SF487 W828 ' lut; - i Cornell University Library SF 487.W878 Facts about white diarrhoea; practical me 3 1924 003 186 701 Corne 11 1Hniv>ev8it\> %ibrar\> OF THE IRew jporfe State College of agriculture \\cy.*3UkX.*>_ *5:.taujQ.m.... 8806 Facts About White Diarrhoea SIMPLE, SAFE AND SURE PLAN OF SUCCESSFUL CHICK REARING ©4k> DR. PRINCE T. WOODS MIDDLETON, MASS., U. S. A. The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003186701 Facts about White Diarrhoea PRACTICAL METHODS OF PREVEN- TION AND TREATMENT. HOW TO STOP LOSSES AND REDUCE THE MORTALITY IN SMALL CHICKS. SIMPLE, SAFE AND SURE PLAN OF SUCCESSFUL CHICK REARING. Copyright, 1908, by PRINCE T. WOODS, M. D. Author and Publisher, MIDDLE TON, . . . MASS. Z-.C-. @ %o flfllljom it mag Concern: The entire contents of this book are protected by author's copyright. All persons are forbidden, on penalty of the law, to reproduce, copy, make quotations from, duplicate, or make any other improper use of the contents or text of this book. Any in- fringement of copyright will result in immediate prosecution. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1908, by Prince T. Woods, M. D., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Facts about White Diarrhoea. MORTALITY IN SMALL CHICKS Chick mortality in. recent years has reached most alarming proportions. During 1 the past ten years the losses of small chickens between the ages of three days and two weeks have amounted to hundreds of thousands of chicks annually. Some proprietors of practical poultry plants which I have visited dur- ing 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 diarrhoea." 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 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 man- aging the breeding stock, handling the eggs before and during incubation, management of incubators, care of chicks and brood- ing 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 chick- ens 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 recommended in the last chapter of this book can be relied upon in the majority of cases to prevent dis- ease, repair lost vitality and cure so-called white diarrhoea, pro- vided 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 and which accompanies this book under separate cover. There is no such thing in legitimate and practical medicine as a real "cure-all." The much adver- tised 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 or your money back" can often.be safely set down as a cheap humbug, seldom safe to use and sometimes positively dangerous. You might find it dif- ficult and expensive to get your money back if you wished to test the validity of the guaranty. No impossible claims are made for the remedies which I sup- ply to poultrymen, I can only guarantee that they are carefully prepared, pure and honest Homoeopathic remedies in tablet trit- urate form, prepared with great care and put up under my per- sonal supervision. The remedies are of the same high quality as those supplied by reputable Homoeopathic physicians all over the world for the treatment of diseases of human beings. You can absolutely depend upon these remedies 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. It is unfortunate that the name '"white diarrhoea" should have been so generally and commonly used to describe practi- cally all ailments which result in a high death rate in small chickens. The actual diarrhoea or discharge of a lime-like ex- crement 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 sympton of "voiding white wash," as it has been aptly termed, is not : present the chicks frequent- ly "paste up behind," or die off with little or no apparent warn- ing and no evidence of bowel trouble. CAUSES OF WHITE DIARRHOEA In investigating the causes of so-called white diarrhoea there are four general sources of trouble that demand your attention. BTRST, — The condition of the breeding stocJc from which the eggs for hatching were taken. >■ SECOND, — Carlessness in selection, handling, keeping and care of eggs intended for hatching purposes. THIRD, — Faulty incubation. FOURTH, — Errors in brooding or feeding. 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 be- hind," "spraddles," "wabbly legs," "wasting disease," "appen- dicitis," acute indigestion, congenital anaemia, rachitis, maras- mus, 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 victims, 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 sufBcient 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 supporting life or rendering the chick capable of living. With- out 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 endan- gers the life of the chick. These matters will be taken up in more detail in their proper place under the separate headings which follow. SYMPTOMS OF WHITE DIARRHOEA. In some cases there may be entire absence of visible symp- toms except such as would appeal to the veteran poultryman who instinctively knows certain chicks for weaklings the mo- ment 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 back bone 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 considerable that when the chick voids excrement it seems almost impossible to eject it over the protruding abdomen without having it come in con- tact 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 con- dition 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. Frequently, but not always, the dis- charge from the bowels assumes a lime-like or white-wash-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. As 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 ema- ciated. 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 is in a putrid or semi-putrid condition, having a mixed greenish and yellowish 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 greenish, 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 and gizzard will be found packed full of millet, sand or grit. The caecae or blind guts frequently will be found to contain a 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 anaemia 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 exceedingly small portion. Some few cases show evidence of violent inflammation of the intestines, while in others there is apparently no inflammation whatever present. The lungs, liver, heart, intestines and sometimes the muscle tissue are frequently found to be full of small nodules or de- posits of whitish, cheesy or soft chalk-like substance. These deposits have frequently been described as tubercules, bxit 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 prepared to say at this writing that the disease is actually tuberculosis. In some cases un- doubtedly the chicks may be and are tubercular, but there is no direct evidence at the present time to indicate that all cases of white diarrhoea are in reality of a tuberculous character. There is good reason to believe. that in many instances the dis- ease is the direct result of infection with a germ which to date has not been isolated and identified. This germ may be from excrement of sick or debilitated old fowls and so smeared on the eggs. CONTAGION Many look upon the disease as a contagious one. In my ex- perience and observation contagion only takes place in suscep- tible 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 observation several flocks of white diarrhoea chicks were placed in a brooder house with- out 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 invariably contracted white diarrhoea when