THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



we will only give one special piece of advice, 

 and that is to choose one which has a thoroughly 

 reliable lamp, and adequate ventilation. A 

 poor lamp means endless trouble and disaster. 

 The Stemp wicks are now generally used in all 

 brooders, and entirely obviate the need for 

 trimming throughout the brooder-life of a lot 

 of chicks. This little practical advance in 

 lamps has saved at one stroke, as in incu- 

 bators, a great deal of trouble and vexation. 



As regards feeding and general management, 

 brooder chicks will not require any marked 

 difference in treatment, at least as a rule, or while 



all goes well. The first thing to 

 Temperature attend to is the heat, and it has to 

 Brooder. tie borne in mind that while a hen 



cannot be either too warm or too 

 cold for her charges, the brooder may easily be 

 either. The greatest care should especially be 

 taken that there is no cliill to the chicks in 

 removing them from the incubator or nursery to 

 the brooder, which must be heated up all ready 

 for them. We have seen repeatedly, that even a 

 slight chill just then may give no end of trouble 

 in all sorts of ways, but is especially apt to cause 

 diarrhoea, which when thus started early, weakens 

 them terribly and may never be recovered from. 

 More heat is desirable in any of the modern con- 

 structions with free air-space, than was possible 

 under nestling material. The novice should at 

 first use a spare thermometer, and by this the 

 heat at first, in winter or spring, when the 

 chickens are in, should be about 90"^. But after 

 about two days this should be reduced to 85°, 

 and by a week later to about 80°. For later 

 broods, if at all warm, less will do, but in cool 

 weather they like warmth. After the first start 

 their behaviour should be watched, and if they 

 crowd up to the heat, all together, a little more 

 will be advisable ; if, on the other hand, they 

 prefer to be at the entrance, or far off the heat, 

 reduce it a little. The thing is, not to run up 

 the heat to a sweating pitch when only a little 

 more seems required, as is very easily done. 

 When experience has been gained, the thermo- 

 meter will not be needed, and the feeling by 

 hand, and observation, will be sufficient guide. 

 The chicks ought, in early broods, to be glad 

 to go in at proper intervals, but soon come out 

 again ; and to lie about comfortably, without 

 either panting, or over-much crowding together. 

 Two or three very weakly chicks will sometimes 

 start a habit of crowding, which then works much 

 mischief : for this reason it is better to kill at 

 once any weakly chick that shovv's any such dis- 

 position, for the sake of the others. The first 

 day, the young chicks should be confined almost 

 to the brooder proper, a little wire screen, or 



pieces of board, being arranged so as to give them 

 a run of a few inches only from the entrance. 

 Once or twice they may even need guiding a 

 little through it. The second day a little more 

 scope may be allowed. Generally, after that they 

 will know their way, but brooders diff'er in the 

 facility with which the entrances are found and 

 entered at first. 



The chief chicken complaints will be the 

 same as already mentioned, with the exception 

 of insect vermin, from which the chicks ought to 

 be quite free. The others are very apt to become 

 emphasised when chicks are reared by this 

 method, under any error in respect of tempera- 

 ture. A chill will almost always set up 



diarrhoea ; and, on the other hand. 

 Feeding ^qq much heat will do the same, 



Management, while it also increases the tendency 



to " cramp," the general causes and 

 prevention of which have already been treated. 

 It may also, and often does, cause pneumonia 

 from subsequent e.xposure. Particular care 

 should be taken that brooder-chicks are fed, 

 during the warm stage of their career, some- 

 what on the side of a spare diet. They will 

 be none the worse in the end, and we can state 

 positively that this simple course will often save 

 an infinite amount of trouble. A small pan of 

 granulated charcoal is also a valuable preventive 

 of bowel complaints ; and with brooder-chicks, 

 a little chicken-grit mi.xed in one feed a day is 

 decidedly advisable. 



There is not only less tendency to diarrhoea, 

 but a great many breeders find that they succeed 

 better altogether with their chickens if the latter 



are brought up entirely upon dry 

 Feeding /('('<-/ for the first three or four weeks, 



and even longer. Many poultry- 

 farmers in America rear their chickens altogether 

 in this way, and prefer it, but such a thorough 

 system is no doubt better adapted for the lighter- 

 built laying breeds than for the heavier class of 

 fowls. The " dry feed " mi.xtures which are 

 being more and more advertised and sold every 

 day answer very well ; but on a large scale 

 it is cheaper to prepare the feed at home. The 

 first day or two the chicks do very well on coarse 

 oatmeal or cracked groats and millet, with a 

 little granulated biscuit-meal ; then a mi.xture of 

 whole groats or hulled oats with millet and 

 canary-seed and cracked dari may be used. 

 Very soon cracked wheat and maize and dari 

 can be given, and the more expensive seeds 

 withdrawn ; but a little sunflower is always 

 valuable. American breeders often keep one 

 hopper always full of cracked maize and 

 wheat, and another of " beef scrap " or granu- 

 lated dried meat of some kind, and they 



