^^T^ Tm '^^^ h ■^^^-^ H^n T^ icS RINCE T. WOODS. M.D. ®IjpE3H.MHXtbrara Nortlj (Harnltna S^tuU (ttnllrgr This book was presented by Animal Industry Deot. SF487 W9 ^"^ pel^^ NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES S01 949432 W This book may be kept out TWO WEEKS ONLY, and is subject to a fine of El^i CENTS a day thereafter. It is due on the day indicated below: 27A^'4^,i DEC- 519?4 I Pay-;, J l6Apr577 JAN 1 2 19^6 MAY 1 8 ^^' f77 21C78 0CTlOlil84 KM n-4fi Fnrm a For success the rearing of chicks should begin with the parent stock. Breed for health. Manage for Comfort. There is no prettier picture of spring time than a proud, well set up, thoroughbred mother hen surrounded by a fine flock of sturdy, healthy, downy chicks that are w^ell cared for. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) HOW TO RAISE CHICKS INCLUDING REVISION OF FACTS ABOUT WHITE DIARRHOEA A Practical Book That Tells How to Select and Manage Breeding Fowls, What You Want to Know About Foods and Feeding, How TO Get Hatchable Eggs, How to Hatch with Hens or Incubators, How to Brood and Raise Chicks, What White Diarrhoea is and How to Prevent tt. BY PRINCE T. WOODS, M. D managing editor AMERICAN POULTRY JOURNAL published by AMERICAN POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING CO. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - 1912 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY PRINCE T, WOODS. M. D. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FOREWORD AISING the chicks has been named as the most dif- ficult "poultry problem" and some poultrymen say that "everything else is easy." If one begins right, with well born chicks, chick rearing ought not to prove so very difficult. What is meant by begin- ning right? For success the rearing of chicks should begin with the parent stock. You must have good healthy hatchable eggs in order to get good livable chicks. You can't get good healthy hatchable eggs unless you breed for health and manage for com- fort. Select your breeding stock with great care to get the maximum of constitutional vigor; so manage and care for them that they will be comfortable, contented, and happy, and you will find them productive and possessing abun- dant vigor, vitality and health. These good and necessary qualities will prove an invaluable hereditary asset when the time comes for hatching eggs and rearing chicks. In this book considerable space has been given to selection and mating of breeding stock, to care and management of breeders, to foods and the relation of fowls to food. I believe that a better under- standing of these subjects will make it easier to solve the "problem" of how to raise chicks. It does not pay the farmer to sow poor seed. It will not pay the poultryman to produce poor seed eggs and weak- ling chicks by breeding, hatching and rearing from stock birds that are lacking in constitutional vigor. If you want strong sturdy chicks, full of health, vigor and vitality — the power to live — there is one safe and sure way to get them and that is to begin right with sound, well selected stock and breed for health. Herein also will be found chapters on natural and artificial incu- bation and brooding, including the preparation of chick foods and care, feeding and management of chicks during growth, — all are pre sented with the object of helping the reader to success in chick rearing. My earlier booklet "Facts About White Diarrhoea" has been revised and largely rewritten and incorporated as a part of this book. The formula is given for a remedy which has been thoroughly tried for four years under a wide range of climates and conditions in the 7 87284 8 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS prevention and treatment of white diarrhoea and which has proved successful and satisfactory in the majority of cases reported. It is hoped, friend Reader, that this book will help you to greater success in chick rearing, to more and better chicks and to greater comfort for the chicks themselves, — if it interests you and you profit by the advice herein given the book will be well worth while. Prince T. Woods, M. D. Silver Lake. Mass., January 23, 1912. ^ fl II -'="'■ '■''-'■r''?»»'^ ^ ^'^ '- F^ H^^Tw^" SB iwni _;-2>i^ ^^^^Mmmu-^^mmm^ •-^ -:— .V^' ..;i- ■•^ _ Dr. Woods' open-front, open-air poultry house as used by Wozelma Farms Producing Company in association with American Poultry Journal 's Experimental Plant, Silver Lake, Mass. This is a colony house for breeders, portable type, 10 ft. Avide by 16 ft. deep and will accommodate a flock of fifty fowls. (Photo by John E. Zeller.) CONTENTS Chapter I— SELECTING AND MATING BREEDING STOCK 11 Constitutional vigor necessary in breeding stock to secure vitality in the chicks — ^^Seloction and care of the male bird — Selection of the females — Mating — Number of females to a male— 1 he service — Fecundity vs. Sterility. Chapter II— FOODS— VEGETABLE, ANIMAL AND MINERAL 21 What food is — Chief source of all food — How the plant grows — Food elements. Chapter III— FOWLS AND FOOD 25 The living fowl and the life principle — The living cells — Chemistry of the fowl's body — Disposition of food varies with individuals- Variety of wholesome, palatable food is necessary — Balanced ration is desirable — Live food is needed — -Digestion of food — Maintaining body temperatures — Exercise — Give the fowl a chance to balance its own ration. Chapter IV— CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF BREEDERS 35 Housing — Foods and feeding — Hoppers and automatic feeders — Impor- tance of comfort — Keep them healthy and happy — Well fed, healthy breeders managed for comfort yield hatchable eggs. Chapter V— EGGS FOR HATCHING 49 Selection of eggs — Sex of eggs — Fertility — Gathering and keeping eggs — Time eggs may be kept — Period of incubation. Chapter VI— INCUBATION— NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 55 How to get good hatches with hens — How to get good hatches with incubators — How to test eggs during incubation — Simple home- made egg tester. Chapter VII— BROODING CHICKS WITH HENS AND WITH BROODERS. 71 How to brood chicks with hens — Brood coops for hen and chicks — Let chicks range but keep the hen confined — How to brood chicks in brooders — Small heated brooders — Fireless brooders — Comfort a better guide to the right temperature than a thermometer — Patience needed in teaching chicks. Chapter VIII— CHICK FOODS AND FEEDING CHICKS 89 Home-made chick food, how prepared — Freshly prepared foods best — Commercial foods — Cooked food — Live food — Other necessaries. Chapter IX— GROWING CHICKS 97 Weaning chicks — Colony coops and range— Changes in rations — Growing for stock birds and layers — Chicks for market. Chapter X— FACTS ABOUT WHITE DIARRHOEA 107 W^hat white diarrhoea is — Symptoms of the disease — Causes — Is there more than one form? — Has germ of specific disease been found? — Contagion — Prevention — Treatment — Formula for a simple remedy which has proved effective in many cases in many climates for four years. 9 Ehx^ CHAPTER 1. Selecting and Mating Breeding Stock ^O BE SUCCESSFUL in breeding poultry, you must start right, get a lasting, solid foundation. Breed for health of future generations of fowls by begin- ning now to select your breeding stock for phys- ical soundness, vitality, constitutional vigor — in a word — health. Keep them healthy by good hous- ing, good food, good care and good management. Get common sense into your poultry keeping. Breed for health if you wish to have and pro- duce healthy chicks. Feed, house and manage for health if you would keep your stock healthy. Don't sow poor seed. You would not expect a good crop from poor seed corn. Remember that the hatching eggs are your poultry seed. You cannot get good seed eggs from stock that does not possess health — constitutional vigor. Without good seed eggs you cannot get good chicks. The breeding stock is the foundation of your poultry business, the life of your undertaking and the source of the seed eggs from which you intend to produce chickens. You must have abundant con- stitutional vigor in the breeding stock to get vitality in the chicks. What is vitality? Vitality is the possession of vital force. The power to live and thrive. Unless the breeding birds are sound and in the best possible condition for the reproduction of their kind, satisfactory results in hatchable eggs and sturdy chicks cannot be obtained. Condition has been said to be more than half the battle in winning prizes in the show room. Physical condition is the whole thing in the breeding pen and without this foundation to build on your strain will be without value. Eggs from healthy, sound, well-fed parent stock will hatch strong, sturdy chicks, full of vitality, often even under what are con- sidered quite unfavorable conditions. Chicks from such stock are not subject to chicken ailments and do not become victims of "white diar- rhoea." As one breeder said, "get the right sort of chicks and it will take a lot of abuse to kill 'em; they are born to live." Eggs from breeding stock that is out of condition, either from 11 D. H. HILL LIBRARY Nc^rth ^aroHna State College 12 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS abuse of inbreeding, unsanitary surroundings, improper food, sickness or other causes, will never produce chicks that are worth the trouble it takes to hatch and rear them. When chicks die in the shell, are slow to hatch, or die off in large numbers within ten days after hatch- ing, don't lay the trouble all to faulty incubation; investigate the breeding stock. With good eggs, incubation may be, and often is, at fault; but in very many cases the eggs are not good and the breed- ing stock is all WTong. Oftentimes you will get an exceptional hatch only to find that the chicks die off like sick flies in the first ten days. Here again, investigate the breeding stock; errors of incubation may have been the cause, but it is quite possible that the exceptional hatch was simply an indication that nature was trying to provide against extinction, because of lack of constitutional vigor in the breeding stock. Abuse sometimes results in remarkable "provisional fecun- dity," though the efforts of nature may be futile. To investigate the breeding stock, go over the birds carefully to learn their physical condition. Select and mate them up again as at the beginning of the season. Look carefully into the housing, care and feeding of the breeding stock. You will find in many cases that the cause lies with the stock or their management. When you find the cause you can prevent further trouble by avoiding or removing the cause. Breed for health if you wish to produce and have healthy chicks. Feed, house and manage for health if you would keep your stock healthy. Remember the three "C's" essential to health and suc- cess with your fiock — cleanliness, comfort and contentment. Cleanli- ness of food, houses, yards and furnishings. Comfort and contentment for the flock because of good care, good food, good housing and good management. The Male Bird. — In many particulars what is essential in a breed- ing male is equally necessary in the breeding female, for convenience we will consider these under this head and simply refer to them when treating of the section of female breeders. From the breeding standpoint the male is half of the pen; i. e., you depend upon him to fertilize the eggs laid by all the hens with which he is mated. For this reason, whatever else you do, you cannot afford to be careless or indifferent in your selection of the cock or cockerel which is to head the pen. He should be as near perfection in constitutional vigor, physical soundness, health, as it is possible for you to judge. He must be carefully watched to see that he is capable of performing well the duty to which he is assigned. The eggs from his pen should be incubated and tested at home before any are sold for hatching. Failure to observe these rules is fatal to good results. HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 13 The male should be a good standard breeding specimen of the variety which he represents, but above all else he should be physically sound. Inferior or unhealthy male birds have no place whatever in the breeding pen. Never breed from a bird that has had or has ap- parently recovered from any serious illness. It is always difficult to determine whether a cure is complete or not, and whether there re- mains taint or chronic trouble. In selecting a male bird to head the breeding pen, choose one that is well matured; i. e., full grown and well filled out in size and fully furnished as to plumage. He should be of good size for the variety, ibut not overlarge for the females. He should be broad-backed, deep, full-breasted, with stout, good-sized legs, thighs well set apart and no tendency to a "knock-kneed" appearance at the hock joints; good carriage and symmetry, well-formed comb and wattles, neither too large nor too small and of a bright, healthy red; keen, sharp, bright eyes, a bit full and somewhat egg-shaped as to curve of eye lens when viewed from the rear; a well-shaped, stout beak of medium length, the whole head being well proportioned to the body and carried in a manner that gives the bird an alert, active, aggressive, businesslike appearance. He should be in the best possible condition physically and capable of taking his place as head of the pen and holding it against all comers. His plumage should be bright and well kept, legs and feet clean and free from swellings and scale mites. Do not breed from any male or female, no matter how good or how perfect it may be in standard points, that shows the following faults which indicate unsoundness: Crow-head and hawk bill, crooked breast bone, roach-back or other deformity, knock knees, small, thin shanks for the variety; badly rumpled plumage, lacking in luster and which seems to be inclined to turn the wrong way; shortness of breath on running or jumping or after service; pale face and comb or discolored face and comb; much rattling in throat; foul discharge from the vent; blue-green or grass-green stain from droppings on plumage below vent; vertigo (dizziness); violent and frequent shak- ing of head with a tendency to step backward or to one side; stagger- ing or wabbling gait; jerking walk like "string halt"; paralysis of any kind; bunches of foreign growths on any part of body; emaciated, de- bilitated condition; leg weakness; foot, hock or wing ulcers, swellings or abscesses; deformities of any kind; or any other symptom of phys- ical unsoundness or disease. Examine the mouth and throat carefully and discard the bird if the mucous membrane is unhealthy. Simple canker may be cured, but if it is obstinate, and will not yield to simple remedies, better choose another bird that is not so affected. Note carefully the condi' 14 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS tion of the legs. If they feel hot and dry, look closely for other symp- toms of disease. Hot, dry or withered feet and legs means that there Is something wrong with the bird. It is a sure sign. Scaly leg is a parasitic disease and does not necessarily disqualify the bird for breeding. It is easily cured, and should be before the bird is placed in the breeding yard. Don't breed a male lacking in constitutional vigor. Breeding from an unsound male is sure to result in trouble and disappointment later; either he will not fertilize the eggs at all or you will get weak germs and weak chicks. Weak germs are often the cause of chicks dying at all stages of development during incubation and for several days after hatching. There is also always the possibility and prob- ability that chicks from such source, if they live, will inherit some tendency to disease which will result in losses, direct or indirect, by continuance of the inherited taint from an unsound body. It often takes years of careful breeding and management to uproot evil of that sort. Breed healthy males only and keep them healthy. Care of the Male Bird. — Test the male by "flirting" him with other males in the presence of females. If he is aggressive and full of fight and does not develop any of the disqualifying faults named above he will probably make a good breeder. If he is cowardly and disposed to play the craven I would not advise using him to breed from. Cow- ardice in the cock usually indicates that he has been badly whipped at some time, or it may indicate that he is from stock that has been inbred too closely. Game fanciers v/ho breed "pit" stock for fighting purposes will tell you that several generations of incestuous breeding will result in stags that are "quitters" and disposed to run after the first few blows are struck. A little "trying out," without allowing harm aone, will often prove a better test of wind, lungs and heart action than any other method of trying the bird. When you get a good, healthy male bird try to keep him in good condition. If he is attentive and gallant as he should be during the breeding season, he may easily get out of condition. Avoid this by removing him from the flock occasionally and feed a few tid-bits of fresh, sweet meat (cooked or