The Advocate and news., 1899-02-01
Care Of Chickens.

Care of Chickens.
1t would be an interesting study to try
and ascertain how many thousands of
dozen Of eggs are wasted every year by
being hatched into chickens which are
allowed to die from sheer neglect Or,
in other words, what percentage of the
eggs that are set, either under hens or
in incubators, in any one year, actually
produce chickens that reach a market
able age. After the chickens are Matched,
1t is a constant warfare against cats and
rats and hawks and skunks and insects
diseases until the farmers wife often sits
down in despair and AYERS that she can't
have any "luck" in raising chickens. If
the cats are killed, then the rats become
numerous and destructive, and If the
hawks are all killed, the crows will get
exceedingly familiar and handy with the
young chickens. Chickens require care
and attention, and so does everything
else where success is sought to be at
tanned. Upon this subject, the American
CultivatOr has the following to say:
From our own past experiences we
should say that one-half the losses were
from causes attributable only to care
lessness or a lack of forethought on the
part of some one But there are those
who lose more by the attacks of those
little crawling insects, which can be
easily guarded against as the foes we
have spoken Of. Cleanliness and the
use Of insect powder are sure PREVENT
tives Of this trouble, and such losses are
loco 4ho al
they show failure to give proper care
instead Of a lack of vigilance, which
may have caused the trouble in one day
or night, after weeks of close guarding
Others lose chickens from allowing their
cOops to stand in wet places or so long
in one place that the ground gets foul
and unWholesome as a malarial swamp.
Then they usually charge the loss to
gapes or pip or some other filth disease,
as also do those who do not give proper
food, using wet, sloppy mashes, and, per-
haps, mixing them and allowing them to
sour, or feeding so much at time that
it can be not be eaten while fresh and
then economizing by refusing to throw
it away or to give more until that is all
gone. And when it is, the chickens are
likely to be gone, and they call it cholera
among them.
Some feed upon good grain, whole or
cracked, but fail to provide the chickens
with teeth or the grit that is necessary to
enable them to grind their grain in the
gizzard, and do not discover the mistake
until sick or dead chickens show it. And
some chickens die because they ought
never to have been hatched at all, and
dying is the only way to remedy the mis-
take. Hatched from the eggs from hens
in an unhealthy condition, partially re-
covering from roup, or overfat, even to
the extent of fatty degeneration of the
very organs of vitality, they come into
the world without strength enough to
exist, excepting under the most watchful
care, or enough even then than to do
much more than exist, it can not be
called a loss when they die. Possibly
nobler animals are born and die under
similar conditions. But from all these
causes, due in some cases to carelessness
and in others to ignorance, it is doubtful
One-half the chickens that are
hatched out each year live to attain a
size suitable even to market as broilers,
while many more fail to grow and ma
.ure as they should, because of having
been weakened by these causes. There
'Ore each poultry-keeper should watch
he list Of mortality among his chickens.
and If he finds it over / per cent he
should try to ascertain whether there is
lot a cause for the trouble which can be
by little care-taking.
The Poet Ctnsinuatinulv) UDo,bA ,,