326 AN EGG FARM. 



gen and loaded with carbonic acid gas, will never be 

 inhaled. The best brooder top in the world, no matter 

 how well it is furnished with ventilating valves or shut- 

 ters, and no matter whether these are operated by auto- 

 matic regulators, or by personal supervision day and 

 night, can never admit of such a constant supply of pure 

 air as no top at all. When it is too warm and the valves 

 are opened, there will be relief from the impure air of 

 course. But suppose it is too cool. Why, the chicks 

 will be in the same fix as a person is, who, on going to 

 bed of a cold winter night in an un warmed apartment, 

 puts his head under the bedclothes to get warm, in 

 which case carbonic acid gas accumulates rapidly. Or 

 suppose it is neither too cold nor too warm under the 

 hover but just at the correct notch. Why, the tem- 

 perature is all right and the ventilation all wrong. The 

 fact is, no matter how much of a stickler one is for imitat- 

 ing nature, he cannot imitate the hen's style of a hover 

 top closely enough to make the imitating business work 

 in this instance ; and the best imitation of the hen's 

 hover-top conditions is produced by no brooder top at all. 

 It being very desirable to have chickens run and flap 

 their wings as well as scratch, the size of the room per- 

 mits this, and a feed shelf or other form of feed dropper, 

 as described in another part of this book, can be very 

 easily fitted up at each of the opposite sides or ends of 

 the main littered area. The trouble with the ordinary 

 little indoor pens attached to single brooders is, that they 

 are only 6 ft.xS ft., or 10 ft.xl2 ft., or such a matter, 

 and a bird cannot get under full headway in such space, 

 any more than a locomotive can run a mile a minute in 

 a switchyard. A large room gives opportunity for run- 

 ning, flying, leaping and scratching, irrespective of the 

 weather. Each room is supposed to communicate with 

 a large yard outdoors, which should also have a feed 

 dropper at each end. There is a special advantage in 