the flocks hatched in the machines de- veloped 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 white diar- rhoea 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 in- cubators placed in brooders 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 contagious, 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 susceptible individuals. By careful experiment it was found possible to hatch a flock free from white diarrhoea in a given incubator, the pre- ceding lot of chicks from which had suffered heavy losses from the disease. Following this up it was possible to again prac- tically at will obtain lots of chicks that would develop the dis- ease or not at the desire of the operator, proving almost con- clusively that it is possible, even with eggs from doubtful sources, to control white diarrhoea, and with selected eggs to prevent the occurrence of the disease altogether. Before taking up the treatment of white diarrhoea I wish to emphasize in detail the more important methods of preven- tion. Bear in mind the old and wise saying, "an ounce of pre- vention is worth many pounds of cure." SELECTION, CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE BREEDING STOCK. Taking the causes of the disease up separately in order, we begin with : — ■ (1) 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 pro- duction, that are or have been diseased, that are kept in crowded unsanitary quarters, or are out of breeding condition from any other cause. You cannot use too great care in the selection of your breeding birds. Eemember that the losses in little chicks are due chiefly to a lack of vitality. Unless your breeding stock possess an abundance of vitality they cannot be expected to impart vitality, or the power to live, to their offspring. Breed fine feathers if you will, but don't let your fondness for beau- tiful plumage lead you so far astray that you are blind to all else. On several occasions I have purchased breeding birds of well known established and reliable fanciers, one of whom at least was and is considered an authority on poultry diseases, yet I have had, when buying birds from these parties, frequent cause to complain because the specimens sent me, while excel- lent in plumage, were sadly lacking in physical development. Only recently I purchased a breeding male which was described to me as a husky, healthy specimen and " boss of the yard." When the bird arrived he had a slightly wry tail, a slightly de- formed back, and a decidedly crooked breast. Two females pur- chased from a breeder in whom we had great confidence were beautiful specimens to look at when viewed on the ground. Handling them showed decidedly crooked breast bones, a, de- formed shoulder and deformed back. Although I had paid a fair price for these birds, I would not breed them. By breeding deformed specimens you only invite trouble. Like begets like in health quite as much as it does in feather. The only safe way to start out to prevent disease in your little chicks, and in your flock for all time, is to breed only from strong, vigorous, perfectly-formed, healthy specimens, birds that possess vitality and lots of it. Handle every bird and discard every specimen that shows any deformity. Pick out good-sized, full-grown, active, alert males and females. Never breed very young or very old birds. Pullets and cockerels, or birds under twelve months old, cannot be depended upon to give satisfactory results in breeding. Fowls that are three, four and five years old, are very liable to quickly get out of breeding con- dition. They may be overfat internally or diseased in some other way. When you must use an old bird for breeding, be sure that it is in good, sound, vigorous condition and that the specimen is one that has never been at any time seriously sick. These details are all of the greatest importance, for without sound, healthy, vigorous foundation stock you cannot get vital- ity into the succeeding generations. Housing Breeding Stock. — After you have selected sound, healthy breeding stock keep them healthy by good care and management. Colony fresh-air poultry houses are undoubtedly the most satisfactory and dependable buildings for housing breeding birds. If you have no buildings of the open front or fresh-air type try the next best thing and convert your closed poultry house into a semi-fresh-air apartment by substituting for the upper halves of the windows in the south front of your buildings a screen of unbleached muslin loosely tacked on a, wooden frame. Air out such buildings daily in cold weather by opening the windows. In summer take the windows out and leave them out. Remember that to keep birds healthy you must let them have fresh air to breathe both day and night. The fresh air is of even greater importance after the birds have gone to roost than it is during the daytime when they have an op- portunity to run in and out of doors. I have two colony fresh- air poultry houses that have been in use now since December, 1904. The results in these buildings have been so satisfactory that I want more of them. In the fresh-air buildings fowls are easily kept in health and are not susceptible to sudden weather changes. They run out of doors at all seasons of the year, in winter time they are free to run on the ice, snow and frozen ground, and seem to take delight in so doing. Food Fob Beeedees. — After many years experience in poul- try keeping and years of moist mash feeding, I have abandoned moist mashes and also dry mashes and now recommend feeding fowls exclusively on dry whole or cracked grain mixtures. This plan gives me entirely satisfactory results, an egg yield that will average fifty per cent, of the entire flock or better, plenty of eggs in cold weather, no apparent change in egg yield occasioned by sudden weather changes, a good percentage of fertility and strong, healthy, rugged chicks. The method of feeding is not original with me and has been in use for half a century or longer. I keep a dry whole and cracked grain mixture in a food hopper before my breeding birds all the time. One compartment of the hopper contains the dry grain mixture and another com- partment contains the best, pure sweet beef scrap that I can buy. The hopper is protected by a cover or lid that projects out over the grain and prevents soiling with dust and poultry drop- pings. The fowls can get the grain at all times and the hopper 9 is made easy to access, so that they will not have to crowd one another in order to reach the food. Only good, sound grain is used. Moldy, musty or dusty grain should never be fed, as it is liable to make your birds sick. It is of the greatest importance to get pure, wholesome beef scrap. Much of the stuff on the market that masquerades under this name is unfit to feed. Good beef scrap should be medium coarse, contain some particles of bone and meat, the size of wheat and corn as well as the meat meal portion, should be from a light to dark coffee color, have a strong, sweet, rich, meaty odor, should be free from lumps and should always feel rather dry and crumbly. On scalding, there should be no offensive odor. Beef scrap that stinks like fertilizer when scalded is not fit to feed. Scrap that is damp, full of lumps that show white on breaking down, is almost certain to poison your fowls. Dry Grain Mixtures. — I use various dry grain mixtures, according to the current prices of grain and the supply avail- able, always using sound grain. In winter time whole corn and cracked corn is fed much more liberally than in summer time. The following mixtures will be found very satisfactory. SPRING AND FALL MIXTURE. Cracked corn, 40 pounds. Whole corn, 10 pounds. Hard red or amber wheat, 30 pounds. Heavy clipped white oats, 10 pounds. Barley, 10 pounds. Oats should be heavy white oats running from 38 to 42 pounds to the bushel. Oats may be substituted for barley or vice-versa, according to which can be purchased at the lowest price. WINTER MIXTURE. Whole corn, 30 pounds. Cracked corn, 35 pounds. Wheat, 25 pounds. Oats, 10 pounds. Eive pounds of either barley or buckwheat may be substi- tuted for five pounds of the oats or both may be substituted for entire amount of oats, according to market prices and conven- ience. SUMMER MIXTURE. Cracked corn, 30 pounds. Wheat, 40 pounds. Oats, 15 pounds. Barley, 15 pounds. 