MANITOBA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND IMMIGATION
WINNIPEG, CANADA.

J. R. CAVERS,
Assistant Professor
in Charge of Poultry Husbandry,
University of Manitoba.

Chicks of good quality, properly reared, are necessary for profitable production of eggs or of market poultry. Hatcheries and private breeders in Manitoba are now in a position to supply day-old chicks from selected and pullorum tested flocks at a relatively low cost. Eggs incubated at home should come from a disease-flock of good quality. The care which chicks receive from the time they are hatched until they mature will determine to a considerable extent their value as egg producers or as table birds.

EARLY HATCHING FOR FALL LAYING

Pullets hatched in March and April should come into production in the early fall and lay through the season when old hens are moulting and egg prices are highest. Good equipment is needed to brood these early chicks. May hatched pullets, if properly grown, will also lay before cold weather and may prove to be steadier winter egg producers than the earlier hatched birds. June hatched pullets have less chance to mature before winter and often do not lay until towards spring.

Dual-purpose breeds such as the Plymouth Rock usually require a little longer growth period than the light breeds such as the Leghorn. Feed is an important factor; but forcing is not recommended since it may result in undersized pullets and small eggs in the fall. The season of best growth of young poultry corresponds to the growing season for crops.

METHODS OF BROODING

Satisfactory equipment saves work and worry, and helps to prevent unnecessary losses. The number of chicks and the date of hatching will determine the system of brooding.

Natural Brooding – Broody hens are suitable for rearing small lots of chicks hatched late in the spring. There are instances where losses through the use of make-shift brooders might have been avoided by having hens brood the chicks. A healthy hen is essential. She should be dusted with sodium fluoride or louse powder before setting, and again in ten days if necessary.

Artificial Brooding – Brooder houses and brooder stoves are almost a necessity for early hatched chicks or for fairly large flocks. There is an advantage in having chicks all of one age, which is made possible through artificial incubation and brooding. Also, the young stock can be reared strictly apart from the old, and this is an important step in preventing infection by intestinal worms and by certain diseases of poultry.

Portable Brooder Houses – A movable colony house is desirable equipment for the average farm. It enables the chicks to get out on clean pasture as soon as the weather permits, and also to have fresh pasture during the season. Running chicks out of the building on the same ground year after year is not usually a sound practice.

A portable granary may be used to good advantage if it can be made sufficiently draft proof. For early spring brooding double floors and walls may be found necessary. Floor drafts are particularly harmful to young chicks. Banking the building with straw and dirt will help to prevent drafts.

The brooder pen must be large enough to allow the chicks to get away from the heat of the stove when they wish. A 10 ft. by 12 ft. pen is about the smallest size suitable for a coal or oil brooder. It will accommodate 250 chicks until they are a month old, allowing one half square foot per chick. After the first month they will be overcrowded unless they are running out doors.

A Portable Brooder House on a Manitoba Farm.

Permanent brooder House - Commercial poultry farmers usually prefer a stationary brooder house. Large, well-insulated pens are used to brood early hatched chicks which might have to be kept indoors until six or eight weeks of age.

The main trouble with this system is to keep the land around the brooder house clean. A good plan is to use it only for temporary pasture for the first of the season. Then move the chicks to portable shelters on fresh range, and summer-fallow the land around the brooder house to clean it up for the following season.

Brooder Stoves – A good brooder stove should supply plenty of heat to the floor beneath the hover or canopy, without overheating the rest of the brooder pen.

Coal burning brooders are desirable for early spring brooding, especially if the pen is not too well insulated. Stoves which hold a good supply of coal, 50 pounds or more, are easier to operate and use little if any more then the smaller stoves. Hard nut coal should be uses if a steady fire is found difficult to maintain. A coal stove with a 52 inch canopy is suitable for 200 to 300 chicks.

Oil burning brooders require a well constructed building for early spring use. The newer types of oil brooders are becoming popular because the heat is easier to control then with coal brooders in the late spring months.

Electric floor brooders are now available. Their use in Manitoba is limited to late spring brooding, except in buildings heated by some means in addition to the brooder.

PREPARING FOR THE CHICKS

It is well to have everything set up in the working order before the chicks arrive. A great deal depends upon the care received during the first two weeks.

Cleaning the Brooder House – A good plan is to scrub out the house with soup and water in the fall and let it stand idle all winter. If the hens are wintered in the building it will require disinfection.

To clean the floor use a strong lye solution, a half pound of lye in two gallons of water. Then spray the interior of the pen with a good disinfectant, using a cupful of ordinary disinfectant in two gallons of water. Heating the pen may reveal the presence of mites. In that event, repeat the disinfection using one cup of disinfectant in one gallon of water.