uncooked), fresh, green food and a mix- ture of hard grains. You will run no risk by keeping him for a day or two away from the hens in a comfortable coop, where he is out of sight and sound of the females, and it may save him from wasting his energies in useless service. This is quite important, for an active, gallant and attentive male, when running with his flock, often does not eat a sufficient amount of food to keep him in good order. A little attention given to supplying him with occasional meals away from his harem will be well repaid in the results gained from a valuable HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 15 breeding bird. Keeping the male bird with the hens will not insure strongly fertile eggs unless he is well cared for, and kept in good breeding condition. Too many breeders overlook this matter or fail to consider it of sufficient importance. Do not pen the breeding male up with other males in a flock where there are no females, it leads to bad habits or injury far more harmful than continuous running with a flock of hens. I believe that a good many excellent breeding males have been ruined in this way. Young males develop better and make better breeders when brought up with females and always allowed to run with them. So kept they are less liable to become sterile and as a rule make better all around breeders. The reverse seems to be true of pullets, they usually develop better, make better growth and give better results as breeders and layers when not subjected, during their period of growth from eight weeks to maturity, to the over-attentiveness and nagging of a lot of husky young male birds. Raise your pullets in a poultry convent, if you can, but don't try the monastic method of mangement for cockerels. If necessary to take the male bird away from the female do not keep him away from them for too long a time, a few days each month for a little change and vacation are enough, except during the moult when he will be better off for a pen and run by himself until well feathered. The Female. — The female breeders should be selected with as great care as the male. Where the requisites for selection of the male will apply to both sexes they apply to the females. Health and a sound body should be the first consideration. Constitutional vigor is as necessary in the female as in the male. Size and shape is the next consideration and then standard requisites for a good breeder. To a large extent the size and shape of the female parent governs the size and shape of the progeny, though it does not hold true in all cases. Choose well-grown, fully-matured females for breeders. Do not use birds that have had serious sickness. Choose good layers rather than exceptional ones. Prolific layers are more liable to produce infertile eggs than ordinary good layers, chiefly because of the greater number of eggs they produce and inattention on the part of the male, as he is less attentive to females that have been long established in laying, as a rule. The breeding female should have a broad, deep body for the vari- ety, legs of good size and well set apart, tail well spread at base; alert, active and busy; with bright plumage; bright eyes, a bit full; comb and face bright and of good, healthy red color; and other essen« 16 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS tials of a healthy bird mentioned in description of desirable qualities in male. Unhealthy hens, or hens which have been sick, have no place in the breeding pen. The faults mentioned above as disqualifying males for breeding should also bar females from the breeding pen and. in ad- dition to those faults already mentioned, no female should be bred that habitually lays misshapen or deformed eggs, or eggs containing blood clots. Hens broken down behind, or those having abdominal tumors, which cause abdomen to drag on the ground, should not be used in the breeding pen. The use of trap nests is an invaluable aid in the selection of breeding females and in detecting sterile hens. Some hens seldom produce eggs that will hatch and from one cause or another are prac- tically sterile. Such birds should not be permitted in the breeding pen. The men with the most experience in practical poultry work are not disposed to believe in any certain "egg type" that will indi- cate prolific layers. The good layers usually come in about all of the many types to be found in all varieties. The only sure means of determining which hens pay as breeders is to trap nest, keep an indi- vidual egg record and a hatching record. Mating. — It is conceded that it is necessary to inbreed in order to secure the best results in fancy points. Some breeders go so far as to say that it is quite necessary to inbreed to secure utility values, like heavy laying and quick growing meat. I beg to doubt this last and will have to be shown. Introduction of new blood (crossing) usually stimulates egg production and promotes quick and good growth in the offspring of the cross. If it is true that inbreeding brings constant improvement in utility values, then why do so many practical men who grow for market show a preference for first crosses? Again, why is it that so many strains that have been sub- jected to incestuous breeding for generations do not show improve- ment in utility values, but are often found lacking in size, less vigor- ous, often sterile, and why should there be a tendency for their eggs to come smaller also? I have repeatedly found breeders who com- plain of such faults in closely inbred strains. Where you must inbreed. be sure that the breeding birds are pos- sessed of abundant constitutional vigor and let the relationship be as distant between the breeders as is consistent with obtaining the results you are working for. A noted pigeon fancier, who has bred a lot of good ones the past thirty years, told me that he had to inbreed very carefully and that he had always kept a record of all of his birds from the start and could know the relationship by reference to his records. He had found that too close inbreeding produced HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 17 undesirable results, loss of vigor, 'idiocy" (and he showed me some pigeon "idiots" to prove his claim — they surely looked and acted the part;, less resistance to disease, diseases of the nervous system and liability to "fits." He considered breeding brother to sister the most harmful form of incestuous breeding and stated that he had proved to his own satisfaction that it was not wise to breed closer relation- ships than uncles, aunts and second, third and fourth (or more dis- tant) cousins. If this is true in pigeon breeding, why is it not true also in poultry breeding? In mating up the pens avoid, so far as possible, using males and females possessing the same or similar faults (this is partic- ularly necessary where inbreeding is practiced), as where the faults are similar on both male and female sides of pen there is more lia- bility of a tendency to possess these faults in the progeny. As a general rule, the best results in hatchable eggs and livable chicks will be obtained by mating fully matured, healthy cockerels with healthy yearling or two-year-old hens; or by mating a strong, vigorous, healthy yearling or two-year-old male and fully matured, well-grown, healthy pullets. Under such conditions there will be no cause for worry about the eggs producing weakling or imperfect chicks. Birds that are not full grown (fully matured) should not be bred. It is seldom advisable to breed birds that are more than thirty months old at the beginning of the breeding season. Number of Females to a Male. — The number of females which may be successfully mated with a cock or cockerel depends largely upon conditions and upon the male bird. Commonly, ten females to a male is considered a sufficient number for a cock and fifteen for a cockerel. Some males will not properly care for half that number and some will serve well twice as many. Often a male, which in confinement would not give any too good results with a dozen hens, will easily serve twenty-five or thirty hens when on free range, with good results. The number of hens a male should have also depends a good deal on how many of them are laying and how recently they began to lay. Test the eggs often by incubating them, for it is the only way to determine the result of the mating. The Service. — The service is the "covering" of the females by the male, which should result in fertilization of the eggs. After the intro- duction of a male to the fiock it is possible to obtain eggs in a few days that will hatch chicks of his get — though, if another male has preceded him, it may be two weeks (possibly longer) before all eggs can be safely credited as fertilized by the male last introduced. How soon or how long after service impregnation of the egs takes place is not known. It is probable that it may occur as early as 18 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS within 16 to 24 hours after service, but it is certain that a much longer time often dees elapse between the act of service and actual impregnation of the ovum. The sperm of the male is capable of living a long time in the oviduct, under favorable conditions, remain- ing active and possessing full power to impregnate any ripe non- fertilized ovum with which it comes in contact. Where crosses have been made it has been found that the character of the fluids moist- ening the lining of the duct undoubtedly vary in chemical properties in different varieties, so that, for example, the sperm of a Game might not live as long, or find conditions so favorable, in the oviduct of a Rock or Orpington as it would in that of a Game female, with the result there might be less fertile eggs produced. In some cases the reverse of these conditions might exist. It has been proved by many experiments that one service, under favorable conditions, will often suffice to fertilize the majority of eggs laid from the second day thereafter for a period of two weeks. Some observers claim that one service is sufficient for one month, providing the hen is just starting to lay her litter at the time of serving. From this it follows that it is not necessary to waste the strength of a valuable male bird in promiscuous and useless service. Where a breeder possesses a particularly fine male from which he desires to obtain the greatest number of chicks possible, he could be made to care for a very considerable flock by mating him only with birds about to begin their lay; or by dividing the layers into several flocks and permitting the male to run a few days twice a month with each flock, giving him a brief interval of rest and good care between, he could be made to cover a very large number of females. It is quite practicable to keep a particularly flne breeding cock "at stud," as is common with other domestic animals and to bring females to him for service at regular intervals, say, once a week, or even every two weeks, always endeavoring to have the hen well served when about to begin her lay. Fecundity versus Sterility. — It is often stated that the prolific layer after producing a considerable number of eggs is prone to be- come sterile, or that a large number of her eggs come infertile. With- out doubt this is a fact, yet the fault does not necessarily lie with the hen. Often it can be proved that it is not the fault of the hen by giving her a new mate, when, as a rule, her eggs will again come a good per cent fertile. This is, in part, explained by the fact easily observed, but to date mentioned by very few writers on the subject (Mr. E. Cook, author of "Incubation," published in England, was one of the first to give this explanation), that the male when introduced into a flock of hens HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 19 is soon surrounded by the layers or those about to begin laying and that he IS usually particularly attentive to those near laying or lately become productive, while those hens which have been laying some time or which are unproductive are more or less neglected Failure to serve these prolific mates sufficiently often and the fact that the male usually has his favorites in the flock, is in a large measure responsible for the proportion of infertile eggs produced With prolific layers, there being more eggs produced, it is reasonable to expect that more eggs will escape impregnation, not because of lack of vigor (though that may enter into it in some cases), but often for the same reason that grass seldom grows on a well traveled road Where the service is frequent, eggs which escape fertilization in the first service may become fertilized by the second or any suc- ceeding service. This explains why it is possible for a hen to lay eggs which produce chicks having the characteristics of more than one sire, although one of the parent males has been allowed to run with the flock but a short time. For example: If cock No. 1 has served a hen at the beginning of her lay and cock No. 2 be then introduced for service his seed will be likely to impregnate eggs which escaped the service of No. 1 (or the most active sperms of either may do the work), with the result that a part of the eggs in this hen's litter pro- duce chicks that are the get of No. 1 and the balance the get of No 2 Some birds of both sexes are absolutely sterile— incapable of re- production. This may result from many causes, but chiefly is due to disease or hereditary fault. When discovered such specimens should be killed and marketed. Overshowing, in both sexes, is sometimes a cause of sterility. Any other form of abuse may produce a like result. Prolonged pro- hfic laying combined with lack of care or insufficient food of variety sufficient for perfect egg-making, is another cause. Such sterility may be only temporary and when the bird is put in good condition, after a sufficient period of rest, good results may again be obtained. Where sterility is the result of hereditary taint or disease, no improve- ment can be expected. h K-f 'l??^ ""^ cockerels in celibacy often results in abuse and bad habits that cause permanent sterility. I have seen many good cock- erels rumed as breeders by growing them in flocks of males exclu- sively, with no opportunity to run with the females. While it is un- doubtedly a good thing to keep the pullets free from annoyance by young males while growing, it appears equally certain that males intended for breeders are better for being grown on range with a num- ber of healthy adult hens. Males so reared are less likely to be abu- sive when introduced into the breeding pen and are much less likely 20 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS to "go to pieces" in a few weeks of breeding than cockerels grown by the monastic method. If for any reason it is necessary to herd a lot of young cockerels in a flock away from the females, be sure to put one or two strong old cocks with them to keep them in order and teach them good manners. A male bird, given all the females he can attend to during his first season, will often wear himself out and become practically sterile and useless as a breeder the following year. Mating up the pens in the fall and permitting the birds to run together throughout the year is, in some cases, responsible for low fertility of the eggs from that pen. The cock bird needs intervals of rest, as do the females, but he should not be kept from his mates long enough to become morose and indifferent. Extremes in either respect bring unsatisfactory re- sults. It is not reasonable to expect a male, that has been running with a flock of hens throughout a long season, to possess strong fecundity unless he has been particularly well cared for. See "care of the male bird." There is only one way to test the fecundity of the male bird and that is by mating him to several females and then incubating the eggs from the mating. If the eggs do not show a good percentage of fertility, the male is probably useless as a breeder. If he is spe- cially desired as a sire, he may be further tried out with one to three hens and the test repeated. Sterile females can be identified by means of trap nests and Individual egg records. If after incubating a number of eggs from any hen a large per cent prove infertile, try her with another male and test the eggs again. If she still fails to produce fertile eggs in sufficient numbers to make her worth using, discard her. Hens with very long, downy fluff (like Cochins and Brahmas) will sometimes appear sterile when the trouble is interference with ser- vice. If the fluff is plucked or clipped, so that the seed of the male reaches its destination and is not lost in the plumage, they usually prove all right as breeders and produce their share of fertile eggs. CHAPTER II. Food— Vegetable, Animal and Mineral """ ^.lOOD is matter that is eaten for nourishment. It is L^ ' nutriment that is fed upon by being received J/ within the animal or plant and being assimilated H supplies material for the building up and repair of the body or plant, furnishes energy for work and heat and supplies a surplus for storage for future need and a surplus for the purposes of re- production. It is possible to feed fowls such a scanty supply of food that there will only be enough to support life and no surplus provided 1^ for storage (fat making) or for productive pur- ' poses. That is often the reason why poor feeders seldom get eggs. All kinds of poultry are omniverous and require vegetable, animal and mineral food. The fact that they are omniverous does not mean that they can or should get along with one kind of food, but rather that variety is necessary and that to obtain results from our fowls we must feed all three sorts— vegetable food, animal food and min- eral food. The vegetable foods are those which are suplied by feeding on plant life, like clover, grass, alfalfa, beets, potatoes, grains, etc. Ani- mal foods are those supplied by the flesh and bone of animals like meat, fish, green cut bone, beef scrap, milk and its by-products, eggs, etc. All vegetable and animal foods contain more or less mineral food. In addition to the mineral matter supplied in vegetable and animal foods, mineral foods are also supplied in salt, which is used as a condiment, and in grit, shells and dried bones. It is now believed by many observers that the most important part played by grit and shell in the economy of the fowl is not primarily a mechanical office, that of grinding food, but that a large proportion of it is properly digested and assimilated to serve as a necessary supply of mineral food, which is particularly rich in blood and feather making material. The Chief Source of All Food. — Plant life is the chief source of all poultry food, of all foods, in fact. From plants and their produc- tions we obtain our supply of animal food, since both cattle and sheep, 21 22 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS our most important food animals, are herbivora, feeding almost exclu- sively on vegetable matter (grasses and grains). Therefore we can consider plant life, in one form or another, as the most important source of all poultry food; either directly in the form of vegetables, grasses and grains, or indirectly through animals or insects which have fe ^ -u les of e several scheme e it pu l^li ^1^1 ." ^ « ?