422 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



lack of a sufficient amount of heat. A high temperature causes many chicks 

 to die. This death may not be sudden, but they will die before the hatch is 

 complete. The stronger the vitality of th« egg the more apt are chicks to 

 hatch and live. Many operators think they have kept the temperature as 

 near perfect as it is possible and yet there are conditions which will upset all 

 calculations. Thermometers are not accurate; the thermostat is out of order, 

 the flame of the lamp is subjected to differences in the atmosphere, and is 

 thus permitted to go wild and the distribution of the heat in the egg chamber 

 becomes irregular. The germs of life will not live if started at too high or 

 too low a temperature. Place two or three thermometers in the same 

 machine and regulate the heat according to the average of the same. Venti- 

 lation is also a cause of much trouble, a lack of which kills lots of chicks. 

 Follow closely the instructions which come with the machine in regard to 

 turning, testing and cooling the eggs. 



BROODER CHICKS. 



In raising brooder chicks, perhaps the first important thing is to have a 

 handy spot to be used as a cemetery. Next a brave spirit; don't get 

 discouraged when you find the chicks dropping off one, two or a half 

 a dozen a day. "Don't get blue." There may be some here who 

 think there is no need of a "cemetery" or ''blues" and that chickens 

 brought up as they should will not die. That is true, but how many raise a 

 flocks of chickens from the incubator to a marketable age? Such cases are 

 so rare that they serve as a glowing account for the newspapers, where the 

 innocent are encouraged to go into the poultry business where will be found 

 plenty of money and an easy occupation. Such glowing accounts also have 

 a tendency to "discourage" the amateur already in. If we have discourage- 

 ments and failures that would paralyze most people, discouraging times, 

 hard work with chickens when everything seems dark, blot them out and 

 start over again, try and win through the rough school of experience. The 

 tuition often comes high. Our watchword should be, ' 'What man has done 

 man can do." There is much in the past that can be used as object lessons 

 and guides for the future. It requires more of an expert to count the chicks 

 (the same number) when ready for market than it does to count them 

 before they are hatched. There are reasons for this decrease in numbers 

 but it does not seem so large until the season is over, then it is too late to 

 mend. By another season the troubles are forgotten and many go through 

 the same experience as before. 



I believe that not one-half of the chickens hatched reach a marketable 

 age. Their death is caused by poor management and a lack of knowledge 

 of the business. Most chickens are given their liberty on the farm where all 

 sorts of dangers are lurking near, such as rainstorms, rats, skunks, hawks, 

 etc., and then it is all laid to bad luck, which has had a good many 

 things laid to it that never belonged there. Each dead chicken represents a 

 fifty-cent piece. If every poultry raiser would keep in mind that every dead 

 chicken represents so much loss, so much less cash returns, he would take 

 more pains to prevent the losses. 



Brooding chicks by artificial means is an art, but with the best of appli- 

 ances it is fully as successful as with hens. People have said what a task it 



