[Average weight and temperature rhythms of fasting chickens from hatching to death]

We have compared the weight and the bodily temperature of some chicks during fasting from hatching till death with the values obtained from regularly nourished chicks at the environment temperature of 34 degrees. The medium period of survival during fasting is 7,4 d while the chicks of 7 d generally survive 3,9 d. The reserve of the vitelline sac (17,8%) is not sufficient to cover the basal metabolism of the chick. Its net weight generally diminishes of 33,6%. Nourished chicks lose weight on the 1st d and then regularly grow up. The chicken temperature from the 14th day on is about 41,8 degrees in the morning and increases in the evening. The temperature during fasting is lower than normal temperature of nourished chicks progressively increases and after 3 d is higher in the evening than in the morning, as it is for the grown-up ones. We are trying to found out the factors which determine the modifications of thermic oscillations during fasting, which are not a circadian rhythm.