10 Ten pounds of kaffir corn may be substituted for five pounds each of oats and barley, if desired. VARIETY GEAIN MIXTUEE. Sometimes I feed at any season of the year for sake of va- riety and because I am able to buy same cheaply, a variety grain mixture made up approximately as follows : "Cracked corn, 40 pounds. Whole wheat, SO pounds. Clean wheat screenings, 20 pounds. Kaffir corn, 8 pounds. Oats, 6 pounds. Silverskin buckwheat, 4 pounds. Sunflower seed, 1 pound. Golden millet, % pound. Whole flaxseed, % pound. Hemp seed, % pound. This variety mixture will be found very satisfactory to use when the birds are molting. In addition to the grain food and beef scrap you should keep before your fowls at all times clean gravel or grit, crushed oyster shell, charcoal, granulated bone and pure water. These are all essentials and should' not be neglected. Green Food. — When possible green food should be fed daily. In winter time give cut clover scalded with boiling water that has been slightly seasoned with salt. Allow it to cool before feeding. Five pounds of dry cut clover are about enough for one feed for one hundred laying hens. Mangels, turnips, beets, waste apples, small potatoes, carrots and cabbages are all avail- able for green or vegetable food. The best way to feed vegeta- bles is to place them in a pocket or hopper made by tacking two- inch mesh wire poultry netting to the studding or side of the pen so that the entire supply for the day may be placed in the wire pocket and held up out of the dirt until consumed. A green grass range is the ideal run from spring until late fall. The average adult bird weighing from 6 to 8 pounds will con- sume on an average 3% ounces of dry grain food daily, and about one-fifth of an ounce of beef scrap. Notes on Feeding. — I do not claim that above plan of feed- ing is superior to others, but simply that it gives me good re- sults in health, vigor and eggs, besides proving labor saving. If the hoppers are built of sufficient size, it is not necessary to fill them up oftener than once a, week. The fowls should be watered daily and houses kept clean. Pure, clean, fresh water in clean pails or fountains is of course essential to health. There are many good food rations or methods of feeding that will give equally good results as the one here recommended. If you have a plan of feeding that is giving you satisfactory returns I do not advise you to change. If for any reason you 11 are not satisfied with your present plan, give this method a fair trial and I believe you will be pleased with the results obtained. Remember that it takes a little time for a flock to become accus- tomed to a different method of feeding. My birds have been used to this way of living from the shell up. Fowls that have been kept on scant rations and regular feedings may stuff them- selves when first placed on a hopper system, and so get a little out of order; it takes a, few months to get them straightened out and used to the new order of living. My plan of feeding is best suited to Wyandottes, Rhode Is- land Beds, Leghorns and the lighter breeds. Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas, and Cochins while they often do well on this plan of feeding, sometimes require different treatment. This is because they are peculiarly susceptible to laying on internal fat. With such fowls a combination of dry mash hopper-fed and scratch grain fed in litter will give better results. A good dry mash may be made by mixing 300 pounds wheat bran, 100 pounds corn meal, 100 pounds gluten meal, 100 pounds middlings and 100 pounds ground oats. If beef scrap is not fed separately 100 pounds of pure, sweet meat meal may be added. Feed from hopper and use one of the whole grain mixtures in litter of sand or clean straw twice daily, allowing a scant handful per bird at a feeding. Other dry mash, moist mash and scratch grain formulae will be found in my book entitled "The Poultry- man's Formulary." It is sometimes a good plan, with exclusively hopper fed fowls to give an occasional full feed of well boiled grain, corn, wheat or oats. The water in which grain is boiled should be lightly seasoned with salt. Don't worry about the fowls getting too fat. It takes a fat hen to lay well and fowls accustomed to hopper feeding will seldom get overfat. More fowls are half starved by under feed- ing and working for all they get in a deep litter than are in- jured or rendered overfat by hopper feeding. You can't get eggs if you starve the hen or make her work off all her energy in scratching for food. There is no truth in the statement, made by some writers, that hopper feeding is responsible for breeding birds getting out of condition, resulting in weak germs and poor fertility. There is not as much danger of such troubles from hopper feeding as there is from other methods. Fowls well fed on wholesome food, where the management exercises a fair amount of good, plain, common-sense, can be depended upon to give good results even though the various owners use widely different methods of feeding. Exercise. — Where fowls are brought up on and are accus- tomed to the dry food plan there is never any danger of their gorging themselves and becoming fat and lazy. Being always used to having food before them at all times, they are not in the habit of filling up quickly or making hogs of themselves, except in rare cases. Such birds can be depended upon to take a suf- 12 flcient amount of exercise daily without being 1 forced to do so.' In my opinion exercising birds has been to a large extent over4 done. I have visited poultry plants where the runs are, equipped with board hurdles to make the birds jump when going from one end of the run to the other, similar hurdles placed in the houses to encourage jumping, vegetable food hung at im- possible heights so that the fowls are obliged to jump with stretched necks in order to get at the vegetable food, and even exercising machines placed in some of the pens. This is going to extremes. A reasonable amount of exercise is necessary to keep fowls in health. Too much exercise is only a waste of food, money and energy. Fowls can be positively injured by too much exer- cise, and jumping and stretching for vegetable and meat food hung just out of reach is liable to have a serious effect upon the egg organs, with the result that you get soft-shelled eggs or eggs which contain blood clots. I used to be an enthusiastic and ardent advocate of exercising fowls. I have learned better. Give the fowls plenty of yard room. Allow 65 or 75 square feet of yard room per bird. Let them run out of doors at all