-^-S oi ^r o 1:11 . fl « > ^ ^-^-^ ^l,l » 02 != O O a> - ^^ 2 m J sSgc i ^^^^ >» 1 :tj ^ OSr^ "^ i^s'i bJO ssachi Id is mit tl as CO M P rt o A Ma ing fie to per and w 2 ^ &: ^ ^ ^ CO 2'blDg _o . bcS-Q 'fe ^a rt- o ^ .- c3 ^H O ,^ "^ y 78 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS than to the reading of the thermometer, but making sure that they are abundantly supplied with fresh air at all times. Home-Made Brooder. — One of the simplest, oldest and best home- made brooders for use with lamp heat can be made at very small cost by using box boards. For the base two pieces of board 9 inches wide by 2 feet 10 inches and two pieces 9 inches wide by 3 feet are required. These are nailed together to make the frame of the Fig. 7. Plan of home-made Brooder Base with cut av.ay seetlcn show- ing construction of hot air chamber. brooder base. To the top edge of this frame is tacked a sheet of galvanized or sheet iron, 3 feet by 3 feet. Above this is nailed a frame of 1 inch by 3 inch stuff, an opening being left on one side 3 inches wide for an air inlet. On top of this frame is built the floor, 2 feet 10 inches square, of matched boards. A 5-inch hole for the heat flue is cut in the middle of this floor. This construction leaves a rabbet 1 inch wide around the edge of the brooder, on which the top fits. (See Fig. 7.) A tin peach can with both ends melted off is used for a heat flue, or a galvanized pipe 5 Inches in diameter and 5 Inches long may be used. This is nailed in place in the hole in middle of floor. A cone of the same material, 3i/^ inches in diameter at base, is hung by wire hooks in upper part of heat flue to serve as a heat spreader. This cone is kept fllled with moist sand. Section view Fig. 8 shows detail of brooder construction and also the chimneyless burner lamp. Hover is circular and is 2 feet in diameter and has four legs 5 inches long, and a fringe of felt (double) 414 inches long around the edge. Complete brooder is shown in Fig. 9. The lids are used only HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 79 when brooder is used out of doors and are removable. There is a window 5 inches by 14 inches in each side and a 3-inch ventilating hole at the peak of each side. Ventilating holes are provided with slides. Front has a glass window 5 inches by 16 inches and a door 7 inches by 12 inches. For details of construction of top and lids see Figs. 8 and 9. The brooder top is simply a four-sided board frame made to fit the rabbet around edge of floor and is fitted with removable lids, which form the roof. This top is 9 inches above the floor front and back and 13 inches at peak. Lamp vent in base is a 2^/^ inch hole and is protected on the inside by a wind shield made by nailing half-inch cleats above and below the hole and tacking over these a sheet of tin. A piece of mica is fastened over the opening in the lamp door located in the st/£er Fig. 8. Section view of home-made brooder. rear end of brooder base. Brooders of this type have been in sue cessful use in New Engl&>id for thirty years or more. Some poultry^ men run them in open sheds without any brooder top, and when more heat is needed a second lamp is added under the sheet iron floor. In operation the heat is regulated by the height of the lamp flame, always aiming to have it warm enough under the hover so that the chicks will stay near the edge with heads peeping out from under the felts. Thermometers are used when starting the brooder and before chicks are placed in it the space beneath the hover is warmed to 95 or 100 degrees. After that the thermometer is not used and the operator keeps the hover warm enough to drive the chicks away from the center flue to the felts at the hover edge. Center flue has a band of heavy felt about it to keep chicks away from hot metal. The comfort of the chicks is the best guide to the 80 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS right amount of heat needed. Floor or brooder is kept covered with clean sand and some cut clover or hay-mow chaff. If the brooder is to be run under a shelter the best plan is to use the sides of top without the lids. In place of lids use a wooden frame covered with wire screen and cotton cloth. Cheese Box Fireless Brooder. — Probably the first fireless brooder was made of mud and straw, rounded in the form of a small hut and baked dry in the sun, for fireless brooders were undoubtedly the first used for artificial chick rearing, and that dates back several hundred years B. C. Today we have many styles and shapes of fireless brooders made of wood and metal, all of which possess more or less HisQeD Lias jota/ A\ov*,«i.t T f ^, BASE ^ i —3'— "^ Fig. 9. Home-made Brooder complete. merit. For the best results ihe fireless brooder is a mild or warm weather brooder. When it is used instead of a heated brooder, con- siderably more labor is required to properly care for the chicks, and, during the first ten days, almost constant attention is needed. If one has sufficient patience and the time to fuss with them, fireless brooders will raise good chicks. Some poultrymen, who raise from one to three hundred chicks, like this style of brooder very much for spring and summer use and say that they would not return to the lamp-heated type. One of the cheapest fireless brooders is that made from a cheese box, and it is quite as good as any. Usually the box can be had for the asking from the corner grocery; the lid is not used. Fig. 10 Shows the cheese box brooder complete, with hover 5tnd quilt. Two HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 81 3-inch holes, rounded at the top, are cut in the sides for the chicks to run in and out. These are made close to the floor of the box. A ring of telegraph wire is made to fit inside of the box and is covered with coarse cotton cloth to make the hover. This cloth is put on loosely with a wide lap and when in place bags down in the center to touch the brooder floor when hover is in position. Three wire nails are placed equal distances apart on inside of box, three inches from floor, and on these the hover rings rests. When the chicks go under the hover the cloth rests on their backs. The "quilt" is the only additional protection for this brooder and is made of two circular pieces of cotton cloth or cheese cloth, with Sins v/cw Fig. 10. Cheese-box Tireless Brooder snd x)arts. a loosely laid layer of wool or cotton batting, one inch thick, placed between the cloths and the whole tufted as one would tuft a quilt. This rests on top of the cotton cloth hover. Don't make the quilt too heavy or too thick, as in a large measure the brooder is venti- lated through the quilt and cotton hover. It is used simply to retain a sufficient amount of the animal heat of the chicks to keep them comfortable. In operation this brooder is run in a box 2^^ feet wide by 4 feet long and high enough to take in the cheese box and leave a little room above it. The brooder half of the box has a cotton cloth cover and the other one of wire netting. From 25 to 50 chicks are started in one of these brooders, the larger flocks when the weather is cool and smaller in warm weather. The bottom of brooder is littered with cut hay about one inch deep. At night, and when resting or 82 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS warming up during the day, the chicks are confined in the cheese box by stuffing the holes in the sides with loose hay. This permits suf- ficient ventilation and holds the heat. At first a horseshoe-shaped yard of metal or pasteboard, the ends of which fit against the outer edges of the holes *'d, d," (Fig. 10) is used to confine the chicks close to the brooder for a few days until they learn to use it. With a yard of this shape the chicks cannot huddle or crowd in corners, as the only corners in the yard open directly into the space beneath the hover, and any crowding or pushing lands them inside the brooder beneath the hover. It requires a good deal of care and attention the first week to see that the chicks do not stay outside too long and to teach them to go inside the box to warm up. Details of Heated Brooder Operation. — Locate your outdoor heated brooders on level ground in the shade of a tree or under shelter if possible. Use wire chick runs in front. Face all brooders south. Have them level and see that they fit down to the ground on all sides. Bank up on the outside one inch with earth all around. Have a mound of earth and sod reaching up to the chick door to make a little hill for chicks to climb up and down if your brooder is one that has the floor of the exercise apartment above ground level. Do not use a board or other runway; an earth incline is the only safe plan. Make your wire run in front of brooder so that the ends con- verge toward the mound in such a manner that the chick door of the brooder is at the apex of the triangle so formed. If you do this, when the chicks want to get in or get scared they have to go into the brooder because that is the only place where they can stop when they get started for that end of the run. Have your brooders ready and running properly a day or so before the chicks are hatched. Outdoor brooders are a lot of bother, but chick raising cannot be successfully accomplished without some work of a fussy nature. For flocks of 1,000 chicks or under I prefer the individual outdoor brooders. Bigger flocks on large plants require the hot water pipe house brooding system, the operation of which is an art that has to be learned by experience. The same general, practical, commonsense principles apply in brooder house operation that are necessary in the management of individual brood- ers. Running individual brooders out of doors is disagreeable work in bad weather. You will have to put up with sprawling in the mud and wet unless you erect a shelter over each brooder, which is a great help toward keeping your disposition sweet in chick time. I have been down on my knees in snow water and even laid down in it many a time, with a stream of ice cold water from my hat brim trickling down between my collar and neck, when operating brooders HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 83 out of doors in winter time. The man who enjoys and is busy with chick rearing will not have much time to fuss or worry about slight inconveniences of this sort. The temperature under hover should be at 95 degrees F. with hover empty. Put chicks into brooder in afternoon. Have brooder well littered with fine cut clover or with clean hay mow chaff or sweepings. Put in a little chick grit and clean sand to barely weight down the clover. (I don't like alfalfa for brooder litter if I can get anything else and I prefer cut clover or hay mow chaff if clean and sweet.) Take out the hover when you put the chicks in and scatter dry grain chick food on the litter besides making two or three little piles of chick food and beef scrap in the corners of the brooding apartment. Tapping on the floor of the brooder with your finger near the piles of food will usually start the chicks feeding. When you have put all the chicks in and let them have a chance at the food, put on the hover. Raise one or two tabs of the felt curtain and tack them to top of hover to leave a small opening in the felts for a door. These tabs should be let down at night. Tuck the chicks in under the hover and close the brooder. Keep the entrance to the exercise apartment closed. Be sure that the cold air tube or fresh air inlet into space between iron ceiling or lamp chamber and wood floor of brooding chamber is kept open all the time. This is your cold-air box of your furnace principle and upon this inlet of fresh air depends the supply of warm air to keep the chicks comfortable. If your brooder has ventilating holes covered with galvanized iron slides at the highest point of the sides of the brooder near the roof, run these vents wide open on sunny or still days even in cold weather. In mild weather they should be kept open all the time. On windy days or at night in cold weather one of these vents on the windward side of the brooder may be closed. The other should be left wholly or half open according to the weather. Never close the vent more than one-half, even if the outside temperature goes down to 15 or 20 degrees below zero. You cannot heat and ventilate a brooder properly if these ventilating slides are wholly closed. Watch the chicks very closely the first two weeks. You have to represent the natural hen mother and teach them all they must know during this early infancy period. After two weeks, if they are properly trained, the chicks ought to take care of themselves on all ordinary occasions. Keep them moving. Never permit them to huddle or crowd in the sun or elsewhere. If they form this habit of huddling they are in a bad way and losses will be heavy. The first two days keep the chicks confined in the brooder apart- ment around the hover and tuck them under the hover frequently. 84 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS Keep pure water, grit, chick food and pure willow charcoal, with a supply of fine sifted, pure beef scrap and granulated raw bone, always before them. Scatter a little dry grain chick food in their litter once in three hours and remove the hover for a few minutes to get all of the chicks out for a chance at the food. Also keep chick food before the chicks all the time in a shallow box or pan. Air and sun the interior of the brooder often. From the first View of an outdoor brooder with flock of chicks on Dr. Woods' farm. The picture was taken on the 21st of February, 1905, temperature 18 de- grees above zero. Brooder was easily operated out of doors, although out- door temperature frequently fell to zero and below. The chicks made re- markably fine growth, had well developed bodies and nice big strong legs. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) the hover should always be removed for a short space of time dur- ing your visits to the brooders, taking care to expose the under side of the hover for a short time to the sunlight whenever possible. Never leave brooders while open or with hover out when chicks are under ten days old. Stay near by the brooder until you have closed them or replaced the hover. On warm days the brooder HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 85 lids or large doors may be left open, but do not leave them so for long at a time except in summer when they may be run open most of the time on sunny days. Put the chicks under the hover and close the brooder at the first sign of huddling or crowding. If the chicks cry a great deal there is something wrong. Look for it! They should be busy, happy and contented, making only a happy little chirp as they scratch for their food. Run the hover space with the hover empty at about 95 degrees View of an outdoor brooder with flock of chicks on Dr. Woods' farm. The jiicture was taken on the 21st of February, 1905, temperature 18 de- grees above zero. Brooder was easily operated out of doors, although out- door temperature frequently fell to zero and below. The chicks made re- markably fine growth, had well developed bodies and nice big strong legs. