The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-05-17
SOME CAUSES OF DEATH AMONG
BROODER CHICKS.
Eugenics in the Chicken Yard.


In rearing chicks by natures method
it is customary to give each hen IL or IL
eggs, and where eggs are from strong
healthy stock, the average hatch is from
nine to IL, and even IL, robust chicks
of these the mother, if she is a good one,
will raise between eight and ten, per-
haps even the entire brood. On the 9TH
er hand, when rearing chicks in incuba
tors and breeders, all the lessons taught
by Madam Hen in the care and manage
ment of her brood are frequently forgot
ten, as result of which there is ire
mendous increase in the death rate.
Among the most frequent causes of
death in brooder-reared chicks are:
Chilling over-heating, crowding, conta-
gious white darrhGa, and cannibalism.
Chilling is always the result of careless
ness. A drop in the hover temperature
of several degrees during the night is
usually fatal, for chicks once thoroughly
chilled seldom recover. 1t is well, there
fore, to fill ard trim the brooder lamp
before leaving for the night; moreover,
never put even the best out door brooder
outdoors until settled warm weather
comes, but place it in building or under
a shed out of the wind. Overheating
makes weak, debilitated chicks, super
sensitive to every possible climatic
change, consequently they are ever ready
to seek the shelter of an overheated
hover, where they nod and dose until
death carries them off. The operator
who starts his brooder at 9S degrees
(under ho>erJ the first week, reduces
it to "a degrees the second, and to 30 de-
gress the third, and, finally, to SIS degrees
the fourth week, where it should remain
until the chicks are well feathered Lit |
tie chicks themselves are a fairly ac-
curate thermometer; when they spread |
out at night over the hover floor with |
their heads resting on the sand, they
are contented and sufficiently warm.
Crowded Tenements.
Crowding is misdirected economy, new
err put more than so chicks in 100
chick brooder, for the results are always
and remember that ten chicks
saved will buy another brooder. Conta-
gious white diarrhPa is the worst dis
ease with which poultry-raisers have to
and while not directly caused
by neglect, it is often the result of using
breeders lacking in health and vigor.
The disease is an infectious one and
to the offspring by infected
parents. the infection passing through
he egg. The critical period is during
he first four days of chicks life, the
'ymptoms being lack OF vitality, droop-
ng wings, continued crying, and, later, d
! white discharge clogging the vent. The
emedy is to kill all puny, short, round
'odied chicks, when removing them from /
he incubator this will be called a dras- /
&c measure, but results justify il, as [
tunted chicks seldom live TO grow up, $
nd, when they do, never amount TO .
nything. To kin little chick, take it /
y the feet and strike the back of the
cad against a board; death will be 6
instantaneous. Cannibalism is due 20 a
ack Of ash or protein in the ration.
hicks fed on sound mixed grains, with In
little bit Of meat scrap given after the =
rst week, will seldom develop this vice. n
Copyright 1915. by T. r. Parkinson-An :,
rights re~ef1ed II