seasons of the year. If you do this and clear away a space in front of the pens for outdoor exercise when the ground is covered with snow you need have no fear of your birds failing to take sufficient exercise, even though they are exclusively hop- per fed. Where it is possible to change the litter often and to use the litter upon a clean floor, or ^ to use clean white beach sand in place of litter, scattering scratch grain in litter is a sat- isfactory way of encouraging exercise, but don't make the birds work for all they get. That is a big mistake. Scratching in deep, dirty litter results in filling the house with clouds of dust that must be inhaled by the birds. This dust contains dry pul- verized droppings, mold spores, disease germs and other filth, and is unhealthy. Fowls can inhale a sufficient quantity of this dust to get them seriously out of condition, create catarrhal dis- eases, and impair vitality. Kemember that decreased vitality of the breeding stock, if you use the eggs for hatching, means white diarrhoea chicks. Fowls when hopper fed will be busy during the day scratch- ing about the pen and run, dusting themselves in some con- venient nook and ranging about, taking a sufficient amount of exercise for their needs. I used clean white sand exclusively on the floors of the poultry houses, in place of straw litter, last winter and like it best. Straw is too apt to be moldy and musty and so contain dangerous dust and disease germs. The laying hen is frequently compared to the milch cow, although inaptly so. In this matter of exercise ask any farmer what will happen if milch cows are forced to exercise freely every day, and he will tell you that it will result in a falling off in milk yield. Some exercise is necessary. Too much is almost as bad as none at all. Don't go to extremes. You can exercise your fowls so much that they will put nearly all the energy contained in their food into building up and repairing stringy, tough mus- 13 cle tissue and will give you very few eggs. Athletes attain very high muscular development, but they do not always succeed in producing healthy, vigorous children. SELECTION AND CARE OF EGGS FOR HATCHING. (2) Carelessness in selection, handling, keeping and care of eggs intended for hatching purposes is a, very common cause of mortality in young chicks. Unfortunately 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 fe- males allotted to one male. Do not allow eggs to remain long in the nests in cold weather. When the temperature is ten degrees above zero or below, eggs are liable to become chilled in a short time. In such cold weather if they are intended for hatching purposes the eggs should be collected three or four times a day. Do not allow broody hens to remain in the nests used by the layers. It does not do eggs any good to remain for several hours under a broody hen if you intend to save them for hatching purposes. Bear in mind that incubation in a fertile egg begins several hours before the egg is laid, the first stages taking place before the shell is finished. This process continues to progress as long as the egg is exposed to the body heat of the hen. It ceases and the germ remains dormant after the egg is laid and cooled, but will begin again on exposure of the egg to a temperature of 80 degrees or more. Frequent starting and checking of the growth of the germ or embryo chick will result in an expendi- ture or loss of vital force that renders the egg less likely to hatch a strong, vigorous chick. Eggs intended for hatching should be handled as little as possible. Put them in a cool room where the air is fresh and sweet. Place them in boxes or baskets and let them alone until they are wanted for hatching. The temperature of the room in which the eggs are kept should not be below 40 degrees nor above 60 degrees P. Prolonged exposure of the eggs to a tem- perature of 80 degrees P. or above is injurious. Do not turn the eggs daily while keeping them. Such handling is dangerous practice and sure to result in losses. The reason why so many eggs sent by express turn out bad- ly is that they are frequently heated and cooled during transit. This lowers the vitality and even though the percentage of fer- tility may be good and a large number of the chicks hatch you are liable to loose a great many of such chicks from so-called 14 white diarrhoea. Eggs shipped any distance should be packed in cases that are well insulated with corrugated straw board and should be further protected by a packing of ground cork, cut hay or similar material that will help insulate the eggs from outside temperatures. It is common practice of express com- panies to leave egg cases on station platforms exposed to chill- ing and icy winds and then remove them to a hot express car or station waiting room where the eggs will be quickly heated up alongside a hot stove or bank of steam pipes. This frequent warming up and cooling is what causes the trouble, and is a hundred times more dangerous than the jarring the eggs re- ceive during the trip. At the same time shaking and jarring eggs does not do them any good. If eggs are dirty, fouled with droppings or other filth, wash them before they are placed under a hen or in an incubator. It is a good plan to wipe all eggs before they are set to remove any particles of dust or feathers which may adhere to the shell. In selecting eggs for hatching choose only medium-sized eggs with good, sound shells. The shape does not matter so much as long as the egg is normal in appearance. Misshapen, deformed shells, very small or very large eggs, eggs with rough, sandy shells, lime warts or excrescences on the shells, thin and mottled-shelled eggs should not be set. Eggs intended for hatch- ing ought to be fair-sized, clean, smooth and should in every case be out of sound, healthy, vigorous stock. Eggs may be fer- tile, may hatch well and the chicks still be unfit to live because of lack of vitality. Do not forget that. Eggs should not be kept too long before incubating them. Three weeks is probably the maximum limit of safety. The older an egg before it is set the lower the vitality of the germ and the less likelihood there is of getting a strong chick. Pref- erably do not set eggs that are more than two weeks old. The fresher the egg when set the better. If possible, have all the eggs in one tray or in one machine or under one hen of very nearly the same age. INCUBATION. (3) Faulty incubation is a common cause of chick mor- tality. The use of poorly constructed incubators, careless man- agement of all incubators or of sitting hens often results in a waste of vitality of the embryo chick, with the result that the little birds when hatched die off quickly from supposedly mys- terious causes, and are so charged up against white diarrhoea. Setting A Hen. — There is a great difference in broody hens. Some are good sitters and mothers, others poor ones. With the poor ones you may always expect to get poor hatches, and chicks that make a poor live of it. It is always wise to choose a good- sized, quiet-dispositioned, motherly hen that is inclined to stick 15 to her nest, and one that can be handled without developing a flurry of excitement and cackling. With a good motherly sitter selected, preferably a mature hen, provide a quiet nest with a small fenced-in run where she can exercise and feed daily. A quiet place in the barn, shed or storage room is the best place to set a hen. The bottom of the nest should