Percentage Size of Chick at Hatching and Its Relationship to Growth and Mortality

ONE of the problems which is of concern to the research worker in the field of nutrition is the loss of chicks during the first few days. Such losses can not be properly charged to the diets being tested, rather they should be assigned to incubator mortality. Nevertheless, such losses do complicate the interpretation of growth data particularly from the standpoint of feed utilization. The losses referred to above are those encountered in chicks from hens on adequate diets, not necessarily depleted in one or more of the required nutrients, for example vitamin B12. It is of interest to determine why these apparently normal chicks die after a few days on test. The answer may be the lack of ability to utilize sufficient of the nutrients in the egg to sustain the chick in its new environment (post hatching) until it can benefit from its diet. The experiment to be …