Gasoline-Heated Brooder-House. 



197 



This type of house also has the decided advantage of being large 

 enough to accommodate the chickens during the entire season of growth, 

 which makes it unnecessary to remove them to summer houses or compel 

 them to roost in trees as they must of necessity do, where reared in the 

 small outdoor brooders. Chickens should not be moved from one 

 brooder to another or handled or mixed up, if it can possibly be avoided. 

 It checks their development. 



The plan here recommended presupposes that the 200 chickens will 

 have the benefit of the grass covered yard after the first week and a large 

 free range thereafter, which is highly essential for the best results. It 

 also assumes that the sexes are to be separated as soon as they are recog- 

 nizable and are old enough so that they do not longer need brooder heat. 

 The exact time when the sexes can be separated and removed from the 

 brooders, depends upon two factors ; the breed and the season. The 

 Mediterranean class feather more quickly and show sex characteristics 

 earlier that the general purpose or larger breeds. The chickens of any 

 breed could not be separated and removed from the brooders at as early 

 an age for the early hatches as they could be for the later hatches when 

 the weather is warmer. The disadvantage of moving and mixing up 

 the cockerels from different 

 brooders is more than offset 

 by their fighting less and by 

 their more rapid growth when 

 separated from the pullets. 

 What is quite as important, it 

 relieves the crowding in the 

 brooder house which would be 

 certain to occur if all of the 

 chickens should be allowed to 

 run together until mature. 



8. Portability. 



The house is placed on 

 runners so that it can be 

 moved by a team or even by 

 hand if placed on rollers. 

 (Plate V, Figs. 64 and 72.) 



A rope completely around the house, attached to the evener of the 

 whift^etrees, holds the house steady while moving by team. It then can 

 be taken to fresh ground easily and frequently if necessary during the 

 season or to a new chicken park each year. This is a valuable feature 

 in any system of brooding because it enables the flocks to get the benefit 

 of free range. In many instances this colony house can be moved to 



Fig. 72. — Laying the paper roofing. 



