Seven Methods of Feeding Young Chickens. 



539 



Before the chicks were put into the brooder-house it was cleaned and 

 disinfected. As the slides which covered the little exits were closed, 

 these passages were overlooked in the general cleaning, and the omis- 

 sion was not noticed until the chicks had run back and forth for 

 several hours. This fact is of significance because unhealthy chicks had 

 previously been kept in the house. 



Each flock was given a yard 7 feet by 41 feet, making a range of 

 287 sq. ft. These yards had been tilled since formerly occupied, and 

 sown to clover and timothy, the grass being at least five inches tall 

 when the chicks were first allowed to go into the yards. 



Fig. 166. — Interior view of the brooder-house in which the chicks were reared 



The floor of the pens was covered with a light litter of cut straw- 

 The heater pipes were wrapped with burlap in order to temper the 

 supplied heat, and a cloth shelter was stretched over the yards in front 

 of the house to give the chicks shade from the sun's rays in the warm 

 weather. Fig. 167. 



The chicks were placed in a hover temperature of about 90 degrees 

 F., and were confined near the hovers for the first day, or until they 

 had learned to return to the source of heat. Then they were allowed 

 the freedom of the pens. The third day the exits were opened, 