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) F, the first week, then gradually drop to 90 degrees by the end of the second week and to 85 degrees by the time the chicks are a month old, but always pay more attention to the comfort of the chicks than you do to the temperature indicated by your brooder thermometer. Some flocks require more heat than others and you 86 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS should aim at all times to keep the chicks comfortable. A little extra heat, 105 degrees to even 115 degrees F. with all the chicks under the hover, will not hurt them if they have an opportunity to get away from the heat, on all sides of a circular hover, when they desire to do so. Chilling the chicks may prove fatal and is a com- mon cause of diarrhoea. At night if your chicks appear comfortable and are spread about the edge of the hover with their heads out from beneath the felt, do not attempt to lower the temperature by changing the height of the lamp flame, even though the thermometer registers from 100 degrees to 110 degrees, or on a cold night is as high as 115 degrees. It is always better to have a surplus of heat than not enough. Bear in mind also that chicks can stand a great deal more heat in cold, blustery weather than they can when the weather is warm and muggy. By the third day let the chicks out into the exercise apartment. If the brooding chamber and exercise apartment are separated by a felt curtain, pin up one of the tabs to make an open door. Let them run for a little while only, then drive them back and shut them in. Repeat this often. Keep the food and water in the exercise apart- ment after they begin to make use of this part of the brooder. Usually by the fifth day it will be safe to let the chicks have the use of the exercise apartment at all times. After they become used to running in and out, the felt tab which was raised should be lowered. Be sure that all your chicks are under the hover at bed- time or are comfortably spread out with their heads peeping from beneath the felts. If at any time after dark you visit the brooder and find the chicks are all in under the felts out of sight, you can be certain that there is not a sufficient supply of surplus heat to last the chicks until morning, and with a falling outside temperature unless you increase the lamp heat the chicks are almost certain to be chilled. When chicks are from seven days to two weeks old, according to the weather conditions and the development of the little chicks, begin to give a small run outside the brooder. By this I mean give them an outdoor run summer or winter. In cold weather let them run on frozen ground. If there is snow, clear a space in front of the brooder for an outdoor run. Get them outdoors for a few minutes daily even if you have to sprinkle chaff, hay or straw on top of the snow to encourage them to run out. In a short time they will be eager for their outdoor play and will run about on the snow and ice, growing strong and sturdy with large-boned, sound, healthy bodies and big, strong legs. A good healthy chick always has large HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 87 legs, well filled out in proportion to its size. If your little birds have thin! shrunken legs they will bear watching and need better care. Small, wizened legs are a danger signal, they mean low vitality and trouble ahead. Let them out for only a little while at first, then drive them back again just as you taught them to use the exercise apartment. In a few days they can have the freedom of the rua which may be increased in size daily. They will then be smart enough to look out for themselves. You must, however, teach them well at first to avoid trouble later. Change your brooders to new fresh ground once a month and always run the brooder on fresh ground for a new flock. Keep your chicks in the same brooder until they are weaned. Clean the brooder every week and clean the run every few days. When chicks are five to six weeks old, if possible, let them have practically free range on grass land where there is shade and shelter. Chicks may be weaned when from six to eight weeks old if they are well fledged. A good deal depends upon the size of the chicks and the condition of their plumage. Some will be ready to go to the colony coops when six weeks old, others not until they are are eight to nine weeks old. Don't take a lot of naked chicks away from heat in cold weather. The chief secret in little chick raising is in getting them started right. You will find that, as a rule, cold weather broods are easier to teach and require less patience than hot weather broods. Never permit little chicks to huddle or crowd outside the brooder in the sunshine. If you do allow them to acquire this bad habit you will find them chilled or dead in that same spot on some cold, stormy day. 88 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS A practical outdoor brooder, with chick run and shelter attached. The husky httle early chicks have been let out of shelter to get the newly started first green grass of springtime. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) CHAPTER VIII. Chick Foods and Feeding Chicks ^ _SE GOOD FOOD if you want to grow good chicks. ||l|l There are a number of rations that will grow good LISm chicks if the chicks are born with plenty of vitality, — the power to live. Corn meal dough, johnny-cake, oat meal, cracked wheat, corn grits and some commercial chick foods have all been used to grow good chicks and when sweet and wholesome, with some sup- plementary food used for variety and plenty of fresh succulent green food and abundance of worms and insects available, will yield good re- sults. For general use I prefer to feed a good mixed chick food, one that is fresh ground from sound sweet grains. Chick Foods. — The best chick food I have ever used and the one 1 prefer to all others is a home-made chick food ground in a common iron grinding mill, having steel burrs, and freshly made at home as needed. Small grinding mills in small sizes cost from $5 to $8 each and a larger size for power can be had as low as $25. Such mills are mighty handy to have, even on a small poultry plant, will last almost a lifetime and are no harder to run than a coffee mill of the same size. A second hand coffee mill, if the burrs are not too badly worn, will do the work well and can usually be had cheap. The following formula will make an excellent chick food: Sound, hard, yellow corn 4 measures Sound, whole wheat 3 measures Heavy, clipped, white oats 2 measures Sound, heavy barley 1 measure Mix and grind together into a chick food that will be about as coarse as ground coffee. This mixture when ground will contain a considerable amount of fine meal. If the chicks are trough or hopper fed the meal need not be sifted out and the chicks will eat it readily. If chick food is wanted for litter feeding or to use in an automatic feeder it is better to sift out the meal so that it will not be wasted. This can be easily done when grinding by fitting a sieve made of 90 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS mosquito netting at a fairly sharp incline from the outlet of the mill and placing one box at the end of the sieve and another beneath the sieve. The food sifts itself as it runs down the inclined screen. Meal so sifted out can be hopper fed to chicks after mixing it with an equal bulk of wheat bran. Do not grind more than a week's supply at one time as it makes a better food when freshly ground. (See formula for home made chick food under '"Feeding the Chicks," page 94 in this chapter.) Another good chick food that can be mixed at home is the fol- lowing: Corn grits, or sifted fine cracked corn 45 pounds Clean, sound cracked wheat 20 pounds Steel-cut oat meal, "C grade 20 pounds Cracked barley, hulls sifted out 12 1^ pounds Chick size poultry charcoal Vz pound Granulated, dry, raw bone 1 pound Coarse sand or chick size grit 1 pound Just a few words about commercial chick foods. There are a number of excellent chick foods on the market, but most of them contain too much millet. If you can get the chick food without millet you will have a much better food for every day use. Chicks like millet and a very little of it may do no harm but too much of it is likely to prove injurious and causes indigestion, bowel trouble and loss of chicks. Some kinds of so-called millet found in some com- mercial foods are not relished by the chicks and if eaten cause indigestion. Dangerous weed seeds and other products of cheap screenings are frequently found in chick foods and these are not only unfit for feeding but usually result in starting a crop of many foul weeds all over the land used for growing the chicks. Care should be taken in buying even the best chick foods to make sure that you obtain a fresh-made, pure, sweet article that is free from mouldy or musty grain. Cracked grain loses something in feeding value as it ages and it is more liable to spoil than whole grain. Never use any chick food that smells musty or mouldy or that has been stored in a warehouse for from six months to a year. Buy only freshly prepared chick food that is sweet, clean and bright. Insist on seeing a sample before buying and do not accept goods that are not equal to sample in quality. Cheap, spoiled, old or dam- aged food may kill your chicks. Don't take any chances with poor food. Growing Foods. — Chick food must be supplemented with other foods and as the chicks grow it should gradually give way to some sort of growing food. Generally by the time chicks are from three HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 91 weeks to one month old they will do very well on any good ration suitable for laying fowl if cracked corn is substituted for whole corn. A good growing food which can be used to gradually take the place of chick food is the following: Sifted cracked corn 40 pounds Whole wheat (red or amber) 30 pounds Kafir corn 10 pounds Clean wheat screenings 10 pounds Hulled oats 10 pounds In addition to the above an excellent dry mash mixture for grow- ing chicks is the following: Whole corn 50 pounds Whole wheat 18 pounds Heavy white oats 16 pounds Heavy barley 16 pounds Mix all together and have your miller grind them to flour fine- ness. Use only sound sweet grains. Keep the ground mixture before chicks in same manner as any dry mash fed from a hopper. Add one- half pound of table salt to 100 pounds of the ground mixture and mix in thoroughly. Forcing Food Mash. — For market chicks after they are six weeks old, in addition to their cracked corn and green food, the following forcing mash is excellent. It may be fed dry if desired but best and quickest results are to be had by mixing it into a crumbly moist mash with skim milk or cold water. Here is the formula: Best yellow corn meal 50 pounds Low grade wheat flour 10 pounds Wheat bran 20 pounds *First quality clover or alfalfa meal 10 pounds Best meat meal or blood meal 10 pounds Best fish scrap 10 pounds *If chickens are running on a green range or can have plenty of raw green food, omit the clover or alfalfa meal. If there is any looseness of the bowels reduce the amount of beef scrap and increase the quantity of low grade flour. Add one-half pound of table salt to the 100 pounds of ground grain mixture and mix in thoroughly. Animal Foods. — The best animal foods for growing chicks are the worms, bugs, grasshoppers and other insects that they get on open range. Fresh flsh, well scalded or boiled before feeding is an excellent form of animal food for chicks of all ages and it has the great advan- tage of being easily digested. It rarely causes indigestion or diar- rhoea, even when too freely fed. Use only good fresh fish. Spoiled 92 Plow TO RAISE CHICKS fish is dangerous and if fed may cause losses. Nothing will make chicks grow and develop bone and muscle like well-scalded fresh fish, fed bones and all, either in a mash or plain. I fed my White Plymouth Rock chickens quantities of yellow perch, chubs, herring and other easily obtained cheap fish during spring of 1911 with excellent results; they cleaned them up, bones and all. Fish scrap, if made from fresh wholesome fish, is an excellent addition to mashes, but it is difficult to obtain a dependable supply of desirable quality. It contains a large proportion of fish bone. This fish scrap is a by-product in manufacture of fish glue. Don't buy much fish scrap at a time and test it well before you feed much of it. Meat, either fresh and raw or cooked, is a good food to feed sparingly to chicks. Beef scrap, meat meal, blood meal and other similar prepared meat foods will serve as substitutes for insect life but you must be careful to get a good quality. See remarks on beef scrap in Chapter IV. Feed sparingly to chicks at first if you have not used the scrap before. It is always well to go slow at first with a new lot. Sweet milk is excellent for small chicks of all ages. It should be given in fountains that will not permit the chicks to get them- selves all smeared up with the milk. Give milk for drinking pur- poses in earthen founts, give only a small amount at a time and keep the fountain clean. If the milk "scours" the chicks, it should be scalded before feeding and given less frequently. Use sweet milk for mixing moist mashes when it ca^i be had cheaply. Sour milk Is a good drink for weaned chicks and adult stock. I do not like it for small chicks. Where both sweet and sour milk are to be used, don't alternate them. Either feed the milk always sweet or always sour. Feeding sweet milk at one time and sour milk another is apt to start troublesome diarrhoea. The best way to use sour milk for young chicks is to heat it until the curd separates from the whey. Salt the curd just a little and squeeze it dry; the cheese so made is excellent for chicks of all ages. I sometimes add a little black pepper to the curd cheese. Scalded sweet milk thickened with boiled bread flour, and sea- soned lightly with nutmeg and ginger, is excellent for small chicks to remedy diarrhceal troubles. Eggs are good for small chicks but should not be fed too freely. The white of a fresh egg stirred up raw with a little scalded milk, cooled before mixing, will help in cases of diarrhoea. Infertile, tested out, eggs should be hard boiled before feeding to chicks. Keep such eggs at the boiling point for fully ten minutes. HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 93 Green Foods. — For small chicks there is nothing better as a source of green food supply than a good grass or clover range. Clip- pings from oat sprouts are excellent. Fresh cut, i/4-inch lengths of lawn grass, and white or red clover leaves are good. Raw potatoes, cut in chunks for chicks to pick at or ground fine in a vegetable chopper are fine vegetable food for young chicks at any age. Cab- bage, lettuce, onions and other raw greens are all good when prop- erly fed. Live raw food is necessary to health and growth. Fresh cut, finely chopped dandelion leaves are excellent green food for young chicks, especially where there is any tendency to diarrhoea. Dandelions may be fed freely. Other variety and supplementary foods for small chicks will be taken up under feeding. Mineral Foods for Small Chicks. — Little chicks as well as fowls need more mineral food than they get in grains, grasses and animal foods that are fed. If they get an outdoor run where they can eat earth, sand and gravel and are supplied with fine oyster shells, a good gravel grit, and kiln dried granulated raw bone they will gen- erally get along very well. See under heading "Mineral Foods" in Chapter VI and the white diarrhoea remedy in Chapter X. Hard coal ashes are good for chicks. Feeding the Chicks. — Small chickens are creatures of habit. You cannot be too careful how you feed and train them at the start. If they are permitted to begin eating too much sand, grit, paper and felt or acquire other similar bad habits, you will find it almost impos- sible to break them of it. For this reason be careful to teach them to eat only wholesome food at the start. With hen-hatched, hen-brooded chicks you will not have much trouble getting them started right if you confine the hen and let the chicks run outside her coop, gradually giving them more range as they need it. Simply supply the hen with her ration, and drink- ing water where she can reach it, and place the food for the chicks just out of her reach after the first few days. For the first day or two you should let her have the chick food where she can call the chicks to eat it; after she has them started right don't waste chick food by feeding it to the mother hen, give her whole corn and wheat. With brooder chicks have the floor of the brooder well littered with cut clover or hay mow chaff. On this sprinkle a little coarse sand or chick size grit. Provide a drinking fountain containing fresh water. Make a small pile of chick food and another of beef scrap in each corner of brooder, except that occupied by drinking fountain. Chicks will not be ready to be fed until they have had rest and 94 