Sept is, i 9 a 3 Growing Experimental Chickens in Confinement 
453 
each week and fresh straw added, so that the scattered grain disappears 
in the litter, thus making the chickens scratch for the feed. When the 
chicks attain the age of two to three weeks, dry mash is kept before them 
in a hopper, and containers of sand and oyster shell are also provided. 
Green feed and skim milk are given at least twice a week. 
HISTORY OF THE LOTS OF CHICKS 
During 1916-1918 the experimental chicks were grown in a small 
isolated house (Ackert) 7 with cement walls and floor, the latter being 
covered with sand. The baby chicks were started in this house only 
during the spring and summer months. When fed on rations of cereals, 
bone ash, and green alfalfa they thrived during the first eight or ten 
weeks; then lameness and other disorders began to develop. Since many 
of the parasitized chicks or their controls died in these crowded quarters 
before the termination of the experiments, the present animal house was 
provided. 
The next year (1919) the experiments were conducted in the parasit¬ 
ology animal house already described. In these light, roomy quarters, 
with rations adapted from Lippincott, 8 good results were obtained. 
During the first week the baby chicks were given soft feed, such as bread 
or corn pone mixed with rolled oats and moistened with skim milk. 
The amount of rolled oats was gradually increased and such grains as 
wheat and cracked com were added until the chicks were about two 
and a half or three months old, when they were put on a regular ration 
of hopper-fed dry mash, scratch grain in the litter, green alfalfa and 
skim milk. The dry mash consisted of five parts of shorts, five of bran, 
three of oil meal, and one of bone ash. The scratch grain was a mixture 
of two parts of cracked com, two of wheat, two of kafir, and one of oats. 
Liberal amounts of fresh, green alfalfa, cut into half-inch lengths, were 
fed daily, and skim milk was before them practically all of the time. In 
the winter sprouted oats supplanted the green alfalfa. 
In this lot of chicks only 3 died of leg weakness. The remaining ones 
(29 pullets and 2 cockerels) developed normally, averaging in weight 
1.383.5 gm. at 1 year of age. One pullet began to lay when 5 months 
and 8 days old; and in 8 months, from November 14 until July 16, the 
lot laid 195 dozen eggs, although the egg production of 17 of the pullets 
was considerably reduced because from March 28 to May 28 they received 
no alfalfa and no skim milk. One of these hens is shown in Plate 2, A. 
Fifteen chickens from this lot were kept in these pens for three years, 
and although not fed for heavy egg production, they laid well until they 
were discarded. At that time the ovaries of all but two contained well- 
developed eggs. One of the two had several partly reabsorbed eggs in 
its body cavity, while the other, which had a small ovary, had prob¬ 
ably never laid many eggs. The largest hen (PI. 1, B, left) weighed 
3.288.6 gm., and the smallest (PI. 1, B, right, front) 1,360.8 gm. The lot, 
a few of which are shown in this figure, averaged in weight 2,041.4 
gm. The cock (PI. 1, B, center), a vigorous bird, weighed 2,721.6 
gm. The fertility of the eggs from these hens was high. A lot of 
25 eggs incubated at the College Poultry Farm in February, 1920, were 
7 Acxbrt, James E. on the life cycle of the fowl cestode, davainea cesticillus (molin). In 
Jour. Par., v. 5. P- 4 i~ 43 . pi. 5 • *9*8. 
» Lippincott, William Adams, foultry production. 
phia and New York. 1916. 
Ed. #, rev. P». *33 fi*.# * »»P- PbUadel- 