Arranging the Brooder Pen – Have the brooder in operation two days to dry the pen and test the regulators. A Coal stove may be set on a base of bricks laid flat, surrounding with a frame made of 1 x 4 inch lumber about thirty inches square. The space between the frame and the bricks is filled with sand or gravel to guard against fire. The stove should be placed approximately in the center of the pen. The corners of the pen must be rounded off with wire netting in order to prevent crowding. This is kept in place for several weeks until all the chicks have learned to roost.

For the first week or two a piece of 1 in. mesh wire, 12 in. high, is needed to keep the chicks from straying too far from the brooder. Twelve yards of wire will serve the purpose. It should form a circle around the stove about two feet from the edge of the canopy at first, and should be enlarged each day until no longer needed. Then it should be rolled up carefully and kept for the next season.

Litter – Care must be taken to prevent the chicks from eating the indigestible litter before they learn to eat their food. One method is to use several layers of newspaper on the floor, to the edge of the sand box fire guard. By removing a layer twice each day, the paper is kept fairly clean. After 4 or 5 days, other litter may be used.

Straw or chaff is commonly used, but bearded material must be avoided. Shavings, dry peat moss, cut alfalfa or clover hay, are also used. Mouldy litter is often the cause the cause of brooder pneumonia due to the mould spores growing in the lungs of the chicks. Change to a new source of litter immediately if the chicks start to grasp for breath, an indication of brooder pneumonia.

Wet litter may lead to an outbreak of coccidiosis. To keep the litter dry fork it over every day, and exchange the material near the stove for that at the sides of the pen. Keep a clean bedding of dry litter in the pen throughout the season.

Temperature – The chicks are the best guide as to the proper temperature. They should settle down just outside the canopy of an oil or coal brooder. A temperature of 95 degrees, two inches from the floor, at the edge of the canopy, is about right the first week. Reduce the temperature about 5 degrees each week. A little more heat is need in cold windy weather.

Chilling and overheating are common causes of bowel trouble. The chicks should never have to crowd close to the stove to get warm. Nor should they be driven out to the edge of the pen to avoid excessive heat. They like to feed and play in a fairly cool place, and then run to the stove to get warm.

Humidity – Extra moisture often is required the first two weeks. This is supplied by placing a pot of water on the stove. After about three weeks, the problem is to keep the pen dry enough because of the moisture supplied by the chicks.

Roosts – Early roosting should be encouraged by placing low roosts in the pen when the chicks are about weeks old. These serve for practice in the daytime, and help a great deal later on in getting chicks to go roost at night.

Feeders and Fountains – These should be filled and ready when the chicks are brought to the brooder house. Allow the chicks to eat as soon as they wish. Chicks may be fed on thin boards or low-edged flat pans for a few days. Then provide a trough two feet long for every fifty chicks. A good trough prevents wastes and soon pays for itself.

Water fountains are inexpensive and are far more satisfactory than any makeshift arrangement. Have the water slightly warm for young chicks.

Make sure that the chicks never lack for feed or drink.

FEEDING THE CHICKS

Chicks confined in a brooder pen have very exacting feed requirements. The feed must contain all the essential food elements in order to promote normal growth and to prevent leg weakness, deformed legs, and other nutritional disorders. In place of the tender grass, bugs, gravel and direct sunshine which nature supplies, the ration must contain feeds rich in protein, minerals, and vitamins. Even when chicks run outside they need good feed to make steady growth. Also, the feed must be in a form suitable for the young chicks.

Stating Ration – the feeding of chick starter mash, a dry mash specially prepared for the chicks, is the simplest satisfactory method. Troughs are kept filled with the chick mash right from the beginning. Chicks will not overeat on this feed, and at the same time underfeeding is avoided. After five or six weeks a less concentrated and cheaper growing mash is gradually substituted in addition for the chick starter.

Scratch feed may be given in addition to the chick mash, starting at about three weeks of age. This may consist of cracked wheat or recleaned screenings, and should be feed sparingly at first. The chicks soon are ready for whole wheat. If growth is too rapid give more scratch feed. If growth is too slow, give milk to drink along with the mash and grain.

A chick eats about two pounds of feed right during the first six weeks. The simplest way for a farmer to assure his chicks a good start in, life is to provide 200 pounds of good commercial chick starter for each 100 chicks.

Anyone who wishes to mix his own feed right from the beginning, may obtain a copy of the bulletin, entitled, "Manitoba Rations for Animals and Poultry" from the Publications Branch, Manitoba Department of Agriculture, Winnipeg.

Growing Rations – A simple growing ration for chicks after six weeks of age, can be made up chiefly from farm produced feeds. This ration is intended for chicks running on good tender green pastures.

To promote growth of late hatched pullets or market poultry, give milk to drink as well as water. Milk may be used to replace meat meal or fish meal in the grower mash, in which case the chicks will eat more of the bone meal. Reduce or omit milk and animal foods, if the pullets are maturing to rapidly. If pasture id dried up or lacking, add 20 pounds of alfalfa meal and 2 pounds of cod liver oil to the above growing mash.