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS warmth for some hours after hatching. Usually they will begin to cry for food when they are from twenty-four to thirty-six hours out of the shell. When the "hungry cry" becomes insistent the chicks are ready to go to brooder or brood coop. It is well to give each chick a drink of water by dipping its bill before you place it in brood coop or brooder. Attract attention of brooder chicks to their food by tapping finger on floor near the small piles of food. See detail of care for first week in Chapter VII. Try to keep the chicks comfortable, contented and happy; that is the secret of successful chick rearing, and to learn how one needs to study and understand the chicks. They need to be kept com- fortably warm, clean and well supplied with fresh air. They require a variety of wholesome food and a constant supply of pure drinking water, grit, dry granulated bone or bone meal, and charcoal. They should be given an opportunity to exercise, and for this purpose a well sanded floor covered with cut clover hay is the best. Alfalfa will serve if it is not too dusty, but I don't like the average very dusty commercial article for small chicks. Feed a little of the chick food and a small amount of beef scrap daily in this litter to encour- age exercise. A good home-made chick food for starting baby chicks, and one that has always given good results, can be ground in any iron coffee mill and made fresh as needed. Cracked or ground grain loses some in value if kept overlong, and if kept in a damp place or during hot, humid weather, spoils quickly. The formula for this chick food is equal parts by measure corn, barley and wheat, ground to a very coarse meal and to which is added one part of rolled oats. For the first week alternated with a little oven-dried bread or cracker crumbs, rubbed up with hard-boiled egg, this food gives excellent results. After the first week grind it a little coarser and add some chick size corn grits. Commercial chick food may be fed to supplement the ration, but preferably should be free from millet. Feed scrap in the litter at first and afterwards mix with wheat bran and feed from a box hopper. The dry grain chick food ration should be supplemented by occasional feedings of cooked wheat or cracked rice. The wheat or rice should be thoroughly well boiled in water lightly seasoned with salt, taking care not to mash the grains up too much. Cook until thoroughly soft and most of the water is evaporated. This cooked grain may be fed slightly warm or cold and is greatly relished as a supplementary or variety food. Sprinkle a little raw bone meal or granulated raw bone over this cooked food just before feeding. Feed one meal two or three times a week until the chicks are well started. HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 95 Hard boiled infertile eggs may also be given as supplementary food, simply cutting the boiled egg in halves and leaving it in the brooder for the chicks to pick at shell and all. One egg is sufficient for 25 small chicks. Be just a little careful in feeding green food. The best form of vegetable food for winter chicks is a daily supply of raw potatoes cut in large chunks, raw apples, beets, or mangels. These they will eat eagerly but they should be given no more daily than they will clean up in a few hours. As they grow older they may be given scalded cut clover, fresh, green cut rye, and any form of fresh, suc- culent, wholesome green food that may be available. Lettuce should be fed carefully at first, as it sometimes upsets the chicks. Onions should be fed very sparingly. In feeding cabbage never feed any that have been frozen, as frozen vegetables are liable to cause diarrhoea in small chicks. In summer time the ideal way to supply green food is to provide a good grass range on which there is plenty of white and red clover. By the time the chicks are from one week to ten days old begin substituting for a portion of the chick food, fine sifted cracked corn or corn grits; some clean, best quality wheat screenings, and small- grained, hard red or amber wheat; or gradually substitute the grow- ing food given in this chapter. Gradually work them away from the expensive chick food on to a ration of largely fine-cracked corn, wheat and beef scrap. Waste cereal from the home table is excellent for a variety food, and cooked potatoes will prove an agreeable change from raw ones. When three weeks old they can usually begin to take a part of the regular ration for laying fowls, but the change should not be made abruptly. In making any considerable change in a ration it is usually best to gradually reduce the amount of the old food and increase the proportion of the new a little each day until the change is effected. Keep the quarters reasonably clean and try to keep the chicks always busy and with keen appetites. Don't allow the chicks to be- come lousy. No matter how you brood them, make it a point the first day or two to see that the chicks learn to drink and to eat what is good for them. Some very successful growers give each chick, when placed in brood coop or brooder, a little drink of water by dipping its bill. The attention of brooder chicks can be attracted to food by tapping the floor near it with your finger. Don't neglect the chick's education by failing to teach it how and where to warm up and what and how to eat and drink the first day or two. Example and habit has a great influence on whatever mentality the chick possesses, and generally, if they contract bad habits of crowding in places where 96 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS they can become chilled or of eating matter foreign to a normal ap- petite, it is, if the chicks were well born, the result of neglecting early lessons. An early summer scene in a Ehode Island hay field on a practical poultry plant. Here the chicks and brood hens have tiny houses placed along the roadway leading through the field to the barn, giving an ideal range for the small chicks. Tlie brood hens are tethered by a string fastened to the coop at one end and to the hen's leg at the other. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) CHAPTER IX Growing Chicks EN REARED CHICKS should run with the hen until she is ready to wean them. Brooder chicks will be ready to wean when from six to eight weeks old, according to the development of the chicks and the season of the year. Let the comfort of the chicks be your guide at weaning time as at all other times during the chicks' life. If they are well feathered, well developed, and disposed to seek the coolest part of brood coop or brooder for sleeping quarters they are ready to wean. Sometimes a hen will leave her brood too soon for the season of the year, and in order to make the little chicks comfortable on cool days and cold nights it will be necessary to provide a hover for them in their brood box or to place a jug of hot water, wrapped in flannel, where they can cuddle around it to warm up. A board hover, with felt or cloth tabs beneath, built on legs about six inches high to keep the felt well above the litter, will prove useful for cold weather weaning. Or a burlap bran sack tacked to a wooden frame, a little smaller than the bag so that it will be slack and hang down in the middle, makes a good hover frame to use in brood coops. It can be placed on cleats or made with short legs. Weaning should be a gradual process. Little chicks need to be kept comfortably warm until well feathered out. Usually chicks that are brooded under hens are weaned gradually. Brooder chicks should, as they approach weaning time, be given less and less heat until they are ready to go without any heat except that supplied by their own bodies. If chicks have been reared in tireless brooders, weaning is easy. If reared in heated brooders they must be gradually "hardened" until they become accustomed to doing without artificial heat. Chilling at weaning time may mean a serious setback. Faulty care and errors in management — failure to keep the chicks comforta- ble and well fed — may cause a check in growth or so stunt the chick that it does not recover from it and becomes a source of loss instead of profit. Chicks should be kept growing all the time; there should be n(> 97 98 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS standing still periods in which the chick does not appear to grow at all. V/ith a healthy chick development should be continuous and rapid — you should be able to almost "see it grow." If the weather is cool, do not be in a hurry to move the chicks from brooders or brood boxes. It is easier to keep them comfortable in small brood boxes than in larger coops or colony houses. A good many promising broods have been practically ruined by moving them too soon to colony houses, but use a little judgment in this matter, for you can ruin a flock by keeping it confined too long in small over- crowded quarters. When the chicks are well grown and well feathered, if the weather is sufficiently mild, move them into small colony coops or "A" shaped growing houses. (See illustrations.) Houses of the semi-open or open-front type are best, and they should be so constructed that there will be no floor drafts. Houses with wooden floors, well littered with chaff or cut soft straw, are best for cold weather. Use dry sand on floors in warm weather. Keep such houses reasonably clean. Weights of Growing Chicks. — No one has yet figured out a de- pendable weight table that will serve as a standard for normal rapid growth in young chicks in all varieties. Flocks will vary according to season and conditions under which the chicks are kept. Some varie- ties develop more quickly than others. Under favorable conditions a normal chick when ten days old ought to weigh twice as much as it did when hatched. Usually there is no gain in weight during the first four days of the chick's life, so that at first there may be said to be a period of standing still preparing for the start. After that the growtli should be constant. By the time the chick is three weeks old it should have doubled its ten-day-old weight. At two months old it £*iould weigh twice as much as it did at three weeks. It can be made to double in weight again by the time it is four months old, and with heavy varieties you can add about a pound weight each month until the bird is full grown for the variety. Such an increase will admit of reaching a normal, healthy maturity at from seven to ten months old. By confining the birds and feeding a forcing ration you can get much more rapid growth with chicks intended for market and can attain maximum heavy weights in from 22 to 28 weeks from the shell. Illus- tration in this chapter shows a flock of White Wyandotte chicks in- tended for breeders, a few of which made the remarkable weights of 2y2 and 3 pounds each at ten weeks old. (Photo by author, 1903.) Colony Coops and Range. — Colony coops located in an orchard or on a well-grassed, well-shaded range make the best homes for grow- ing chicks. They need plenty of fresh air, plenty of sunshine, green grass, clover or newly sprouted grain, and an abundance of good HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 99 wholesome food in variety. Growing chicks require large quantities of tresh. raw, succulent green food. It is essential to life, health and good growth. Where they are grown on bare runs they should be sun- plied daily with plenty of cut grass, clover, oat sprouts, cabbage, raw- potatoes or other greens and vegetables. Shade is important in hot weather. Sufficient sunshine for health IS necessary and a very important factor in successful chick growing but too much hot sun with no suitable shelter to run to is fataT Orchard trees, berry bushes and shrubbery afford excellent shade If these are not to be had, shelters of some sort must be provided Low tents made of burlap, old canvas, awning cloth, or cheap heavy cotton Cloth will make good shelters. Board lean-tos will serve. Evergreen trees like spruces and pines afford fine shade, and pine boughs can Cheap colony house, for growing chicks, 6 ft. wide bv 3 ft deen q ft h^h m front and 2 ft. high in bick; provided with cotton eu^a ins U,' to Ixce;7$5""* " '*"'"^ "^^*'^""- ^""'^ -^P -- b^ built'at a c^os^n^t be used to advantage in making chick shelters. Tall growing corn and even tall weeds, give grateful shelter from the hot summer sun.' A held of corn after it is a few feet high, makes a fine summer range for growing chicks. ^ c ^;;^'^-f^^' ^^^^ters are essential to life and health and to good ^th. Most Of the colony chick coops are provided with partly open fronts; don t use one with a tight front. Shutting chicks up in snug close stifling coops often results in heavy losses. Fresh, pure air to breathe is needed even more at night than during the day Probably the best small colony house for growing chicks is the partly open-front box coop 6 ft. long, 3 ft. deep, 3 ft. high in front and scrl.n f '? ' ^^'^'""^ ^ '^^^ "°°^' ^'^"^ f^^^t ^^d cotton cloth screens to close in front in stormy weather. Such houses can be had 100 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS at various prices up to as high as $14 each, but a New England box factory is manufacturing such houses in quantity for poultrymen at prices that do not exceed $5 for each house. The Woods open-front house, built on skids and supplied with a wooden floor, makes a good house for growing stock. For a small portable house it can be built as small as 6 ft. wide by 10 ft. deep and 6 ft. high at peak. The Woods house is described in book "Open-Air White Wyandotte chicks grown for breeding stock. Tliese birds at- tained weights from 21^ to 3 pounds each at ten weeks old. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) Poultry Houses," published by American Poultry Journal Publishing Co., Chicago, 111. Colony houses with "A" shaped roofs, built with roof starting close to floor, can be cheaply built and make excellent quarters for growing stock. Illustrations show two of these houses. In housing chicks give them plenty of room. Always provide open- front quarters. Small flocks, as a rule, do best. Don't crowd their sleeping quarters and don't shut them up closely at night. Protect HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 101 the house against foxes, skunks and other "varmints" by a good strong fine mesh-wire screen and let the sleeping birds have an abundance of fresh air. Don't be in a hurry to supply chicks with roosts. When they are about three-fourths grown and begin to look about for roosts will be time enough. Late in summer or early in fall, six weeks or so before you intend to move the birds to winter quarters, they should be pro- Cheap "A" shaped colony house, fresh-air type, used for growing chicks and for small breeding pens or for flocks of market chickens. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) vided with roosts so that they will learn to use them by the time you are ready to house them for winter. Protection from Hawks and Crows. — Where growing chicks have wide range, hawks and crows are often very troublesome, particu- larly during the breeding season, for these marauding birds. Crows will often hide in pines or spruces near the chick runs, or even in orchard trees, and wait for an opportunity to swoop boldly down on a young chick and carry it off, even when the attendant is in the im- mediate neighborhood. 