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THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



ECLIPSE ARTIFICIAL MOTHER. 



Bearing Chickens Artificially. In order to rear chickens without hens success 

 fully, and with profit, several conditions are essential. There should be provided a suitable 

 warm house, with a southern exposure, and some kind of a warm house or brooder always 

 available. In severe weather it will be necessary to keep the chickens confined within doors, 

 but in favorable weather they should be permitted to run in an out-door pen. Nothino- 

 induces disease sooner, or makes chickens more puny and weak, than constant confinement 

 in a warm house. They should be permitted to run out when the weather will admit, but 

 should always have an artificial mother to nestle under when they wish. This may be made 

 in various ways. 

 A very good one 

 may be made by 

 tacking a piece of 

 sheep skin, dress 

 ed with the long 

 wool on, upon a 

 barrel, the board 

 to slope from four 

 inches above the 

 ground to two 

 inches, so as to 

 admit of different 

 sized chickens to 



brood under. The sheep skin should be tacked only around the edges of the barrel, so as to 

 fall a little loose and rest with its weight upon the chickens. A few small gimlet holes 

 should be bored in the cover, and the skin perforated in places to admit of ventilation. This 

 cover is boarded on three sides, the front being left open, except being finished with a flannel 

 curtain, reaching the ground, which keeps out the cold air, and under which the chicks may 

 run with the greatest ease. 



The Centennial Brooder is adapted to both winter and summer use, and can be used in 



the open air or under cover. It is 

 well ventilated, keeps the chicks dry 

 in the severest storms, and is a per 

 fect protection against rats or other 

 vermin. 



A poultry breeder in Wisconsin 

 gives his method of making an 

 artificial mother, as follows: &quot;The 

 mother I use is made of a piece of coffee sack, tacked tightly over a frame, on the opposite side 

 of which is tacked a piece of coarse wire netting. The sacking is then &quot;drawn &quot; with pieces 

 of soft woolen or flannel cloth torn in strips, the ends being clipped off evenly at the bottom 

 and allowed to hang down about three inches. There should be a little platform about 1 

 inches high, made a little larger than the &quot;mother,&quot; and covered with road dust, on which 

 the chicks nestle to raise them up sufficiently for the carbonic acid gas (which is heavier than 

 air and settles to the bottom of the brooder) to drain off as it were. Next I have the tin 

 smith make a zinc pan just the size of the &quot; mother&quot; frame, and 2 inches deep. Then four 

 heated bricks placed on the wire netting, and closely covered with the zinc pan, furnish sufficient 

 and safe heat. At night the birds will retain their warmth until the apparatus is thoroughly 

 heated, and then the natural heat of their little bodies is amply sufficient until morning. 



CENTENNIAL BROODER. 