be filled in with earth or an inverted sod packed down into a shallow dish shape. Do not hollow out too much so that the eggs will bunch in cen- tre. Over this spread a thin layer of clean straw or soft hay. Dust the straw with pure, fresh Dalmation or Persian insect powder, (use only pure, fresh-ground Pyrethrum). Give the hen a thorough dusting with the same powder before you place her in the nest. Let her sit for a day or two on nest eggs until you are sure she will stay put, then give her as many eggs as she can cover comfortably and no more. Keep her confined on the nest by closing the front of the box with a burlap sack or slatted screen. Keep the nest dark. Peed the hen only on whole and cracked corn, supply grit and pure water, provide a dust bath in the run for her use- Allow her to leave the nest for food, exercise and water once daily at as regular a feeding time as possible. In cold weather cover the eggs with a piece of flannel blanket while the hen is off the nest, removing same as soon as she shows an inclination to return. Do not allow the hen to remain too long off the nest in extreme cold weather. Dust the hen again with Dalmation powder three days before the chicks are due to hatch. Do not disturb the hen or allow her off the nest at hatching time. Keep the nest dark after eggs pip until ready to take brood off. If any eggs are fouled or soiled during the hatch they should be carefully washed in luke warm water or water at about 104 de- grees P. As soon as the hatch is over remove all shells and dead eggs to give the chicks more room under the hen. Allow the chicks to remain in the nest one day after hatching and keep them quiet. Eemove the little family to the brood coops at noon or in the afternoon. Do not allow too many chicks to one hen ; 15 to 20 chicks are enough for a good sized Wyandotte or Plymouth Pock. Some hens will take good care of larger flocks but it is never wise or safe to try to crowd too many chicks into one brood. Better give the hen a few less chicks than she can care for comfortably than to allow her a few too many and so lose them or perhaps spoil the whole brood. Careless or indifferent incubation, even under hens, has caused white diarrhoeal troubles. Incubators. — Be sure to use a dependable, standard-pattern incubator. In matters of operation follow strictly the manufac- turer's directions. If possible, locate the machine in a well-ven- tilated cellar having an earth floor. Do not run the incubator in a room or cellar containing heating apparatus in which a coal fire is kept burning. Coal gas is fatal to the embryo chicks. If necessary to use such a cellar, partition off a room for the in- 16 cubator and arrange so that the incubator room can have in- dependent ventilation. This is an important precaution. It is also a wise plan to arrange some means for piping off the lamp fumes from the incubators. The imperfect combustion of burn- ing kerosene oil by aid of a lamp wick gives off dangerous prod- ucts that are poisonous- to the embryo chicks in the eggs. Select eggs for use in incubators with as great care as you would if you intended to set them under hens. Use only perfectly fresh eggs that have been properly kept. Thoroughly clean the incubator before you start a hatch. Sun and air all movable parts. After you have the machine heated up and regulating properly spray or paint the entire in- terior of the egg chamber with a solution of pure creolin and water 6 to 12 hours before you place the eggs in the machine. Do not be afraid to get the interior of the machine wet. To make the solution add three fluid ounces of pure Creolin-Pearson to one gallon of warm water and thoroughly mix. So disinfect- ing the machine will lessen the liability of infection from any germs that may be contained on eggs from doubtful sources, and will insure the destruction of mold spores and other germs which are commonly found in old incubators. This practice alone has resulted in a surprising reduction of the mortality of incubator chicks from white diarrhoea. In incubator operation be careful not to allow the tempera- ture to run too high. Prolonged and frequent exposure of the eggs to a temperature of 104 degrees F. and above has an inju- rious effect upon the embryo and results in a loss of vitality through over-stimulation. Such eggs may hatch and give you a large percentage of chicks, but commonly they will die off rapidly during the first two weeks in the brooder. Frequently the chicks die in the shell from exhaustion of vitality. The safest incubating temperatures are from 101% to 102% degrees during the first week, 103 degrees from the time of the first test on the seventh day until the eggs begin to pip. At pipping time and while the chicks are hatching out the temperature may be allowed to go to 104 degrees or even 105 degrees without doing harm. Too much cooling and too much ventilation in the early stages of incubation is harmful, the eggs lose moisture and the membranes toughen. After the chicks are hatched they need all of the fresh air you can give them and at the same time keep them comfortably warm. Chicks are often injured by failure to give them a suf- ficient supply of fresh air after they have hatched and begun to dry off. Conditions are very different when the chick is in the egg breathing through the blood vessels which line the shell than they are after it has been excluded and begins to breathe through its lungs. While in the shell too much fresh air and a strong air current in the egg chamber is not beneficial and is sometimes even injurious through drying down the eggs too much, resulting in a loss of moisture needed by the chicks. Some incubators having a forced draft ventilating plan use moisture 17 pans or sand trays to avoid so far as possible this drying down process. Ordinarily it is best to operate an incubator in a room where the outside or room temperature can be maintained fair- ly uniform. It is not wise to run an incubator where the out- side temperature is below 40 degrees or above 80 degrees F. A fairly constant temperature between 50 degrees and 60 de- grees E. is almost ideal for incubator operation, provided the room has good ventilation and the lamp fumes are carried away in such a manner that they cannot enter the machine. Always provide for an abundance of fresh air in the incubator room. It is required by the lamps and also for the purpose of preventing concentrated lamp fumes entering the egg chamber. An earth floor is best ; cement floors are not desirable. , Eggs should be turned, preferably by hand outside of the machine, twice daily after they have been incubated 24 to 36 hours and continuing until the 18th day, at which time stop turning and let the eggs alone until they hatch. Do not turn the eggs on the day on which you test them. Do not expose eggs to a temperature below 40 degrees E. while testing. In testing at any temperature below 60 degrees F. protect the eggs both above and below by a warm flannel blanket. • Little chicks should remain in the incubator until about 36 hours old. With incuabtors that have glass doors it is well to darken the front of the machine by hanging a heavy paper or cloth in front of the door while the eggs are hatching. The little wet chicks ought to stay on the egg tray until they are dried off. It does not do them any good to fall into the cooler nursery department before they are well dried, as they are liable to become chilled by so doing. When