306 AN EGG FARM. 



death. Now suppose, instead of one or two of this sort 

 of fluctuations in ten days there were half a dozen of 

 them or so in twenty-four hours. Suppose twenty or 

 thirty chicks are suddenly put into the egg chamber and 

 after awhile as suddenly withdrawn, and this process 

 should be repeated over and over again. What can your 

 regulator do now ? It certainly cannot prevent extremes 

 of heat and cold from being reached. The operator 

 would have to attend to turning the wick up or down, 

 over and over again. 



Now apply this reasoning to the brooder. The regu- 

 lator is set, we will say, for 98 and reaches and holds 

 that temperature all right while the hover is empty, 

 waiting for chicks. It is at dusk, and a half dozen 

 come in. As soon as they settle down without exercise, 

 their blood of course slackens in its speed and 98 does 

 not feel warm enough, nature having regulated the hen's 

 nest at 103. Therefore, they huddle together if there 

 is top and bottom heat, or stretch upward to try to 

 reach the source of warmth if there is top heat only ; and 

 a current of cool air coming in near the floor under the 

 curtain, they strive to get up in the world by trampling 

 on their fellows, as people do, while if there is side heat 

 they crowd toward the hot water tank or hot air drum. 

 They are not very cold, but are just cool enough to be 

 uncomfortable and they will keep in continual motion, 

 scolding meanwhile, saying: "Keep still, won't you, 

 and let a fellow go to sleep." As outsiders come in, one 

 after another, lifting the curtain and letting in gusts of 

 cold air, the temperature falls, we will say, to 95, caus- 

 ing the regulator to turn on the heat full blast, and by 

 the time the whole brood gets massed together, squeezing 

 weak chicks in the center to death, 98 is again reached 

 at the point where the thermostat is, for the curtain has 

 ceased to admit cold air. Now the regulator shuts off a 

 part of the heat, yet the chicks are still too cool and 



