Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-02-27
Poultry Yard Notes.

| Anybody can hatch chicks: success
I fully brooding and raising them is the
| test of the real poultryman." This is a
| saying that contains great deal more
! truth than many of the utterances on
the poultry business. Given fertile eggs.
a few steady-going old hens or a reason
| ably good incubator, and Matching is
not much of a problem. After the
chicks are Matched. however, it is diff
ferent Brooding includes several points
proper temperature in the brooder
and under the hover; prevention of
overcrowding: proper feeding, cleanli-
ness, ventilation and all of the things
that make for the health and rapid
development of the chicks
] At this season of the year. when the
earliest chicks have been Matched, the
problem of maintaining the proper
| temperature in the brooder is one that
causes poultrymen more worry, per-
haps. than any of the others. Every
poultryman knows that chicks must
not be removed from the incubator until
! they are thoroughly dry after Matching.
This condition does not come about
within few hours: the chicks. how
pear. are not thoroughly dry until they
| have remained in the machine for ten
or, twelve hours. with the temperature
just little above 100 degrees.
! If the chicks are then removed from
| the incubator and placed in a brooder
| with temperature under the hover of
| 100 degrees. they are likely to go right
! on growing and thriving. If. however.
the hover temperature is ninety or
| nlnety-five degrees, as is often the case,
/ nothing can reasonably be expected but
| chilled. shivering chicks crowded close
| 1y under the hover. bowel troubles.
| sickness. heavy mortality and stunted
chicks lacking in vitality as survivors.
| Baby chicks are really dollhouse prop
| ositions. Provided the ventilation is
good. temperature of 1913 to los de-
grees under the hover for the first day
or so at this season of the year is not
high enough to injure them. They will
run around in the brooder, lie halfway
under the hover curtain and in other
ways keep themselves comfortably
| cool. If the heat is not sufficient, how
| ever. the chicks will crowd together,
pile up and try every means instinct
teaches them to get warm, and in SO do
! ing the brood will be injured beyond
\ recovery.
stitution and low in vitality are
constant menace to the rest of the
flock. Half a dozen of such chicks,
raised with big flock of perfectly
disease that will wipe out the entire
| flock. The weakling is always sus-
ceptible to colds. from which epidemics
| of roup may and often do develop.
They are subject in greater degree to
other poultry diseases from which the
stronger and sturdier members of the
flock are reasonably immune, but even
the strongest fowl will not be able to
| resist the attacks of disease if it ex-
lists in virulent form among the weak
| lings of the flock.
| 1t has been said on sound authority
4, that live stock. other things being
equal, does better on heavy, highly pro-
or sandy. The reason most often given
in explaining this is, not that the soil
itself makes the difference directly in
the stock. but that the more fertile
green stuff during a longer season of
growth, and that the grasses, etc, on
such soil are not only more appetizing
but more succulent and contain larger
Quantities of those constituents that
promote growth, size and vigor.
There is reason to believe that this
rule-if it be rule-applies with
equal force to poultry-that is. that
fowls raised on heavy. productive soil
are larger. stronger, more vigorous
and healthy than those raised on thin.
poor, sandy soil. Nevertheless, there
is distinct advantage in raising poul-
| try on sandy soil, it being dryer and
| more quickly drained, that fowls
| kept on such soil are likely to be
freer from colds. However, there
seems to be good foundation for the
/ statement that fowls bred and raised
| on farms where the soil is deep, heavy
and highly productive attain greater
| size. vigor, beauty of plumage and
productiveness than do those that
spend their lives on poor soil.
| Poultry will do we'll on lighter soils
| with good care, but no one claims that
with the same care you can raise as
| much corn per acre on light soil as on
heavy, and it cannot be truthfully
claimed that poultry and other live
stock will do as well on the lighter
soil. At the same time. as a business
| proposition, one may in some cases
wisely select locations where the soil
| is lighter on account of the lower price
at which it can be purchased.
| A poultry raiser of some note. who
puts out eggs with farmers who raise
! chicks for him and sell the chicks to
I him in the fall, says that he always
tries to put out the eggs farms
where the soil is deep and rich. He
finds that when he gets such chicks in
| the fall they are larger. more vigorous,
more beautiful. as rule. than those
raised on poorer soil.
l
those who live in town and who can
not choose the character of the soil is
| that size and vigor in poultry depend
to a great extent on plenty of succu-
| lent vegetable food, in some form, in
all seasons of the year.
| In order to obtain eggs it is neces-
| sary to have healthy, vigorous stock.
properly fed.
| A splendid mixture for laying hens is
| equal parts of cracked corn, wheat and
| oats, which should be scattered in the
litter.
Bran or middlings and beef scraps
| should be kept in receptacles to which
the fowls have access at all times.
Plenty of exercise increases the egg
yield.
clean litter in which to scatter the
grain.
Cabbages, mangels. potatoes. sprout-
ed oats, etc, make excellent green feed.
When wet mashes are fed be sure
they are crumbIy and not sticky.
For the first three days chicks may
be fed a mixture of equal parts hard
| boiled eggs and stale bread. or stale
bread soaked in milk. When bread
and milk are used, care should be ex-
ercised to squeeze all milk out of the
bread, From the third or fourth day
until the chicks can eat wheat and
cracked corn, commercial chick feed
is a good ration.
Plenty of pure. fresh water, grit.
she'll and green feed should be avail
Arof