Baby Chick Business Cruel
Consider then the torture that this small animal is put through when it is taken out of the warm egg chamber, or nursery, as soon as it is dry enough, packed like a sardine in a box, and then hustled to an express office, placed on a train, and, by the swaying of the train, kept in constant motion.
The sellers of day old chicks in many cases guarantee the arrival of the small “puff ball” alive. Unless the distance is extreme this is not such a difficult feat. They are alive on arrival, and perhaps continue to live in apparently fair strength for some days, but somewhere between the 7th and 10th days the mortality usually runs into such numbers that the purchaser finds the remaining number of youngsters has cost him about a dollar apiece. As the season advances many more of them drop off, one by one, from causes which, to the unsophisticated, are unknown.
A short time ago a gentleman who has been engaged in the Baby Chick business for a number of years was making a call at The Corning Egg Farm, and expressed his regret at having placed an order with a breeder of White Rocks for eggs at too late a date to insure their delivery before the first day of May. The breeder, however, had offered him some day old chicks. Our amusement was considerable when he remarked that he would not accept a day old chick as a gift if he was expected to pay the expressage.
The man who expects to procure strong, healthy youngsters would much better place his money in eggs for hatching, from reliable breeders, than to make himself a party to the suffering of these helpless mites.
If the humane side of the argument does not appeal to him, certainly the money expended will.
Correct records, on cards designed by us for the purpose, are kept on The Corning Egg Farm, showing the results from the incubators. These are filed, giving the Farm a record which, as the years go by, becomes invaluable, when planning for a year’s work in incubation.
INCUBATOR NO.
Set P. M. 191
Eggs
Clear
Dead
——— ———
Hatchable
Chicks
Turn P. M.
14th day
18th day
21st day
HOVER NO.
191
Chicks
on 191
Moved to
Colony House No.
BROODER HOUSE SHOWING CHICK RUNS
Extension of Building Nearing Completion
CHAPTER XIX
Rearing Chicks in Brooder House—The Following Two Years’ Results Depend Upon Success in Brooding
The Brooder House is built over the Sprouted Oats Cellar and the Incubator Cellar. Its total length is 264 feet. 118 feet of this is 16 feet wide, and the balance is 22 feet wide.
Incubation might be termed a mechanical operation, and, as outlined in the previous chapter, a very fair hatch is usually obtained. But after all is said and done artificial rearing of young chicks is the most difficult problem which a poultryman has to solve.
Chicks running with a hen will stand climatic conditions, and in fact thrive under conditions, which, if they were being handled in a Brooder House, would mean a tremendous mortality. The hen will feed her brood on substances which would mean the annihilation of ones’ entire flock of youngsters, should one attempt it, and, perhaps, the most curious feature of the feeding part is the fact that one may give the brood, running with the hen, food Nature never intended a small chick to eat, and many of the brood will thrive on it, and the mortality will, in most cases, be confined to the weak ones.