BROODERS. 305 



experienced, practical operators to the proposition that 

 it is much easier to hatch healthy chicks in an incubator 

 than to keep them healthy afterwards in a brooder. As 

 regards the beginner, often he has earnestly studied the 

 construction and use of the hatcher, while taking it for 

 granted that it was perfectly easy to run the brooder. 

 Later he sends a communication for the question box 

 of his poultry paper, asking why his chicks died off. 

 If chicks become either seriously chilled or decid- 

 edly overheated at night, it always means injury and 

 often means death in spite of all the benefit good 

 food, pure air and exercise can give, though these will 

 enable them to withstand more calamity in the shape of 

 improper temperature than they otherwise could. Yet, 

 notwithstanding the importance of proper heat, in the 

 majority of cases the manufacturers have not provided 

 a regulator for the brooder, and their customers have 

 not insisted on having one. Every brooder regula- 

 tor is limited in the exercise of its functions by 

 the chicks interfering with its operation, but it is 

 better than none at all, and two are better yet, as will 

 be shown. 



The matter will be the better understood by reference 

 to the working of an incubator, the regulator of which 

 is set, say, for 102 1-2. After the first chill consequent 

 on putting in the eggs has been overcome, the tempera- 

 ture runs passably even till the day when it begins to 

 rise and finally gets too high, though the regulator 

 has slowed the flame down to the minimum. Why ? 

 Because the incipient chicks are giving off animal heat. 

 What does the operator do ? He turns down the flame 

 still more. Now supposing he has a good hatch, and 

 when the chicks get dry, and old enough, he removes 

 three-fourths of the number without changing the lamp 

 at all, what will happen ? The heat will go down rap- 

 idly, and the remaining chicks will be chilled half to 

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