the little chicks are well dried off it is a good plan to open the incubator door the width of one or two matches. Drive a tack into the front of the machine above the door and attach to this a piece of soft wire. A turn or two of the other end of the wire about the knob of the incubator door will hold same in position and open to the desired degree. Bear in mind that too much and too frequent cooling, over- heating and prolonged exposure of the eggs to a temperature of 104 degrees or above is liable to invite disaster and result in losses of the chicks, even if they do hatch well. Overheating is more dangerous than prolonged cooling. Hough handling of the eggs while turning them is also injurious. When, after testing, only a comparitively few eggs remain in the machine, place them in the center of the tray and confine them by means of small, smooth pieces of wood laid on the egg tray to prevent the eggs rolling about. Always try to run your incubator with a lamp flame of mod- erate or medium height and secure as close an adjustment of the regulating device as possible. With incubators having an outside galvanized iron heater and heated by the hot air plan, the metal disc attached to the regulator arm should be adjusted 18 to run as close as possible to the opening in the top of the heater. If allowed to run too high it requires too much super- heated air to maintain the proper degree of heat in the incuba- tor, and such condition is injurious to the embryo chicks. Incubator operators should bear in mind that machine in- cubating and brooding is a purely artificial method of rearing poultry, and cannot be expected to equal or excell the natural, normal method of hatching and brooding. On poultry plants ■where the breeding stock has been machine hatched and brooded for several generations, there is usually something lacking in the breeding stock ; and the eggs, though running a fair percent- age fertile, do not possess the same vitality as those from stock back of which are many generations of hen hatched chicks. The artificially hatched and reared stock apparently lose a trifle each succeeding generation until it becomes difficult to obtain the best results in hatching. It is a wise plan to grow a few breeders each year by purely natural methods of hen hatching and hen rearing. Brooder chicks, no matter how hatched, if well cared for have many advantages over those that are carelessly brooded under hens, and 'it is possible by careful management to grow ■chicks in brooders, whether hatched by the artificial or natural method, and still retain the maximum amount of vitality. Care- ful brooding can even make up for some of the losses incurred in artificial incubation, that is, a properly brooded chick can even make up lost vigor and acquire vitality when carefully and properly brooded by either the artificial or natural method. CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF CHICKS. (4) Errors in brooding or feeding sometimes result in •chick mortality or losses from so-called white diarrhoea. The best means of prevention is to properly brood and care for the little flock. The method here outlined has been proved by many years careful test a most successful one and has been used on my recommendation by many poultrymen for a sufficient number of seasons to prove, its value. Natural Brooding. — Before taking up artificial brooding I want to say a few words about the natural method, since losses do frequently occur in hen hatched and brooded flocks. When the little chicks are about one day to 36 hours old the mother hen and her brood are ready to go to permanent brooding quar- ters. These should be in a comfortable brood coop, packing case, box or barrel having a slatted front, so that the hen can be con- fined and the little chicks permitted to run. The box or brood coop should be protected from the weather so that rain cannot beat in and make it wet and uncomfortable. It should be placed in some dry sheltered spot so that it will not be too hot for the hen mother during the warm and sunny part of the day. 19 The brood coop should as a rule face south. Cut straw, chopped hay, clover or sand may be used to litter the floor of the brood coop. Provide sun shelters of canvas, burlap, boards or ever- green boughs in front of coop. The hen mother should have a constant supply of corn and wheat, or good clean wheat screenings, close by the front of her coop within easy reach. A drinking fountain of pure water should also be easily accessible. The food for the little chicks should be fed on a feeding board or from a covered hopper just out of reach of the mother hen, so that she cannot waste this more expensive grain mixture. Confine the little chicks close to the mother's coop for the first few days. After they are a week old they can be given practically free range on grass land if desired. In cold weather the brood coop should be placed under shelter in an open shed or open front coop where the chicks can have an indoor fresh air run. Fine sifted, pure beef scrap and a good dry grain chick food should be kept before the little chicks from the start, giving them their first feed as soon as they are placed in the brood coop. Variety food and green food should be supplied in the same manner as for brooder chicks. Keep the chicks with their hen mother until she weans them and then put them in colony coops 25 to 50 in a, flock. Artificial Rearing or Brooder Management. — Probably the best type of brooder is the - outdoor three-compartment type heated on the hot air furnace principle. Such a brooder has a constant supply of warm fresh air all of the time flowing into the space beneath the hover. Good ventilation and a constant and abundant supply of pure, warm fresh air both day and night are absolutely essential to successful brooder chick rearing. Cir- cular hovers that occupy the center of the brooding apartment are preferable to square hovers placed at one side. ' The heat should be a combination of top, bottom and side heat. There should be a compartment outside of the hover of sufficient size on all sides so that the chicks can easily get out into cooler quarters whenever they endeavor to move away from the heat. In addition to this cooler apartment outside of the hover, there should be an exercise apartment warmed by the escaping sur- plus heat from the brooding chamber proper. Such an outdoor brooder may be run in an open front shed or in a curtain front house in the winter time, and out of doors in spring and summer weather. I have repeatedly run individual outdoor brooders en- tirely out of doors without shelter of any kind in the most ex- treme winter weather with entirely satisfactory results. In warm weather the brooder should be located in a sheltered or shady spot so that the direct rays of the hot summer sun will not make the interior of the brooder too hot for comfort. Have your brooder running well, thoroughly warmed up, and maintaining a fairly even temperature before you place the chicks in it. Litter the brooder compartment well with cut clover both beneath and outside of the hover, sprinkling over it a little sand or fine grit. In three corners make a little pile of 20 dry grain chick food and a little pile of fine, pure beef scrap on top of this clover litter close together. These should be outside of the hover. In the fourth comer place a small-sized galvan- ized iron drinking fountain filled with pure, fresh water. The brooder is now