A Balanced Food
On The Corning Egg Farm the question of chick food that could properly be called “chick food” has been a study for years, the problem being to procure a balanced ration containing, as closely as possible, the ingredients intended by Nature for a young chick to eat and thrive on. Many experiments were made with different mixtures, both with chicks running with natural mothers and with those being reared in the Brooder House, and it was found that in all cases where corn was fed in the mixture the results were bad. The youngsters running with the hen did not show the large mortality which those did in the Brooder House, but even the broods running with the hen did not do nearly so well where the corn was fed, as did those not having this ingredient in their food.
The great mortality in young chicks is produced by the upsetting of their digestive organs. Corn is very heating, and as soon as the chick’s blood is over-heated its digestive organs fail to work properly, and what is now known as “White Diarrhœa” almost invariably develops. It is claimed by some authorities that this difficulty comes from a germ which is in the egg before incubation. This may be the case, but it is certainly true that wrong feeding will bring this germ into active life, and snuff out the existence of the chick.
Another phase, which has been a special study on The Corning Egg Farm in the brooding of chicks, is an abundant supply of fresh air, not only in the room itself, but also to have the oxygen fed to the chicks properly when they are under the hovers. The use of gas for heating the hovers was found a decided improvement over the lamp, so far as the freshness of the air went, but, for procuring the purest hot air, to flow up into the hovers, we are now installing a system of hot water pipes.
OLD ARRANGEMENT OF BROODER HOUSE
New House not Completed in Time for Photographing
In a dwelling house, properly constructed, the entire heating apparatus is a hot air furnace, with a cold air box connected with outdoors constantly bringing in a fresh supply of pure air to be heated. If it were possible this would be the ideal way of supplying the heat to the hover, but of course in a long Brooder House it is impossible to do this. The nearest approach to this system of heating is a trunk line of hot water pipes, extending beneath the hover floor, with the pipes enclosed in a long box, standing some two inches from the floor, and with orifices of proper size to allow the fresh air to circulate around the pipes, and then, through the radiating devices, to flow out underneath the hover, and thus to be diffused over the backs of the chicks. On The Corning Egg Farm this box is constructed of galvanized iron, and covered on the top and sides with asbestos board, with an air space between the asbestos board and the hover floor. Through this floor comes a thimble which connects with the radiator above. The top of this radiator is a spiral screw, which works like a piano stool reversed, and with a tripod device which carries the thread but allows the hover itself to be removed without changing its position on the screw. As the chicks grow the hover can be slowly raised away from them, until it is finally removed entirely, and the chicks learn to do without it for a considerable time before they are moved to the Colony Range. The thimble is most thoroughly insulated with asbestos, so that there is no possibility of the much dreaded heat on the hover floor, which, when it does exist, tends to dry up the chicks’ legs.
From the hover floor there is an inclined runway down to the main floor of the Brooder House, which is covered with a fine litter, preferably short cut wheat straw, to a depth of about two inches.
The inclined runway is hinged to the hover floor and works with a cord passing through a pulley on the ceiling, enabling the operator to raise it and retain the chicks directly around the hover. The trough surrounding the trunk line of hot water pipes is closed by a partition corresponding to the width of the hover run, which prevents the heat from flowing by the radiator in each section, and in this way equalizing the heat in every hover.