102 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS Always bury dead chicks or burn them. Burning is best. If you throw them out in some out-of-the-way part of the farm they are sure to be eaten by crows, skunks, dogs, rats and cats, and it gives such prowlers a taste of chicken meat that makes them want more and soon you will have your hands full of trouble. For protection against crows and some hawks, it is a good plan to erect slender poles about the chicken runs. From these extend, above head heighth. wires or stout cord running zig-zag all over the range, and from the cord or wire hang bits of colored rags, bright Anotlier type of ''A" shaped colony house suitable for growing chicks, half <^rowu and full grown stock. (Photo by Dr. Woods.) tin, glass or looking glass; hang the latter so that they will jingle in the breeze and glitter in the sun. This makes a very good hawk and crow scare. Sometimes there is no remedy that will work but shoot- ing the pests, and as they usually make their raids at about the same time each day, you can usually get a shot at them. You can trap some hawks by erecting tall poles and placing a small steel trap on top of pole. Be sure to fasten the trap to the pole with wire. Where cats are troublesome protect the chicks with wire en- closed runs, made cat proof. Often the pampered pet tabby is an in- corrigible chicken thief and will steal chicks of any size up to two pounds, and I have known a cat to kill adult fowls. Shoot the thief HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 103 when caught in the act if you live in the country on a good sized place. If you have a town or city lot plant, don't take any chances using firearms. Shooting near dwelling houses is risky business, and if there is an ordinance against it you are liable to pay a heavy fine if any person complains of the shooting. Trapping the thieves in a box trap, baited with catnip and placed in the poultry yard, is an easy and quiet way to get rid of cats that prey upon fowls and chickens. Foxes are very troublesome in some localities, and high fences, one or more good dogs and shooting the foxes are about the only effective remedies. The carcass of a chicken dosed with strychnine placed at night near the runs of foxes may get them but is risky, as valuable dogs may eat it and be killed. Take in the poisoned flesh during the day to avoid poisoning domestic animals. Skunks you can usually shoot if you go hunting them with a lantern about 10 o'clock in the evening. Steel traps baited with dead chicken are also effective. A few eggs dosed with strychnine placed outside the chicken runs at night and carefully gathered in the morn- ing will prove an easy method of killing off skunks. Be careful with poison and do not leave any poisoned food or eggs about the place except while all stock is safely confined. Changes in Rations. — Don't make changes in rations abruptly. Go about it gradually. When feeding a chick food gradually reduce the amount of chick food fed and add growing food to take the place of it, a little each day until no chick food is fed. Do the same with any change made in any standard ready-mixed rations. Rule does not apply to regular daily variations in rations or to the feeding of sup- plementary foods. Stock Birds and Layers. — For best results in stock birds and lay- ers give the growing chicks liberal range. If the pullets are to be used as layers only, pushed for all there is in them the first laying season and then marketed, they will stand more confinement and pushing when growing up. Chicks intended for breeding stock ought to have plenty of range and conditions as favorable as possible to normal, healthy growth. It is usually best to wean them from chick food by the time they are three or four weeks old, gradually changing from chick food to other food until they get practically the same ration as the adult breeders or laying stock, when chicks are from ten weeks to three months old. Or you can keep them on a growing food ration until a little more than half grown and then begin to work them on to the regular adult ration so that you have them accustomed to it by the time you are ready to house them. For growing breeders and layers I 104 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS like a combination ration of a good dry mash, a good cracked and whole grain mixture, combined with occasional feedings of a moist mash. Green food should be fed freely. They should also have an abundant supply of mineral food (grit, shell, dry bone, etc.) and should be supplied with granulated charcoal and plenty of good water. Market Chicks. — Early feeding of market chicks should not differ materially from other chicks. They can be grown with less range and fed more heavily on forcing and fattening foods. You want to get rapid growth and soft, tender meat. Such chicks can be fed largely on cracked corn or coarse cornmeal (yellow) trough-fed dry; with beef scrap and bran in hoppers and coarse beef scrap fed with some corn grits in the litter. Give green food freely and let them work for part of their food until you have them within two weeks of mar- keting age, then keep them more confined, take away the litter, sand the floors, cut out the supply of green food and give them all of the cracked corn and beef scrap that they will clean up without "going off their feed." If birds are large enough to feed on whole corn and will eat it more readily, give it to them in place of cracked corn. A good dry mash mixture for pushing market chicks before they get corn and scrap exclusively is the following: Mixed feed 1 measure Coarse cornmeal 2 measures Stock food 1 measure Best beef scrap 1 measure Alfalfa meal J measure "Mixed feed" is about equal parts of wheat bran and middlings. "Stock food" is corn, oats and barley ground into a coarse meal and mixed with the by-products of these grains. As the chicks develop and approach marketable age gradually reduce other ingredients until you are feeding mainly cornmeal and beef scrap. Housing Stock Birds. — When the time comes in the fall to bring In the stock birds from summer range to the winter yards and houses, be prepared to make the change one that will prove the least possi- ble interference with the habits and comfort of the flocks. Use open- front houses. Don't crowd them. Provide sufficiently low roosts. See that the birds use the roosts at night. If birds are to be confined to the house through the winter, don't start them that way when direct from the ranges. Make the change a gradual one, if possible. Pro- vide yards, temporary ones if necessary, and have plenty of green stuff growing in these yards. When the green stuff in yards runs low, supply plenty of other green food and raw vegetables daily. A good deal of unnecessary trouble is started each fall by making HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 105 an abrupt change from open coops on liberal range, with an abundance of green food, to closed houses, small bare yards, crowded quarters and a complete change in ration. Make all necessary changes in such a manner that the birds will get accustomed to it with the least dis- comfort and make as few changes as possible. Plymouth Eock and Brahma capons and dressed capons. Specimens of quick grown market chickens from vigorous stock. The kind that are in demand in the best markets and bring 40 to 50 cents per pound dressed at 22 to 28 weeks old, (Photo by Dr. Woods.) CHAPTER X. Facts About White Diarrhoea HICK MORTALITY in recent years has reached most alarming proportions. During the past f-fteen years the losses of small chickens between the ages of three days and two weeks have amounted to millions of chicks annually. Some proprietors of practical poultry plants which I have visited during this period have acknowledged to me a loss of from sixty to ninety per cent in many broods from a disease which they termed "white diar- rhoea." So general has this loss of chickens become, increasing yearly, that experiment stations all over the country are giving a great deal of the time of their best men to a study of the subject in an endeavor to learn the cause and cure. After careful study, investigation and experiments, I have found remedies which can be depended upon to prevent and cure many cases of the infantile disorders of small chicks that are commonly classed under the name "white diarrhoea." These remedies have been thoroughly tried and tested and can be relied upon to prove safe, sure and effective. Where my methods of managing the breeding stock, handling the eggs before and during incubation, management of Incubators, care of chicks and brooding equipment are employed, the mortality of small chicks can be reduced to the minimum. If due care is exercised in following the directions found in this book the death rate in small chickens at any season of the year need not exceed five to ten per cent. Many broods have been reared without the loss of a single chick. The remedy, formula for which is given in this chapter, can be relied upon in the majority of cases to prevent disease, repair lost vitality and cure so-called white diarrhoea, provided the chicks are not already too far gone when the remedy is applied. No absurdly extravagant claims are made for the remedy prescribed for your chicks. There is no such thing in legitimate and practical medicine as a real "cure-all." The much advertised poultry remedy for which extravagant claims of cures are made and which is backed by an apparently absolute, cleverly-written guaranty to "cure in every case 107 108 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS or your money back" can often be safely set down as a cheap hum- bug, seldom safe to use and sometimes positively dangerous. You might find it difficult and expensive to get your money back if you wished to test the validity of the guaranty. You can absolutely depend upon this remedy to do all that any carefully prescribed and properly used remedy can do in curing disease, more than that I or anyone else cannot honestly claim for any medicinal preparation. For over four years the white diarrhoea remedy of combined tissue phosphates, formula for which is given in latter part of this chapter, was sold to and used by hundreds of poultrymen in all parts of the United States, Canada, and a number of foreign countries. Every report received was a testimonial to the successful use of the remedy in treatment of the diarrhoeal diseases of young chickens. Many poultrymen ordered the remedy in large quantities and were so pleased with the results that they duplicated their orders several times. As a commercial proposition the remedy cost too much to prepare and deliver and the price had been made low in order to have it well tried out as widely as possible. The poultryman can have it prepared at any homoeopathic manufacturing pharmacy at lower cost than I could afford to produce it and keep it on the market, as the preparation calls for thorough machine tritura- tion. In giving the remedy to the public in this book I am following the course originally intended and one that I have followed with many of the most valuable formulae used by poultrymen. White Diarrhoea. — It is unfortunate that the name "white diar- rhoea" should have been so r'3nerally and commonly used to describe practically all ailments which result in a high death rate in small chickens. The actual diarrhoea or discharge of a lime-like excrement mixed with glairy mucus is of itself only a symptom. This condition may occur in a considerable variety of diseases of young chicks. Where this symptom of "voiding whitewash," as it has been aptly termed, is not present the chicks frequently "paste up behind," or die off with little or no apparent warning and no evidence of bowel trouble. All fatal diarrhoeas of young chicks are not necessarily bacillary white diarrhoea, which apparently is a specific disease for which Dr. Leo F. Rettger, of Yale, believes he has found the specific germ, a microscopic organism which he names bacterium pullorum. Other ob- servers have isolated other organisms which they believe to be the specific germ of white diarrhoea, but Dr. Rettger's experiments have apparently been the most thorough and painstaking and his con- clusions agree more closely with the facts of general experience among poultrymen than laboratory results reported by other scientists HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 109 to date. Therefore, I am disposed to believe that epidemic fatal white diarrhoea is usually "bacillary white diarrhoea" caused by bac- terium pullorum (Rettger). It is probable that there are other diarrhoeas of young chicks due to other germs not yet identified. "White diarrhoea" of itself is only one symptom of disease and might appear, undoubtedly does appear, in more than one fatal disease of chicks. Causes of White Diarrhoea. — In investigating the causes of so- called white diarrhoea there are four general sources and one specific source of trouble that demand your attention: FIRST.— The condition of the breeding stock from which the eggs for hatching were taken. SECOND.— Carelessness in selection, handling, keeping and care of eggs intended for hatching purposes. THIRD.— Faulty incubation. FOURTH.— Errors in brooding and feeding. FIFTH.— A specific germ— bacterium pullorum. Before taking up the symptoms it will be well to review a few of the various names which have been applied to diseases which come under the general classification "white diarrhoea." These have in a general way included all losses from so-termed "non-absorption of the yolk," enlarged caeca, "pasting up behind," "spraddles," "wabbly legs," "wasting disease," "appendicitis," acute indigestion, congenital anaemia, rachitis, marasmus, and a great variety of other descriptive terms. Loss or lack of vitality more fitly describes the condition which we find causing a high death rate in chicks under two weeks old. In some cases the chicks die of disease which finds them favorable vic- tims, owing to their low vitality. In other cases the chicks actually die of exhaustion because they did not bring into the world with them a sufficient amount of that vital force which enables them to live and thrive. When it is said that a chick possesses vitality it means that the chick has brought into the world within itself that wonderful vital force, the power or capability to live. Vitality means containing a form of energy known as vital force, and this is necessary to support- ing life or rendering the chick capable of living. Without a sufficient supply of this wonderful natural force, the chick is a weakling. Upon the degree of vital force possessed by the chick depends its ability to live and thrive and to resist disease. Anything which tends to lessen or decrease the vitality endangers the life of the chick. These mat- ters are taken up in more detail in their proper place under the sepa- rate headings which follow and in special chapters of this book. Symptoms of "White Diarrhoea."— In some cases there may be 110 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS entire absence of visible symptoms except such as would appeal to the veteran poultryman who instinctively knows certain chicks for weaklings the moment they are taken from the incubator. The chicks may apparently do well for several days and then die off suddenly without warning, usually being found dead under the hovers in the brooders the first thing in the morning. These weakling chicks almost always possess certain peculiarities not common to a healthy specimen. The weakling is almost always big-bellied, the abdomen protruding to the rear so that it bunches out behind well out of line of the vent, with the result that the chick looks as if the tail piece and backbone had been pushed forward and in just above the vent. As the chick grows older these conditions become more exaggerated and it is wabbly on its legs. Sometimes the deformity is so considera- ble that when the chick voids excrement it seems almost impossible to eject it over the protruding abdomen without having it come in contact with and soil the down. In many cases the chick cannot force the droppings beyond the fluff or down on the abdomen and the excretion dries on until the little bird is in the condition commonly known as "pasted up behind." At this time the upper margin of the vent usually protrudes to a considerable extent beyond the lower margin and sometimes takes on a red and inflamed appearance. Fre- quently, but not always, the discharge from the bowels assumes a lime-like or whitewash-like character mixed with glairy, sticky mucus. It was this symptom that resulted in the name "white diarrhoea." The chicks are dopy, sleepy, droopy and inclined to huddle. A.3 the disease progresses they find it almost impossible to keep warm no matter how hot you have the brooder. Frequently they utter a pitiful chirp or cry and sometimes make shrill cries of pain when passing droppings. In most cases there is no fever, the chick's body and legs feeling cold to the touch. The little birds do not fill out but remain very thin and emaciated. There is wasting of all the tissues. The little birds either die suddenly without warning or gradually waste away and are found dead and trampled flat under the hovers. . On opening the chicks after death the yolk remnant will usually be found to be unabsorbed. Frequently it looks as if it were in a putrid or semi-putrid condition, having a mixed greenish and yellow- ish color. In other cases it may be partly solidified. In still others the yolk may be very watery, of considerable size and of a dark green- ish, grayish or blackish color. Sometimes the duct from yolk sack to intestines will be found plugged or solidified and at other times atrophied. Usually there is little or no food in the intestines, though often the crop gizzard will be found packed full of millet, sand or grit. The caecae or blind guts frequently will be found to contain a HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 111 considerable amount of brownish or blackish fluid. In some cases they will be almost entirely filled with a grayish or yellowish cheesy accumulation. Some specimens that I have examined have shown the intestines to be packed or clogged with coarse wheat bran. In almost all cases the ureters, or ducts from the kidneys which empty into the lower portion of the bowel near the vent, will be found to be packed full of white lime-like substance, and this may even extend into the kidney tissue. The chalky or lime-like material which appears in the droppings and gives the name "white diarrhoea" evidently is in greater part excreted through the kidneys. The whole body of the chick shows evidence of ansomia or a lack of red blood, and of mal-nutrition. It is apparent that the greater portion of the food that has been consumed by this diseased little bird has been wasted and that its body has made use of only an