The Poultry Yard

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1064, 30 August 1930, Page 28

The Poultry Yard

GEO. H. AMBLER.)

(31/

THE CARE OF THE SPRING CHICKEN REPORTS reach me from all parts of tlxe Dominion than the rearing season so far has been causing anxiety 10 novice and expert alike, and losses have in some cases been very disturbing.

It does not require a very clever person to rear chicks when all the conditions are favourable, because then the healthy chick can almost care for itself. It is, however, when cutting east winds prevail, as has been our experience from the outset of the chicken season this year, that troubles beset us. The expert’s first advice is not to coddle your chicks. That advice is very sound, but under cold, wet conditions the novice is to be excused for keeping the baby chicks too long indoors and for using all kinds of fancy foods of a concentrated character to keep the youngsters alive. These unnatural conditions, restricted exercise and the burden imposed by over-tax-ing the digestive organs, result in cramp and rickets, often accompanied by ordinary diarrhoea —a series of ailments which in the main describe all the chicken troubles which mis-man-agement involves and which are not inherited. The chicken born of healthy, vigorous parents is not the fragile, delicate thing most novices imagine. It. is this zeal for kindness which kills more chicks every year than any other cause, and, after giving his charges all the care and attention he can bestow upon them, the average amateur cannot understand why he should suffer losses which to him are so mysterious. THE ABUSE OF HARD-BOILED EGG All young stock must have outdoor exercise, and the more concentrated the diet, the more inclement the weather, the greater is the need for exercise. The time-worn method of starting chicks off the first week upon hard-boiled egg is the first mistake usually made. This is a departure from nature, which often sets up the first trouble, that is if the youngsters are prevented by confined quarters or weather from taking such exercise as will enable them to use up the excess of nutritious element imposed upon them. Hard-boiled egg and other dainty morsels are very appetising, but .it is more than the baby chick can stand if such feeding is in any sense prolonged. The assimilative organs become dogged. As times goes on, the chicks assume an unsteady gait, which is the first indication of cramp. Gradually, exercise becomes impossible, and is limited to a journey between

the heated hover and the feeding trough and back again, till death puts an end to things. Stories such as these are common this year, because we have a large amateur element engaged in the industry who resort to highly artificial methods, and are confused when they do not succeed. During the past few years scientific study has taught us much in connection with poultry matters, but I fear I have no-t the space to discuss it in very great detail. Suffice it to say that chicken-rearing management more or less out of season, or during unseasonable conditions, is covered under four heads —heat, sunshine, exercise and diet. , HEAT AND EXERCISE Heat during the early days of the chick’s life, and particularly during weather we are at present experiencing, is of the utmost importance. The heated broder should not fall below 80 degrees in its hottest part, and that temperature should be maintained, despite full and free ventilation. Every brooder should have a cool chamber, to which the chicks can resort during the first week for food and exercise, and the floor of the cool chamber should be Mother Earth. On no account should food be left standing before the chicks, whether the system of feeding be dry mash or wet mash, but particularly if it is wet mash, because it quickly sours. Nature ordained that chickens, as well as all other stock, should hunt for their sustenance, and this, in a general sense.

involved strenuous exercise. Exercise is necessary to growth, and the proper assimilation and lull employment ot the food consumed. In a state of Nature there is rarely seen digestive derangement, because the diet is. as Nature prescribed, uninjured by artificial preparation. This exercise stimulates the circulation of the blood, and it is through the blood that the tissues are developed. THE CHICK UNDER AMATEUR MANAGEMENT

symptoms which portend the end are not diarrhoea. but an unsteady gait, cramp, ricketts or megrims. If rich foods are kept constantly before chicks they merely take such exercise as will carry them between the heated chamber and the feed trough; they become more and more lazy. and gradually their bodies get too heavy for their legs. Thus they develop out of proportion, and their inactivity makes them just a breeding ground (or disease germs. THE BUSY CHICK Chicks should never be fed until they ask for it. The happy. healthy chick is the busy chick. The busier he is the better use he can make of the food he consumes. He must not be allowed to huddle round the lamp, whether the sun shines or whether it rains or blows. Natural exercise, more or less constant during the daylight hours, promotes natural warmth, which is much more permanent than the artificial heat of the brooder and far less enervating. Try it yourself on a cold (lay! Therefore, the chick that is to maintain the vigour transmitted by its parents, and which is to be in the maximum degree profitable as an adult, must be kept busy and active throughout the whole rearing period, and the secret is a commonsense management regime. ANIMAL FOOD Some kind of meat should be. fed hens that are expected to lay. This covers, however, a Wide range of food. as sings and other insects are “meat” so .far as hens are concerned, and it is when the hens are chasing grasshoppers that the best eggs are often laid. When fed indoors it is important to conduct some plan by which the hon will be made to “work” for her food—food scattered in ole-.111 litter being a good and much-used plan. . It. must not be forgotten, either, that besides actual food, hens must have material to make shells for their eggs. Crushed bone and pounded oyster shells are excellent for this purpose, and even their own eggshells may be fed back to them provided they are carefully crushed first. Sharp gravel. or something that takes its place, is also essential to poultry success, as the gizzards of hens demand some such substance to aid in the digestive function.

Now let us examine the way in which the average amateur manages his chicks. He imagines from the outset that his baby chicks are extremely delicate, and he proceeds to nurse them accordingly. He provides

dainty little dishes of hard-boiled egg, mashes containing excessive quantities of meat, and seeds such as hemp, rich in oil and albuminoids. As this food is prepared in a tasty manner the chicks within a few days of hatching, become loaded with rich element, which their immature physical development cannot contend -with. If, also, the weather is at all inclement, the chicks are closely confined in heated quarters, where it is impossible for to obtain healthy exercise, or even pure air. Then the trouble begins. If the wind blows on to them by accident they contract a chill, which always . attacks the weakest spots, which in the case of ail overfed chick, are the strained digestive organs. Wings droop, diarrhoea sets in. and the short, luxurious existence is quickly terminated. The -vigorous chicks of coarser breeding will bear such treatment better, but the end comes after about a month as a rule. However, in the case of these more sturdy chicks the