312 Bulletin 2^^. 



the hover, provides the chickens with a large area where they may 

 find the different degrees of heat best suited to their needs without 

 going into the colder air of the house proper. This hover is made with 

 table oil-cloth curtains on all sides so as to provide the largest possible 

 amount of curtain area open to the air of the house at all points. A 

 chicken may be trusted to regulate its own temperature if given an 

 opportunity to go to or to get away from the heat. 



1 3 . Provision for economy of labor 



It requires nearly four times as much labor to feed, handle and heat 

 four flocks of 50 chickens each in small brooders as it does one flock 

 of 200 in a large colony brooder-house. The time and labor saved 

 in heating one gasoline-heated colony house containing 200 chickens 

 as compared with heating four brooders containing 50 chickens each, 

 is even greater than the labor saved in feeding and handling the flock 

 by the two systems. With the gasoline system there are no wicks to 

 trim because the heat is furnished by a combustion of gasoline vapor, 

 which burns with a blue flame and should form no coot. The burner 

 requires practically no attention for days and even weeks at a time. 

 The quiet, humming sound of a properly working burner indicates that 

 " all is well " without the necessity of even stooping down to look at 

 the flame. When more or less heat is desired the size of the flame can 

 be easily adjusted. During very warm weather, when the gasoline 

 flame must be turned entirely out, more time is required to relight it 

 than to relight a kerosene burner. This is due to the necessity of wait- 

 ing until the burner becomes hot enough to change gasoline into a vapor 

 before the gasoline can be turned on and left burning. 



14. Economy of construction 



The gasoline-heated colony brooder-house fitted with heater, piping, 

 and all attachments complete including labor, ready for rearing chickens, 

 costs in Ithaca, N. Y., $36.60 for 200 chickens, a cost of 18.3 cents per 

 chicken. The average price for outdoor brooders having a capacity of 

 50 chickens each is $12, an average first cost of 24 cents per chicken. 

 The larger a brooder or a colony house, the less will be the first cost of 

 construction per square foot of floor space or cubic foot of air space, 

 other things being equal. The large, continuous, pipe-heated brooder- 

 house, therefore, has the advantage over the colony house system so 

 far as actual cost of construction per square foot of floor space and 

 cubic foot air space per chicken is concerned. 



