316 AN EGG FARM. 



ing the heat of the drum to a nicety, it will overheat 

 one side of a chick sometimes, after it has fallen asleep 

 pressed snugly against it and the heat afterwards 

 increases. Here the superiority of nature appears, as it 

 does again and again, for the heat of the hen's body can 

 never rise unduly. The side heat combined with the 

 three-regulator plan will accomplish all that can be 

 accomplished with a covered hover without constant 

 supervision. 



The two principal methods of warming hovers are 

 by hot water, either in pipes or tanks, and by hot air. 

 The tank and hot-air styles are adapted to single brood- 

 ers, each with its lamp or its gas jet. The pipe method 

 is designed for long rows of brooders placed side by side, 

 the hot water circulating through pipes placed over the 

 birds (Fig. 136), or under them beneath the floor, or both, 

 as may be preferred, the water being heated, of course, 

 by means of a boiler over a furnace for coal or wood 

 located at one end, or the center, of the brooder house, 

 as convenient. This obviates the necessity of filling and 

 trimming numerous lamps when there are many brood- 

 ers, but there is the disadvantage of having to fire up 

 just the same when there are but few chicks on hand as 

 if the brooder house were being run to its full capacity. 

 There is a further feature, which is, that the same heat 

 is applied to all the broods. This may be an advantage 

 under some circumstances and a disadvantage in others. 



Single brooders are subdivided into the outdoor and 

 indoor classes, the latter, of course, having no roof, as 

 the roof of the brooder house in which they stand, 

 answers. The outdoor brooders have a roof of their 

 own, impervious to rain, and sides that may be closed in 

 whole or in part, in case of strong winds or driving rain, 

 or snow. The advantages of the outdoor brooder are 

 that the chicks can, at the age of only a few days, have 

 outdoor exercise, the weather admitting, without the 



