1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



449 



them into the brooder for the nitrht. They are so easi- 

 ly taken care of we hardly know we are raisintr them. 



By the lainpless method I find Ihey feather out more 

 evenly, and their wintr feathers trrow slower and do 

 not hantr down as I have had them do on chicks raised 

 by artificial heat. Many times we have had to clip the 

 winns of chicks to keep them from dyintr. We have 

 no more weak-levr^ed chicks to bother with either. 



I like this fireless broodintr bettei:_tlian any I have 

 yet tried: but it seems the people here are afraid to try 

 it. I should like very much to trive the plans for niak- 

 inir this brooder, but I am afraid I would not be allow- 

 ed to do so. as it is not oritrinal with me. 



The above describes the trouble exactly. 

 A good many of the chickens were getting 

 "pasted up behind," and some of them went 

 around with their wing feathers dragging 

 on the ground. When wet and cold the heat 

 is all right; but they were getting into the 

 habit, as human beings (as well as chickens) 

 sometimes do, of sitting around the fire in- 

 stead of taking the amount of exercise we all 

 need for health. In this Root brooder that I 

 use, the hot-water pipes and boiler can read- 

 ily be lifted out. I took out the heating-ap- 

 paratus and put it away. Then I sewed some 

 cotton battinw on the under side of the wire- 

 cloth frame that covers the top of the brood- 

 er. ■•■ This made a very good hover by raising 

 the floor so the chickens could not pile up 

 one on top of the other. The first night they 

 seemed a little uneasy and put out, because 

 they had no hot pipe to cluster against; but 

 the manifest improvement in health was no- 

 ticeable right away, and I am inclined to 

 agree entirely with the writer of the article 

 I have quoted. I should be glad to give his 

 full address, but I do not find it in Poultry. 



The following, v.-hich I clip from the Poul- 

 try Tribune, tells how to make a bi'ooder that 

 gives all the heat that may be thought neces- 

 sary early in the season, or when the chickens 

 are very young, and that can be very quickly 

 converted into a fireless brooder. 



A "JUG" BROODER. 



When the chicks are ready to be taken out of the in- 

 cubators we put them in brooders of our owntsonstruc- • 

 tion. of which we have a number. These are what is 

 known as the "jutr" brooder. They are made very 

 simple: Fir.st we take a drygoods-bo-x about three feet 

 lonir and about the same width, and about two feet 

 hiyh. with a slanting- roof of about two inches to the 

 foot, covered with prepared ready roofintr, with an 

 inch hole through the top for ventilation, and seven 

 holes just under the roof in the front. About twelve 

 Inches from the bottom we put a deck or a platform, on 

 which we put the chicks— about fifty— for we think that 

 that Is enouijh for one brooder. Now, in the center of 

 the platform we cut a hole lartre enough for a trallon 

 juif to stand In, then we take a piece of eralvanized iron, 

 12x12, with a hole four inches in diameter. This is 

 nailed to the under side of the platform, under the hole. 

 On this rests the jutr. We fill the juy- two-thirds full of 

 hot water placintr in the top a cork with a hole throucli 

 It so as to let out all steam that mitrht accumulate in 

 the juu. In the front of this brooder, above the plat- 

 form, is a irlass, 9 .\ r2, for litrht. At on? of this 

 irlass is a small hole, about 6x4, with a slide door to 

 let the chicks down into the yard, which I will after- 

 ward explain. Under the juir stands a lamp to keep 

 the water In the juy warm. This lamj) is four inches 

 hlirh, from the bottom to the edne of the chimney. The 

 chimney Is five inches hitrh, leavini^ a space of three 

 inches to the juir. 



* After a day's use, the chickens were tearing out the 

 battint; over them so much that I pushed the frame, 

 battini; and all, into a clean, porous, burlap sack, the 

 burlap beini; loose enoutrh to drop down some over 

 their backs, and since then they are doint' finely. The 

 chicks set around with their heads close to the abun- 

 dant ventilators, and altojrether it makes one of the 

 bvst fireless brooders. 



In the back of the brooder, under the platform is a 

 door just lartre enoutrh to slip the lamp through. In 

 this door is a small hole, so that we can see the flame 

 without openintr the door. If we wish to, we can take 

 out the platform (after the chicks are large enough to 

 tret along without the heati and let them in on the bot- 

 tom floor: then they can run out and in through the 

 small door at the back. It is well, also, to put three or 

 four one-inch holes under the platform for ventilation, 

 for the lamp. All the cost of making this jug brooder 

 is the roofing, the box, and a little work, which is very 

 c'.ieap on a rainy day. 



The idea of a brooder kept warm by means 

 of a jug of hot water is of course, very old; 

 but the plan given above, of keeping the wa- 

 ter in the jug hot by means of a lamp, is new 

 to me, and I feel sure it will be very much 

 less trouble than iiaving to fill up tlie jug- 

 whenever the water gets cold. 



SORTING OUT LAYING HENS FROM THOSE THAT 

 DO NOT LAY. 



How much would you give, my poultry 

 friends, for a device that would autortiatical- 

 ly put all the hens in one pen that lay an egg 

 each during the day, and leave all the rest 

 out that do not lay? I have succeeded in do- 

 ing that very thing; in fact, out of iny flock 

 of forty Leghorns, sixteen separated them- 

 selves over into a yard of their own, and 

 showed me sixteen eggs in the nests. In 

 the first place, I divided off my acre of or- 

 chard into two parts. I have explained be- 

 fore that my hens have a great preference 

 for laying upstairs in the two Philo poultry- 

 houses. Well, taking advantage of their 

 strong inclination to lay in the same place 

 they have been laying in right along, I man- 

 aged to make a success of my device the 

 very first trial. The arrangement not only 

 sorts out the hens that lay the eggs, but it 

 secures a better and surer fertilization of the 

 eggs. We have two males for the forty hens. 

 The best one was put into this new yard. 

 The trap (or "bee-escape for chickens"), 

 such as we have been talking about, was put 

 right near where the laying hens go upstairs. 

 At first they looked at this little gate curious- 

 ly; but as fast as the disposition to lay came 

 over them they finally marched through one 

 after another. After the egg was laid, this 

 trap prevented them from going out at the 

 satne place they came in at; so they turned 

 and went into the new yard, where a choice 

 male was waiting for them. 



I do not want to have you understand that 

 I get only sixteen eggs daily from forty hens; 

 for about half a dozen more had nests in the 

 large poultry-house. These I did not get. 

 But, 01 couise, I can easily manage to run 

 these into that new yard in the same way; 

 and I want to tell you it is quite interesting 

 to me when night comes to see which hens 

 are furnishing the eggs. I was particularly 

 pleased to see they were all big solid hens 

 in good flesh. The ones that did not lay were 

 those that had begun to moult. Then there 

 were others that were thin and spare, and 

 not in fine condition. 



I believe I have invented a cheaper gate 

 to let fowls go through one way, but not 

 come back, than has ever been suggested. 

 Of course it will be ail right for any kind t)f 



