatures in the 
the development of disease and the pres¬ 
ence of parasites and vermin such as lice 
and mites. Strange as it may seem, sani¬ 
tation is absolutely vital even in the 
poultry house and the lack of it has cost 
poultrymen of America untold losses, 
and damp, poorly ventilated quarters 
are almost the sole causes. 
Feeding, as is true with all living things, 
is of primary importance. It is generally 
known that chicks should have no food 
until forty-eight hours have elapsed 
from the time they have left the shell. 
Just because a chick picks at small ob¬ 
jects as soon as it is able to navigate, 
does not say that it is after food. Pre¬ 
vious to hatching the yolk of the egg 
becomes a part of the chick’s body and 
this serves for those first few meals— 
condensed food, as it were. The con¬ 
stituents of the yolk are such that they 
form a perfect ration for the first day. 
Many folks feed hard boiled eggs, 
chopped very fine, for the first few 
feeding days and this is very good. 
Sour Milk First 
During the first 48 hours the chicks 
may be given some sour milk or 
diluted semi-solid buttermilk which acts 
as a laxative, clearing the digestive tract 
of any foreign matter that may be present. 
It is considered to be effective in prevent¬ 
ing, but not curing, that dreaded disease 
—white diarrhea. 
The first grain mixture may consist of 
finely cracked corn, cracked wheat and 
pin-head oats, mLxed in equal parts. 
There are other mixtures equally as good. 
The man with a small backyard flock 
may find it will pay to buy ready mLxed 
commercial chick feeds made up by the 
more reliable manufacturers. They are 
so mixed by poultry experts, that the 
problem of early feeding is minimized 
and they are much less bother than home 
mixed goods. The problem is reduced, 
however, in only so far as the contents 
of the ration are concerned. Overfeed¬ 
ing is something of which we must be 
very careful, for it leads to digestive 
troubles and that is where the fun or 
rather trouble begins, for when a chick’s 
growth is checked it is never the same. 
Even in the use of sour or skim milk, 
or other milk products, care must be 
taken. Sometimes the milk will spill 
over into the litter and mold may develop 
which, if taken into the chick’s system, 
acts as does a poison—with serious results. 
I have known of cases where an entire 
flock of heavy producing layers was lost 
due to moldy litter. To come back to 
overfeeding, I might say that five 
feedings per day are about right, feeding 
enough each time for the chicks to clean 
up in about fifteen minutes. The last 
feeding in the evening and the first in 
the morning should be a little heavier. 
Don’t Overfeed 
As the birds develop, the ration may 
be modified by gradually adding a little 
bran, say by the end of the first week. 
At first this should be left before them 
for a short time, however, to prevent 
“stuffing,” which even chicks are guilty 
of when something new is placed before 
them. At the end of the first week some 
sort of green food, such as sprouted 
oats, may be added to the ration. Green 
food must not be omitted. 
Diseases and vermin, lice and mites, 
are the bane of the poultrvmen’s exist¬ 
ence, in spite of the ease with which it is 
possible to control them. If the chicks’ 
quarters are thoroughly sprayed with 
any of the coal-tarorcarbolic disinfectants 
that are on the market, the mites should 
give no trouble. By thorough spraying, 
(Continued on 'page JU9) 
"437 
Cost of Feeding— 
10% Less; 
Milk Production — 
8% More 
That's what a Massachusetts 
dairy farmer found by looking 
over his records one month 
after starting to feed 
This farmer wrote to us as fol¬ 
lows: “Have figured my costs 
on your mixture and find that 
my saving is nearly 10% of the 
cost of the dairy ration I have 
been feeding; and that milk 
production has. increased 6% ” 
Here's the ration that did it: 
300 lbs. Diamond Corn Gluten Meal , 300 lbs. 
Oats, 300 lbs. Wheat Bran, 100 lbs. Oil Meal. 
Perhaps this ration will increase the milk pro* 
duction of your herd. Try it for a month. 
IN EVERY LIVE DEALER'S STOCK 
AND EVERY GOOD DAIRY RATION 
Corn Products Refining Co. 
New YorK Chicago 
Also Manufacturers of Buffalo Cora Gluten Feed 
DIAMOND 
CORN 
GLUTEN MEAL 
Down 
\A 
m 
L_ 
roj 
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