The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1911-04-07
THE DAY-OLD CHICK INDUSTRY.

The business of Matching and sell
| ling day-old chicks has increased
enormously within two years. To
many people who are not familiar
with the poultry business this matter
is entirely new, and they do not
understand how it is sossible to send
the tender little chicks any great
distance without many of them dy-
ing on the way. AS matter of fact
the chick ten hours after he has
kicked himself loose from the egg
shell is in much better condition to
be shipped 500 TOT 900 miles than
he would be when week or two
weeks old. In his body is the entire
yolk of the egg which was surrounded;
by the chick only short time before
it left the shell. The yolk furnishes
sufficient nourishment to sustain the
chicks life for four or five days;
the only thing to be provided is
warmth; and that the chick itself
furnishes, as each little body is
furnace generating heat, and if
enough chicks are kept tgether, say
Is to SO, and the heat is kept from
being dissipated by a burlap or
muslin cover over the box containing
the chicks, they may be safely
shipped any distance which can be
covered by express trains in three
or four days. The muslin cover
allows sufficient ventilation, and
practically the greatest risk the
chicks have to run is the care of the
express agent. He may be over
kind and put the chicks so near
the stove or steampipes that they
become overheard, or carelessly leave
them where a strong draft of cold
air may chill them; but with reason
able care they may be shipped 500
miles and the loss not exceed two
or three per cent.
This opens up great possibilities
| for the man who desires to start in
the poultry. business; for there is
no expense for incubators and an
incubotor cellar, no loss from in
fertile eggs or chicks dead in the
SHE'LL" and then better yet, he can
have all his flock practically Of the
same age, which is very great ad-
vantage in raising the chicks. White
Leghorn chicks day old are adver-
tised for sale in all the poultry mag
azines for $40 per hundred. Sup
pose man pays $50 for 500 chicks
May |. Allowing a loss BY hawks,
skunks and other causes Of 20 per
cent, he would have inthe Fall 400
head, worth a dollar apiece. o. if
he sold the cockerels for broilers
when one or two pounds in weight,
! which would under ordinary condi-
tons pay the entire cost of raising
the pullets, he ought to have 200
good pullets to lay in September or
October and keep it up all Winter.
This, OF course, is surprising that
the chicks have. been we'll cared for
from the time they were received.
l have been asked what proportion
OF the chicks received in this way
can be expected to live?" would
! answer, just about az many as it
they had been Matched in your own
house and carried across the road to
the brooder. The brooding is the
most important part. and the heat
less brooder has come to stay.
My own experience and what |
saw done by my neighbors last year
convinces one that stronger and
healthier chicks can be raised with
out heat than with it. Mr.. Fred
Gommack raised 800 White Leg
horn chicks last year in cheese
boxes, obtained at the grocery stores
in Hartford. No artificial heat
whatever was used. Last Fall |
went through his poultry houses,
and never saw thriftier lot of birds
and he tells me they are laying to
beat anything in his experience.