ready for the chicks, provided it has been run- ning regularly for a day or two with a hover temperature of 95 degrees ¥. under the hover. No matter what the brooder man- ufacturer tells you, do not place more than fifty chicks in any brooder. That is the maximum limit of safety. Never place any weaklings or puny chicks in the brooder. They should be promptly killed, as their presence in the flock only invites bad habits and through this results in losses. Be sure, to carry a flame on your brooder lamp or stove large enough to maintain the proper temperature under the hover without the necessity of keeping the ventilators closed too much. The ventilator slides should be kept partly open all of the time to insure a good circulation of pure air. When the little chicks are put under the hover the temperature will go up five or ten degrees and no attempt should be made to lower it, as you want a hover temperature of 95 degrees with no chicks under the hover. The warmth from the bodies of the little chicks causes the rise in temperature and you do not want to decrease the lamp heat on this account. Watch your little brood and be governed in brooder opera- tion more by the comfort of the chicks themselves than by the temperature indicated by the thermometer. I start my broods" at a temperature ranging from 105 degrees to 115 degrees when the chicks are under the hover in cold weather, and from 95 de- grees to 105 degrees in mild weather, paying more attention to the comfort of the chicks than to the reading of the thermome- ter, but making sure that they are abundantly supplied with fresh air at all times. Details of Beooder Opebation. — Locate your outdoor 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 apart- ment 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 converge 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 Si without some work of a fussy nature. For flocks of one thous- and 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, common- sense principles apply in brooder house operation that are neces- sary in the management of individual brooders. Running in- dividual 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 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). 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 of 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 comfort- able. If your brooder has ventilating holes covered with gal- vanized 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 natural hen mother and teach them all thejr 22 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 apartment around the hover and tuck them under the hover frequently. Keep pure water, grit, chick food and pure willow charcoal, with a, supply of fine sifted, pure beef scrap and gran- ulated 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 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 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. Kun the hover space with the hover empty at about 95 de- grees 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 should aim at all times to keep the chicks comfortable. A little extra heat, 105 degrees to even 115 de- grees 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 is fatal and is a common cause of so-called white 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 reg- isters 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. 23 By the third day let the chicks out into the exercise apart- ment. If the brooding chamber and exercise apartment are sep- arated 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 apartment 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 be- come 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 bedtime 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 accord- ing 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 chafE, 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 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 t6 use the exercise apartment. In a few days they can have the freedom of the run which may be increased in size daily. They will then be smart enough to look out for themselves. You must, how- ever, teach them well at first to avoid trouble later. 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. Grad- ually work them away from the expensive chick food on to a ration of largely fine-cracked corn, wheat and beef scrap. 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 24 ■older they may be given scalded cut clover, fresh, green cut rye, and any form of fresh, succulent, 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 spar- ingly. 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. 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 eight to nine weeks old. Don't take a lot of naked chicks away from heat in cold weather. 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 sea- soned 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. Hard boiled in- fertile eggs may also be given as supplementary food, simply cut- ting 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. Care should be taken in buying commercial chick food to make sure that you obtain a fresh-made, pure, sweet article that is free from moldy or musty grain. Never use chick food that smells moldy or musty or that has been in a storage warehouse for from six months to a year. Buy your chick food by sample and insist on its being up to quality of the sample. Some of the commercial chick food on the market contains altogether too much millet, and sometimes dangerous weed seeds. Little chicks are very fond of millet, but too much of it is injurious, liable to start digestive disturbances, and even result in bowel trouble and loss of 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 sand, grit, paper, and felt or acquire other similar bad habits, you will find it almost impossible to break them of it. For this reason be careful to teach them to eat only wholesome food at the start. 25 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 ac- quire this bad habit you will find them chilled or dead in that same spot on some cold, stormy day. An excellent chick food may be made at home by mixing 45 pounds sifted, fine cracked yellow corn or corn grits, 20 pounds cracked wheat, 20 pounds steel cut oats or C grade oatmeal, 12 pounds cracked barley with hulls sifted out, 1 pound granu- lated willow charcoal, 1 pound granulated raw bone, % pound chick-size grit, % pound golden millet. A number of years ago when commercial chick foods were not as easily obtainable as they are now, I used to make my own chick food at home, grinding same in an old-fashioned, balance- wheel coffee mill and sifting out the meal through mosquito net- ting. To make this chick food I ground together a mixture of one-half by measure whole yellow corn, one-fourth whole wheat, one-eighth hulled oats, one-eighth barley with hulls on. This made a very satisfactory and cheap chick food that gave excel- lent results. The waste nieal sifted out was used in the mash mixtures for adult fowls. TREATMENT OF WHITE DIARRHOEA. The preventive treatment of white, diarrhoea begins with the breeding stock and follows through the care of eggs for hatching, incubation and brooding, and management of the chicks. This has been fairly well covered in the preceding chap- ters. The first rule in treating any disease is to seek out 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 embryo within the egg, or of the chicks after they are hatched, may