Amount of Feed Required – The dominion Experimental Farm, Ottawa, has furnished information on the consumption of the grain and mash by growing chicks, summarized below.

When chicks have access to stubble fields and grain stacks, a considerable saving of feed may be made. Under these circumstances, the feeding of whole grain might not be necessary; but growing mash should be fed throughout the season.

MANAGEMENT OF CHICKS ON RANGE

Pasture – As soon as weather permits the chicks should be let outside on fresh pasture. For the first few days limit the time outside to an hour or two, other wise the chicks may eat an excess of green feed causing impaction of the crop and gizzard. A small yard should be fenced to prevent straying.

Chicks like young oats and tender young grass better than most other kinds of pasture. A thickly sown crop of oats will serve to start the chicks. For March hatched chicks, a small patch of rye sown the previous fall, will provide very early pasture. The grasses and cereal crops soon become coarse and tough. Then the chicks should be moved to suitable summer pasture on open range.

An alfalfa or grass range kept short by cutting or grazing provided good summer pasture. A tall rank crop tends to habour slugs and insects which may carry tapeworm eggs to infect chicks.

Fall rye sown very thickly in the spring, stays short during the summer and makes fairly good pasture. Thickly sown millet may be used. About an acre of such crops is needed for 200 growing chickens.

Separate the Pullets and Cockerels – This should always be done as early as possible in order to give the pullets a good chance to grow. The most logical time to divide the flock is when the chicks no longer need the brooder stove, at 6 to 8 weeks.

GENERAL HINTS

Keep the flock well fed throughout the summer, and make certain that no shortage of drinking water occurs at any time.

A cornfield provides good shade on land that is well cultivated. If chicks run in densely shaded scrub growth year after year, the soil may become badly contaminated.

See that there is plenty of roosting space, and use rounded or flat roosts.

Provide plenty of air so that the birds are comfortable on the roosts at night. If they are shut in at night, be sure to let them out first thing in the morning.

Keep on the lookout for mites and use old crank case oil to paint the roosts and walls when needed.

Cockerels market should grow rapidly, but don’t over-stimulate the growth of pullets.

Move the pullets into laying before stormy fall weather sets in. Give the laying house a through cleaning. To offset the lack of open range conditions give the pullets plenty of air, green fed and exercise, in their new quarters.

If you find some of the suggestions given in this bulletin are hard to carry out, do your best to grow good chickens with the facilities at hand.

COMMON AILMENTS OF CHICKS

Bowel trouble – Chilling and overheating are common causes of bowel trouble in young chicks. Diarrhea may appear, followed by pasting of the vent. To prevent further trouble a gentle laxative is needed, such as a cupful of molasses in each gallon of drinking water. Give this for several days. Use Potassium Permanganate in the drinking water to make it pale wine colour, as a mild disinfectant.

Toe Picking and Feather Picking – These become vicious habits unless promptly stopped. Give potatoes and starch feed to pick at, and for chicks two months of age or more, give whole oats. Let chicks outside on good pasture. Avoid excess heat and overcrowding.

Leg Weakness – This may be due to a lack of Vitamin D. Give chicks bran moistened with a good grade of cod liver oil and feed on top of the dry mash for several days. Provide cod liver oil in a graniteware cup tacked on the wall beneath a window, and let the chicks drink as they wish.

"Curled toe" paralysis resembles leg weakness somewhat in effect. It occurs in rapidly growing chicks, often at three to four weeks of age. Give milk to drink, and scratch grain in addition to the dry mash.

Infectious Bronchitis or Coryza of Chicks – Symptoms of this disease resemble brooder pneumonia, as the chicks gasp for breath. The death rate varies with the care given the flock. Raise the brooder temperature slightly and keep the chicks eating by the use of chick mash moistened with milk or hard boiled eggs chopped fine (boil eggs 20 minutes for chick feeding). Give extra cod liver oil, and, add molasses to the drinking water. Spray the chicks several times a day with a solution of one tablespoon Oil of Eucalyptus in a small cup of soapy water.

Give similar care and treatment to chicks suffering from common cold, due to overcrowding, "sweating", and chilling.

Coccidiosis – The bloody or cecal type of Coccidiossis occurs frequently during the second month. Wet ltter and dirty wet ground help the disease to develop. Chicks get very weak, pass blood with the dropping, and often are stunted if they survive the outbreak. Keep the litter absolutely and watch that the chicks do not crowd on the floor at night. Give one-third teaspoonful of powdered catechu to each gallon of drinking water for several days, and use molasses at the same time. Destroy pale and weak chicks.

Range Paralysis – This is fairly common in chickens after four months and up to one year of age. Frequently one leg is stiffened and carried straight ahead or behind, or one wing may droop. There is no treatment known for this disease. Usually only a few birds are affected and these should be destroyed and burned.

THE UNIVERSITY AIDS THE FARMER

Each autumn, usually in October, a short coarse in Poultry Husbandry is given in the faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. Write for full particulars.