exceed- ingly small portion. Some few cases show evidence of violent in- flammation of the intestines, while in others there is apparently no inflammation whatever present. The lungs, liver, heart, intestines and sometimes the muscle tis- sue are frequently found to be full of small nodules or deposits of whitish, cheesy or soft chalk-like substance. These deposits have frequently been described as tubercles, but to date we do not know of anyone who has found tubercle bacilli in the deposits, so that while the possibility remains that some of them are tubercles I am not pre- pared to say at this writing that any disease known as "white diar- rhoea" is actually tuberculosis. In some cases undoubtedly the chicks may be and are tubercular, but there is no direct evidence at the pres- ent time to indicate that any cases of white diarrhoea are in reality of a tuberculous character. There is good reason to believe that in many instances the disease is the direct result of infection with a specific germ. This germ may be from excrement of sick or de- bilitated old fowls and so smeared on the eggs or may come from a diseased ovary. Symptoms of "Bacillary White Diarrhoea." — Bacillary white diar- rhoea is the name given by Dr. Rettger to the specific disease which Le has investigated under the general name "so-called white diar- rhoea." That this is the common contagious and epidemic form there seems no reason for doubt. That there may be other chick diseases accompanied by the symptom white diarrhoea there is every reason to believe. That other investigators may be right in their conclusions concerning other germs and other contagious forms of white diar- rhoea is quite probable. The discussion of the identity of various minute micro-organispag which may or may not cause a disease 112 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS always, for some reason, reminds us of the old saying, "Who shall decide when doctors disagree?" When all is said and the last word spoken, microscopic disease germs are everywhere about us, regardless of their precise identifica- tion, and as a general rule they only attack peculiarly susceptible victims — victims that are born predisposed to disease or have lost vitality through some cause and so become vulnerable. If this was not true the vast army of germs would have killed us all off long ere this. Herewith follow the symptoms and post-morten appearances of bacillary white diarrhoea, as observed by Prof. Stoneburn and Dr. Rettger: "As in many other diseases, the symptoms may vary within cer- tain limits in the individuals affected. We do not wish to be under- stood that all of the following symptoms will be observed in every chick suffering from bacillary white diarrhoea; but almost all of them will be apparent in epidemics of any considerable size. "The earliest deaths may occur within a very short time after hatching, without any prominent symptoms, excepting, perhaps, weak- ness and lack of vitality. The characteristic whitish discharge from the vent soon makes its appearance in the flock, the time depending, without doubt, upon the virulence of the organism and the mode of infection. The discharge may be slight or profuse, in color white or creamy, sometimes mixed with brown. The voided matter has a more or less sticky or glairy character. It may simply streak down below the vent or may cling to the down in sufficient quantity to seal up the vent. This condition is what poultrymen designate as "pasting up behind." This latter condition, however, is not necessarily in- dicative of white diarrhoea. "The chicks soon become listless and sleepy, inclined to huddle together and remain under the hover much of the time. They seem to lose appetite and do not eat much. Frequently when they attempt to take food their action is more or less mechanical. The wings begin to droop or project slightly from the body, with feathers ruflled. In acute cases the eyes are closed and the chicks become indifferent to everything that goes on about them. Many of the chicks peep or chirp constantly, the sound being shrill or weak, according to the strength of the individual. Frequently, when endeavoring to void the excreta, the chicks utter a shrill twitter, apparently a cry of pain. The breathing may be labored, the abdomen heaving with each breath. Occasionally one may note a certain amount of gasping or gaping. "During the progress of the disease the chick may die suddenly while still fairly strong. When the disease is prolonged the chicks gradually waste away, becoming weaker and weaker until they are HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 113 scarcely able to support their own weight. In this stage they will often be seen to rest against foreign objects for support, standing with legs braced apart, squatting, or lying utterly helpless. "Frequently the chicks take on the appearance which poultrymen call 'short-backed.' The back seems to shorten and the abdomen to protrude out of proportion, causing the chick to look 'stilty' as com- pared with one of normal development. This condition Woods ac- curately describes as follows: 'The weakling is almost always big-bellied, the abdomen protrud- ing to the rear so that it bunches out behind, well out of line with the vent, with the result that the chick looks as if the tail-piece and back- bone had been pushed forward and in just above the vent.' "With few exceptions, the deaths from typical bacillary white diarrhcea occur while the chicks are under one month of age. After this a few straggling deaths may be expected, and if complications set in, a high mortality may be observed. The chicks which have had bacillary white diarrhcEa seem to be greatly weakened in constitution, and fall an easy prey to disorders which would be resisted by normal chicks. "Those which survive remain more or less stunted in their devel- opment. Frequently they are misshapen, with long beaks and 'crow heads,' and with imperfect feathering. In every way they impress one as being weak and lacking in vitality. This condition may persist indefinitely, or the bird may slowly regain vigor and vitality and make fairly satisfactory development. "The usual method of autopsy has been followed here, the bird being placed on its back on a board, the outstretched wings and legs tacked in position, the skin covering the breast and abdomen removed and the internal organs exposed to view by removal of the entire breast bone. In typical cases the following conditions are found: "CROP — Empty or partially filled with slimy fluid or food. "LUNGS — Apparently normal. (Tubercles not observed.) "LIVER — Pale, with streaks and patches of red. The congested areas are usually large in size. Occasionally epidemics will be met with in which the liver is more or less congested throughout. In such cases the portion of the stomach lying in contact with the liver is inflamed. "KIDNEYS and SPLEEN— Apparently normal. "INTESTINES— Pale, and for the greater part empty. A small amount of dark grayish or brownish matter frequently present. "CECA — With few exceptions, but partly filled with a grayish soft material. Only occasionally cheesy or firm contents. "UNABSORBED YOLK— Usually present, varying In size from a 114 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS pea to a full sized yolk. The color may vary from yellow to brownish green or nearly black. In consistency there is also much variation, it may appear perfectly normal, distinctly gelatinous, or watery. Fre- quently it looks like custard and again it is more or less dry and firm. Unless the chick has been dead for some time the yolk is not putrid, but merely stale. "The chick, as a whole, appears more or less anaemic and emaciated. The muscles of the wings, breast and legs may be almost completely wasted away." Infection. — If this disease is due to only one specific micro-organ- ism or if "white diarrhoea" is a symptom of several germ diseases, it is, of course, infectious. In my experience and observation, if con- tagion or infection (please take both words in their broad meaning) takes place at all, it only occurs in susceptible individuals at a very early period. Healthy chicks have frequently been allowed to run with those affected with white diarrhoea and have not contracted the disease. On one poultry plant where I had this trouble under observa- tion several flocks of white diarrhoea chicks were placed in a brooder house without spreading the disease to the remainder of the birds housed therein. Chicks from the well flocks ran in and out of the white diarrhoea pens and suffered no inconvenience or ill effects. Apparently contagion takes place, if it does at all, between the time when the chick first pips the shell and the completion of the drying off period. Marked chicks were placed in machines which were believed to contain infected eggs and chicks. These little birds were introduced to the incubators just at hatching time. If taken from another incubator or from hens' nests just before or as soon as they were nearly dry and placed in these infected incubators, they in- variably contracted white diarrhoea when the flocks hatched in the machines developed the disease. Healthy chicks two to four days old when placed in the same machines under the same conditions did not contract the disease. Chicks, from eggs hatched in w^hite diarrhoea machines, placed under hens developed the disease in the same time and manner as the brooder flocks. Marked, healthy hen-hatched and incubator-hatched chicks from fumigated incubators placed in brood- ers with white diarrhoea chicks and under hens having diseased chicks in the flock did not contract the trouble and lived and thrived well. This, I believe, supports the statement that the disease, if con- tagious, is contracted very early in the life of the chick, at least sometime before it is 48 to 72 hours old, also that it attacks only sus- ceptible individuals. By careful experiment it was found possible to hatch a flock free from white diarrhoea in a given incubator, the preceding lot of chicks HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 115 from which had suffered heavy losses from the disease. Following this up it was possible to again practically at will obtain lots of chicks that would develop the disease or not at the desire of the operator, proving almost conclusively that it is possible, even with eggs from doubtful sources, to control some forms of white diarrhoea, and with selected eggs from selected healthy breeders to prevent the occur- rence of the disease altogether. On the subject of infection with bacillary white diarrhoea, Dr. Rettger and Prof. Stoneburn say: "The mother hen is the original source of infection, the specific organism being present in the ovary. Consequently the organism is to be found in the yolks of a certain proportion of the eggs produced by infected hens, and chicks from such eggs have the disease when hatched. "In numerous tests it was demonstrated that chicks could be in- fected with bacterium pullorum through infected food. Normal chicks may contract the disease through food or water contaminated with infected droppings. Infection through the food supply takes place at an early age, in all probability within the first three or four days after hatching. Infection from chick to chick cannot, apparently, take place after they are three or four days old. "Eggs from infected hens contain the organism in the yolks. "As a rule, infected chicks make less satisfactory growth than those that are apparently normal. For some time they appear stunted and weak, but may eventually undergo more or less complete de- velopment. "The female chicks which survive often harbor the infection and may become bacillus carriers. Infection in the breeding pens may be perpetuated in this manner. "In all probability infection does not pass from adult to adult. "Infected hens are apparently poor layers, especially in their sec- ond and subsequent laying seasons. Apparently such hens lay regu- larly only in the spring and summer, the natural breeding season. Chicks hatched in the late fall, winter or early spring are compara- tively free from this disease. "It is of the greatest importance that the poultryman learn to recognize bacillary white diarrhoea, both through external symptoms and post-mortem appearances of diseased chicks. The mere discharge of whitish material from the vent is not in itself proof that the chicks are affected with this specific disorder. "Infected hens should be eliminated from the breeding pens. Such elimination is made possible by pedigree records of chicks. If the eggs from the different pens are hatched separately, and the 116 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS chicks segregated for the first few days, it will soon be made apparent through the condition of the chicks, which pens contain infected hens. This may prove effectual in cases where infection has not become general. To determine which individual hens are infected, the trap nest should be used, and the same general procedure fol- lowed. "In case infection exists and it is not practicable to determine the breeders which are infected, the entire flock should be discarded for breeding purposes, and eggs for hatching secured from a non-infected farm. We have records of farms where the disease has been elimi- nated in a single season by following this plan, and without any change in equipment or methods. "Another possible means of determining infection of breeding hens is the direct examination of the ovaries. It is entirely prac- ticable to inspect these organs through an opening in the side of the bird similar to that made in caponizing. Where the abnormal con- dition is marked it may be easily detected. "Great care should be exercised that breeding stock, young chicks or eggs for hatching be secured from flocks which are free from white diarrhoeal infection. "As to the means of preventing the spread of infection from chick to chick, segregation of chicks during first four days after hatching should prove effective. It is entirely probable that keeping chicks in small groups in the incubator for forty-eight hours after hatching will materially reduce the chances of a few infected individuals spreading the infection through the entire hatch. For division into small groups we suggest the use of pedigree trays, wire baskets, or bags made of mosquito netting. Naturally, the smaller the group the less chance of spreading the infection. "From the time the chicks begin to hatch until they are removed to the brooder, the incubator should be kept dark. This will largely prevent the chicks from picking at the droppings. "Since infected chicks make unsatisfactory development for the first few weeks, and may later regain vigor and make fair growth, it is advisable to select at an early age those intended for breeding purposes. The selection may be made when the chickens are from eight to ten weeks of age, reserving only those which show greatest vigor and development. "Incubators, brooders and all other appliances used in the hatch- ing and rearing of the chicks should be cleaned and disinfected fre- quently. "Food and water should be supplied in such a manner as to prevent contamination with infected droppings. The use of fine HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 117 absorptive litter in the brooder, especially the first few days, is also advisable. "The feeding of sour milk may prove very effective as a preven- tive measure. The milk must be fed early or during the infection stage. After the white diarrhoea organism has once entered the gen- eral circulation, such treatment is of little or no value. Hence, sour milk should not be looked upon as a cure, but merely as a possible preventive agent. "Since perfect physical condition is, as a rule, a barrier to disease, it is important that the health and vigor of the breeding stock and chicks be raised and constantly preserved. Proper methods of hous- ing, feeding, incubation, brooding and management should therefore be employed." In comment on the foregoing by Dr. Rettger and Prof. Stoneburn I wish to add: It is important to note that not all eggs laid by infected hens were found to contain the bacterium pullorum; this may explain why some chicks from a certain hen mother apparently escape infection. Query: Might not such chicks possess diseased ovaries, be suscepti- ble to infection and prove a source of trouble if pullets? Apparently Messrs. Rettger and Stoneburn have not found, and do not credit the presence of, the infectious matter ON the outside of the eggshell. This may be true of the bacterium pullorum, but other investigators name other micro-organisms as the probable cause of disease symptoms which are apparently almost identical with so- called white diarrhoea, except for some post-mortem difference that would only be noted by a trained observer. I have produced similar disease in chicks by smearing droppings of infected hens on eggs used for hatching. I have had numerous cases reported where the disease was prevented, on plants where it had previously been a scourge, by simple disinfection of the eggs used for hatching — dip- ping them just