THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



no trouble, and need no further consideration 

 in this chapter. If it is intended to fatten them 

 for market, it is of considerable importance to 

 rear them to a considerable extent upon the 

 Sussex form of ground oats, which they will 

 then receive ; if they are not so reared, it is 

 found that when the time for fattening arrives 

 they do not improve to the same extent. 



Chickens may have to be artificially reared 

 even if hatched under a hen : but for the 

 immense number now hatched in incubators, 

 so greatly increased owing to the popularity 

 of non-sitting breeds, artificial brood- 

 s'^'din^ ing is obviously indispensable. The 

 growth of artificial rearing during 

 recent years has been remarkable, and is 

 shown by the number of appliances now ex- 

 hibited at every large poultry show. The 

 choice of method will be greatly governed by 

 circumstances. The rearer of sitting breeds 

 will need to keep his best hens sitting, and 

 with chickens to some extent, or their vigour 

 may suffer; and, on the whole, the natural 

 method will generally best suit operations in 

 a small way, if sitters are at command. With 

 non-sitters it is different ; and, moreover, the 

 large breeder will prefer methods which 

 enable him to carry out his plans at fixed 

 times, independent of the caprice of his hens. 

 He will also appreciate the fact that incubator- 

 hatched and artificially-reared chicks have a 

 great advantage over others, in starting free 

 from vermin. 



For sudden emergencies, at ordinary seasons, 

 such as April and May, a quite cool or un- 

 healed brooder will often suffice, and can be 

 quickly extemporised in several ways. We 

 reared a brood of eight, whose mother had died, 

 on one occasion, by tacking a piece of sheep- 

 skin mat, about 14x10 inches, all round the 

 edges alone, to a piece of board, supported on 

 a strip of board at the back and two pegs at 

 the front corners. When placed in position 

 the wool mat sagged down in the middle, 

 and the chicks nestled against it, the pegs keep- 

 ing the front higher than the back. One of 

 the chickens, however, hanged itself in the wool, 

 and it would be better to cut the skin into pieces 

 an inch square, and sew them on a canvas at 

 inch intervals, which would allow free passage. 

 If such a coverlid were tacked to a skeleton 

 frame instead of a board, a rubber hot-water 

 cushion, well wrapped in flannel, could be 

 laid on it at night when required ; or the cold 

 brooder, on a shallow tray of peat-moss, could 

 be brought into the house in severe weather. 

 At one time and another we have known many 



chicks reared with such simple appliances as 

 these, but they are, of course, only sufficient 

 for fairly late broods. There is far less need 

 for them now, when a post-office order will 

 bring a proper apparatus at any time by 

 return of post, than in the days when we 

 e.xperimented with such matters. 



The first efficient heated brooder sold in 

 England was brought out in 1S73 by Mrs. 

 Frank Cheshire, a successful exhibitor of light 

 Brahmas, who reared all her own stock in this 



way and by preference, though with 

 Brooders ^° many sitters at her command. 



Its construction will be sufficiently 

 explained by Fig. 56. The top was a zinc tank 



Fig. 56. — Mrs. Cheshire's Coverlet Brooder. 



A B, about an inch deep, closed except for 

 a filling and vent aperture, and supported on 

 a light frame, so as to be on a slant. The 

 lower edge of the tank descended round a flue 

 E, encased by the water, and heated at one 

 end by a small lamp, and in the upper portion 

 one or two partitions ©r baffles were soldered 

 in such a way as to keep up a circulation in 

 the heated water. Under this heated tank 

 was slid a separate light frame of wood made 

 to fit, roofed with canvas, to which were sewn 

 the top ends of strips of flannel K, about 2% 

 inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide. 

 These, warmed from the top, formed the brooder, 

 set as usual upon dry earth. The chicks were 

 kept for the first day or two in a small nursery, 

 consisting of an open-topped box floored with 

 earth or ashes, at one end of which was placed 

 a much smaller hover or brooder made of 

 flannel strips in the same way, and warmed 

 by a rubber cushion-bottle of hot water. Here 

 they learned to run in and out, before being 

 transferred to the larger brooder. 



Several breeders used this apparatus, and 

 we reared all our own chickens by it one season, 

 with quite good results. But the second year, 

 when most of the work had to be left to others, 

 many died and the rest did not thrive ; and 

 others had very similar experience. Much of 

 the failure was traced to want of sufficient and 

 constant care in deodorising the apparatus: 

 it required to be daily turned upside down, 

 clean, dry earth well shaken into the flannel 