result in so-called white diarrhoea or wasting disease. By breeding and striving for vitality through common-sense management of the flock, the poultryman exercises the best means of prevention of all diseases. Even when little chicks are born with a comparitively low vitality, they can by careful and painstaking management be encouraged to acquire vitality and stamina during their growing up, provided they are not too 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 supplied by me for white di- arrhoea chicks is a very effective one. With this book under separate cover you should receive a half-ounce bottle of tablets of my prescription No. . This is a strictly Homoeopathic remedy, which, when properly used, can be relied 26 upon to assist in the restoration of lowered vitality, correct wasting disease, restore disordered digestive organs to their normal functions, help the chick acquire vitality and an abund- ant supply of good red blood. In short, it is the remedy for the white diarrhoea disease affecting your flock. . As a preventive measure, dissolve twelve tablets in one pint of drinking water and allow the little birds no other drink. Ke- new 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 treat- ment will prove effective in mild cases. In severe cases of white diarrhoea where losses have been considerable, cull the flock very carefully and kill off any spec- imens 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 benefitted 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 : Throughly scald or bring to the boiling point good, sweet, whole milk ; add to this a sufficient amount of thoroughly boiled white bread flour to give the milk the con- sistency of medium heavy cream. Do not get it too thick for the chicks to drink readily. In one cupful of this prepared milk dis- solve six 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 powdered ginger. Of the above preparation allow the little chicks all they will drink from three to six times daily. Do not leave this milk mixture before the chicks all the time, as they are liable to' get themselves messed up in it and so become wet and chilled. Usual- ly in two to three days the little chicks will be ready to return gradually to the regular ration, but continue giving an occa- sional 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 accumu- lation of dung and bathe the parts with creolin and warm water. Do this as often as you find droppings caking on about and be- low the vent. For this purpose use one-half teaspoonf ul of pure creolin in a pint of comfortably warm water. Dry the chick before you return it to the brood. When returning them to the dry food ration it may be sup- plemented 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 higher brooding temper- ature 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. 27 Chicks that have been seriously ill with white diarrhoea should not be kept for breeding stock. If they make a good re- covery, grow them as quickly as possible to broiler or roaster sizes and sell them off as market poultry. Your prescription of white diarrhoea remedy will be re- newed and a one-half -ounce bottle of tablets sent postpaid to your address on receipt of 50 cents. In ordering be sure to give number of prescription given in your book and on label of bottle. Address all orders to Dr. P. T. Woods, MiddfetM^iMMBR 7 "The Poultryman's Formulary A New Book of Formulae for Poultrymen, Compiled and Edited by Dr: Prince T. Woods. Several Hundred Dollars Worth of Practical Information 99 FOR ONE DOLLAR Tells How to Prepare Your Own — Chick Food, Growing Food, Dry Mash, Laying Foods, Scratch Grain Mixtures. How to Make — Liquid to Kill Mites and Lice, Lice Powder, Roup Cure, Condition Powders, Egg Foods, Tissue Food or Tonic Powder, Ointments. And many other necessaries used by experienced poultry- men. All in plain language easily understood by plain people. You don't have to be a druggist or a doctor to make good use of this book. Tells where and how to buy the ingredients used. This is the book you have been waiting for. Ready for delivery after April 15th, 1908. Send your order in now for a copy of the first edition. Price, $1.00 postpaid Address, DR. PRINCE T. WOODS, 97 Maple Street, Middleton, Mass. Homoeopathic Poultry Remedies To meet the demand for reliable, standard Homoeopathic remedies for poultry I am prepared to supply the following, put up in tablet form in half-ounce bottles. This is a much larger bottle or vial of tablets than is commonly used for putting up Homoeopathic poultry remedies. Each bottle is neatly labeled, giving full directions for use and naming the diseases for which the remedy will be found useful. These remedies were introduced by me to poultrymen in 1893 and are very generally used by experienced poultrymen. They can be depended upon as reliable, safe and effective. They will not lose strength or deteriorate with age. The remedies are used by simply dissolving them in the drinking water, or the tablets may be given directly to the birds as individual treatment. Remedy No. 1. For indigestion, intestinal and liver diseases. Cures sour crop, limberneck, constipation and loss of appetite. Remedy No. 2. Valuable in chicken pox, chronic catarrh, bumble foot and all diseases accompanied by pus formation. Remedy No. 3. For catrrrhal colds, bronchitis, croup, rat- tling in the throat and similar diseases. Remedy No. 4. For roup, roupy colds, snuffles, discharge from eyes and nostrils. Remedy No. 5. For diarrhoea and cholera. Particularly val- uable in greenish or yellowish diarrhoea or where droppings are blood streaked. Remedy No. 6. Useful in lameness, swollen legs, rheumatism and cramps. Remedy No. 7. For intestinal parasites or worms. Remedy No. 8. For diseases of the egg organs, infertility, soft- shelled eggs, or any abnormal condition of the reproductive organs. Remedy No. 9. For conjunctivitis, swollen eyes, blindness in chicks. Remedy No. 10. Useful in diphtheria and all forms of canker. A satisfactory remedy for vent gleet and all diseases where there is a cheesy growth upon mucous membranes. These remedies are put up in half ounce bottles only and will be supplied by mail postpaid at the uniform price of 35 cents each, or any three for $1.00. All ten remedies to one address by express, purchaser to pay express charges, on receipt of $2.50. Do not confuse above pre- parations with so-called Homoeopathic remedies widely advertised at a lower price. Please Order Separate Remedies by Number Address, Dr. P. T. WOODS, : Middleton, Mass. Practical Advice By Mail Information on all ordinary matters of Practical Poul- try Keeping or treatment and prevention of diseases. Fee, One Dollar for advice by mail on one subject or condition only. More than one question answered in same letter, 50c extra for additional question. Special formulae for feeding or remedies, instructions for operating in surgical cases, post mortems, or advice on locating plants, plans for buildings, artificial and natural incubating and brooding, personal inspection of poultry plants all charged for in proportion to services rendered. Terms a matter of correspondence. I BREED SOUND, HEALTHY VIGOROUS Buff Wyandottes Exclusively Business Birds — TRe Brown Egg Kind Eggs for Hatching in Season, $3.00 per 15; $5.00 per 30; $10.00 per 60. Male birds, $3.00 to $15.00 and up. Females, $2.50 to $10.00 and up. DR. P. T. WOODS, 97 Maple Street, : : Middleton, Mass.