before setting in a solution of one gill of creolin in eight and one-half quarts of soft water. In these cases had the germs been IN the eggs the dipping would not have yielded such good re suits. We should not lose sight of the fact that it is entirely possible that more than one group of microscopic germs may be capable of producing in young chicks disease symptoms which we know as "white diarrhoea." In case of doubt it is well to observe all of the reasonable precautionary measures that we know of for the preven- tion of the disease. It has been demonstrated that chicks may have white diarrhoea and live, even develop into specimens that a careless observer, and perhaps a trained one, might pass as a normal fowl. Such birds, if 118 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS females, would have infected ovaries and be capable of sowing the disease broadcast. It follows that chicks reared in a white diarrhoea flock SHOULD NOT BE BRED. It is stated that in all probability infection does not pass from adult to adult. Here we tread on dangerous ground. It is not safe to assume that any disease which may be transmitted in contaminated food and drinking water will not pass from adult to adult fowl. It is quite possible that adult fowls may not present any symptoms of the disease, their ovaries or testes may remain uninfected, but what is to prevent. the bacilli, taken into the digestive tract in infected food or drink, from multiplying in the intestinal tract and disseminating the disease through the droppings or through smears on the egg shells? "Poisoned" or tainted ground is a common source of disease in young chickens and old fowl and it is a fact, that cannot be suc- cessfully contradicted, that ground is tainted or "poisoned" by drop- pings laden with micro-organisms, not only from diseased fowls, but from apparently healthy birds, whose only association with the disease appears to be that of a carrier of the germs. If it should prove true that infected hens are invariably poor lay- ers, especially in second and subsequent laying seasons, and that ap- parently such hens lay only in spring and summer or the natural breeding season, then it should not be difficult to select breeding stock comparatively free from taint by choosing late fall, winter and early spring chicks to grow for breeding stock. Make HEALTH, VIGOR and VITALITY your slogan always in all poultry keeping. Breed for health, grow, feed, house and manage for health first, last and all the time. It is only by having healthy fowls with sound constitutional vigor and by doing your best to keep them sound and healthy that you can hope for immunity from disease. Before taking up the treatment of white diarrhcea (so-called) I wish to emphasize the more important methods of prevention. Bear in mind the old and wise saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure." Selection, Care and Management of the Breeding Stock. — Be sure to always consider the condition of the breeding stock. Losses of small chicks may result from breeding immature (not full grown or developed) males or females, or from fat, old birds that are out of condition, from fowls that have been overforced for egg production, that are or have been diseased, that are kept in crowded, unsanitary quarters, or are out of breeding condition from any other cause. Please read Chapter I to IV inclusive on selection, feeding, care and management of breeding stock. You cannot be too particular to have your foundation stock right. HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 119 It has been demonstrated in the case of bacillary white diarrhoea that the mother hen is a source of infection. The breeding stock may- be both a direct and an indirect source of infection. Breeding from unsound breeders would be an indirect cause of the disease by pro- ducing low vitality chicks that are predisposed to disease from the day they are hatched. You cannot make any mistake if you will con- sistently and persistently BREED FOR HEALTH. Selection and Care of Eggs for Hatching. — Do not forget that the cause of white diarrhoea, the germ or organism which causes the disease, may be found either in or on the eggs, and that carelessness In selection, handling, keeping and care of eggs intended for hatching purposes is a very common cause of mortality in young chicks. Un- fortunately the majority of poultry keepers fail to appreciate this fact. Provide three or four comfortable nests to each 20 to 25 birds so that the fowls will not be inclined to crowd on the nest and soil or crack the eggs. Test the eggs from each pen occasionally to see how they are running in fertility. If the percentage of fertility is not good, try a change of male birds or reduce the number of females allotted to one male. In Chapter V you will find detailed information concerning eggs for hatching. It does not pay to take any chances with poor eggs or eggs that have been mishandled. Faulty Incubation. — You will find the subject of successful incuba- tion, natural and artificial, treated in Chapter VI. Faulty incubation is a common cause of chick mortality. The use of poorly constructed incubators, careless management of all incubators or of sitting hens- often results in a waste of vitality of the embryo chick, with the re- sult that the little birds when hatched die off quickly from supposedly mysterious causes, and are so charged up against white diarrhoea. Errors in Brooding and Feeding. — Chapters VII to IX, inclusive, tell how to brood and feed chicks, and I believe will help you. Errors in brooding or feeding sometimes result in chick mortality or losses from so-called white diarrhoea. The best means of prevention is to use wholesome food and to properly brood and care for the flocks. The Specific Germ. — Bacterium pullorum has been named in this chapter as the cause of bacillary white diarrhoea, an infectious disease. The germ is not likely to make a successful attack on a normal, well-born, healthy chick that is full of vigor and vitality. The only satisfactory way to get rid of this disease is to breed only healthy fowls. By trap-nests, or otherwise, cull out any infected adult birds, kill and burn them. Don't use eggs for hatching from infected flocks. Avoid or clean up and disinfect infected ground. Breed for health. Formula for Successful White Diarrhoea Remedy.— This remedy 120 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS was tried in private experiments in 1906 and 1907 and was so success- ful that it was decided to put it on the market for a time and en- deavor to secure unbiased testimonials from persons who paid for the remedy because they needed it and would therefore use it. I now have had the remedy on the market for four years and have a big bunch of testimonials from satisfied users in both hemispheres. It has been shown in experiments and laboratory tests that Ill- born chicks, seme incubator chicks and particularly white diarrhoea chicks are lacking in the normal mineral content of healthy, vigorous chicks. Biochemistry suggested that as white diarrhoea chicks and weak- ling chicks are lacking the normal proportion of mineral matter in their tissues, there must be a deficiency of "cell-salts" which compose the tissues involved. If the missing factors (mineral salts) could be supplied in easily assimilable form, then reaction would follow and equality, harmony and health would be established. It is not necessary to be over-fussy in preparation of tissue rem- edy combinations for young chicks, therefore twelve remedies were combined in a one-grain tablet triturate. Any reliable homoeopathic pharmacy can prepare these tablets for you at moderate cost. Prepa- ration without proper machinery is too expensive to warrant my keeping them on the market, and hereafter I must decline to fill any orders. The ingredients should be triturated to the finest possible powder and made into tablets with the addition of calcium carbonate. The formula follows: Calcium fluorid 1/1000 of a grain Calcium phosphate 1/100 of a grain Calcium sulphate 1/100 of a grain Ferrum phosphate 1/100 of a grain Potassium chlorid 1/100 of a grain Potassium phosphate 1/100 of a grain Potassium sulphate 1/100 of a grain Magnesium phosphate 1/100 of a grain Sodium chlorid 1/100 of a grain Sodium phosphate 1/100 of a grain Sodium sulphate 1/100 of a grain Silica 1/1000 of a grain Above is composition of one tablet. Treatment of White Diarrhoea.— The preventive treatment of white aiarrhcea begins with the breeding stock and follows through the care of eggs for hatching, incubation and brooding, and manage- ment of the chicks. This has been fairly well covered in the pre- ceding chapters. The first rule in treating any disease is to seek out HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 121 and remove the cause. I have tried to make clear that anything that tends to lower the vitality of the breeding stock, of the germ or em- bryo within the egg, or of the chicks after they are hatched, may re- sult in so-called white diarrhoea or wasting disease. By breeding and striving for vitality through common-sense man- agement of the flock, the poultryman exercises the best means of prevention of all diseases. Even when little chicks are born with a comparatively low vital- ity, they can by careful and painstaking management be encouraged to acquire vitality and stamina during their growing up, provided they are not seriously handicapped by too great a loss of vitality at the start. As a preventive measure other than those previously recom- mended, the remedy in tablet form, formula for which is given in this chapter, for white diarrhoea chicks is a very effective one. This tissue remedy, when properly used, can be relied upon to assist in the restoration of lowered vitality, correct wasting disease, restore dis- ordered digestive organs to their normal functions, help the chick acquire vitality and an abundant supply of good red blood. As a preventive measure, dissolve twelve tablets in one pint of drinking water and allow the little birds no other drink. Renew the remedy and the drinking water daily for one week. Thereafter it need not be given oftener than twice a week if the chicks are in fairly good condition. The same method of treatment will prove effective in mild cases. In severe cases of white diarrhoea where losses have been con- siderable, cull the flock very carefully and kill off any specimens that seem very far gone. It is waste of time to attempt treatment of little chicks that are too sick to eat and drink. Little birds that persist in crowding under the hover and will not come out for food cannot be benefited by any remedy. Chicks that will eat, though seriously sick, may often be cured. Withhold all grain food for a period of two or three days and give several times a day the remedy prepared in the following manner: Thoroughly scald or bring to the boiling point good, sweet, whole milk; add to this a sufl[icient amount of thoroughly boiled white bread flour to give the milk the consistency of medium heavy cream. Do not get it too thick for the chicks to drink readily. In one cupful of this prepared milk dissolve ten tablets of the remedy, which have been crushed before adding to the milk. Also add a very small pinch of grated nutmeg and one-quarter of a level teaspoon of pure pow- dered ginger. Of the above preparation allow the little chicks all they will drink from three to six times daily. Do not leave this milk 122 HOW TO RAISE CHICKS mixture before the chicks all the time, as they are liable to get them- selves messed up in it and so become wet and chilled. Usually in two to three days the little chicks will be ready to return gradually to the regular ration, but continue giving an occasional feeding daily of the remedy prepared in milk, as directed. Discontinue the remedy only when you are sure that the chicks are well out of danger. When the little chicks paste up behind remove the accumulation of dung and bathe the parts with creolin and warm water. Do this as often as you find droppings caking on about and below the vent. For this purpose use one-half teaspoonfui of creolin in a pint of com- fortably warm water. Dry the chick before you return it to the brood. When returning them to the dry food ration it may be supple- mented with thoroughly dried stale bread crumbs that have been barely moistened with warm, sweet milk, also with mashed boiled potatoes, boiled cracked rice, boiled wheat and a very little raw potato. Be sure to keep the chicks warm while under treatment. They will require a rather h:£,l:c:' LiccCl.is temperature than healthy chicks of the same age, and should not be given too much freedom. Keep them confined close to the brooder or inside of it according to age. Chicks that have been seriously ill with white diarrhoea should not be kept for breeding stock. If they make a good recovery, grow them as quickly as possible to broiler or roaster sizes and sell them off as market poultry. Where soil is not infected chicks that do not thrive well are sometimes benefited by feeding them all they will eat of angle worms and chopped dandelion leaves until it physics them. Where white diarrhcea is suspected the following is worth a trial and has worked well in a number of cases as an intestinal disin- HOW TO RAISE CHICKS 123 fectant. When the chicks are removed from the nest or machine give each chick a little drink of medicated water by dipping its bill. Use a solution of three drops of creolin in four fluid ounces of boiled water, which has been allowed to cool before mixing. Mix freshly each time needed. Don't get worried because you have had white diarrhoea in your flocks or because you have had troubles that indicate poisoning of the soil. Make up your mind to fight the trouble. Find the cause and get rid of it. Top dress your land with air-slaked lime, plow it in and grow a good crop on the land to sweeten it; repeat this often. Get rid of all diseased stock. Make up your mind to breed only from HEALTHY BREEDING BIRDS, full of VIGOR and VITALITY, and if you stick to it with sufficient common sense, push and pluck YOU ARE SURE TO SUCCEED. (The End.) D. H. 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The House That Was Built by Hens By "Uncle Cal" Stoddard An unusual book based on actual facts and told in a manner which appeals to all readers. It is a book which appeals to everyone, whether or not they raise poultry. Besides being a good story, It also contains complete feeding form- ulas and a chapter on diseases. Price 50c. Why Poultry Pays and How to Make It Pay A book for the beginner. Contains sound advice about starting in . Tells how to line breed, how to care for fowls during the moulting period, how to feed fowls for best results, etc. Price 60c. Diseases of Poultry By Dr. D. E. Salmon, D. V. M. Chief U. S. Buk. of Animal Industry Every poultryman should have this book in his library whether his chick- ens are sickly or in perfect health . You can't tell at what moment you may need this book . It will save you many dollars if you know just what to do when disease strikes your flock. Con- tains 250 pages, 72 illustrations. Ab- solutely the best book on the market on poultry diseases. Price 50c. American Poultry Journal Publishing Co. $4,223 in One Year on a Town Lot By H. Cecil Sheppard Being a sworn statement of the actual business built up with poultry on a very small capital. Not theories, but act ual results obtained from experience. 70 pages, 17 illustrations. Price $1. Don't Kill the Laying Hen By T. F. Potter Tells how to distinguish the laying hens from the nonlaying. By following the directions in this book, you can save the layers and kill only the drones ; in other words, keep your money-mak- ers and kill the nonproducers. 92 pp., 38 illus., bomid in cloth. Price $1. How to Build Poultry Houses Contains plans of different poultry houses, roosts, dropping boards, brood coops, breeding houses, fattening coops and many others. Indispensable for beginners. Price 50c. Successful Poultry Culture Tells how to save three-fourths your feed bill. Treats on all subjects per- taining to poultry business, feeding, doctoring, housing, incubating, etc. Contains 128 pages, 30 illustrations. Price 50c. Practical Poultry Pointers A small book designed for pocket use. Contains valuable recipes for liquid lice killer, lice powder, Johnny cake for young chicks, the Douglas mixture, etc. Also cures for the most common poul- try diseases. Price 15c. Am. Standard of Perfection Latest edition published by the Amer- ican Poultry Association. It is the only authority in the United States and Canada on the required characteristics of all breedij and varieties of poultry. All requirements as to shape, color and markings of the standard breeds are clearly described and illustrated. Price cloth bound $3 ; leather bound $2.50. Origin and History of All Breeds of Poultry Including colored illustrations of 198 birds painted from life. Tells whore the different breeds originated, how to mate in order to get the best results, what to avoid and what to breed for, etc. Price f 1. 542 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.