182 



MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



Brooder Chicks I shall have to 

 come to you for help about my little 

 chickens, as I know that you know 

 what to do. 



I am only a beginner. I have an 

 incubator and hot water brooder, and 

 before I bought your book I could not 

 make them hatch, but now, with its 

 help, following your directions, I have 

 a fine hatch. I turned and aired the 

 eggs as you said. Now my chicks 

 (White Leghorns) are two weeks old 

 and I have lowered the temperature 

 in the brooder about one degree a 

 day; but about every other day one 

 will die. I have thirty-two in the 

 brooder, so they are not crowded at 

 all. I have put insect powder on them 

 and they are fed chick food; they have 

 plenty of fresh water in a fountain, 

 which I keep in their yard. I make 

 them work in alfalfa for their feed, as 

 you instructed. They are not stuck 

 up behind, as far as I can tell, but 

 when one is about to die, it goes up 

 into a corner of the brooder under 

 the pipe. 



If you will give me advice about 

 what to do, I shall be very much ob- 

 liged, as I am afraid I shall lose them 

 all._N. H. H. 



Answer. I am glad you had a good 

 hatch. The fault with that incubator 

 is lack of ventilation, and of the 

 brooder is that there is a draught on 

 the floor, so that the chicks' feet are 

 cold. I tried a good many plans with 

 that brooder, and finally I built them 

 over. However, the best plan before 

 I changed them I found was to put 

 on the floor a gunny sack or bit of 

 warm old carpet, and on that put near- 

 ly two inches of chaff or finely cut 

 straw or hay. I also left the lid a lit- 

 tle bit open. Before that the chicks' 

 heads got too hot on the pipes and 

 their little feet too cold. 



I am rather surprised that they have 

 not been troubled with diarrhoea. 



Faulty Incubation I am a begin- 

 ner in the poultry business and would 

 like to ask you a few questions that 

 have' been troubling me: 



1. I have been hatching chickens 

 and ducks in an incubator and they 

 don't hatch as well as with a hen. I 

 find quite a number dead in the shells. 

 I do not understand it as I follow 

 the directions that come with the ma- 

 chine. 



2. A number of the chicks "walk 

 around on their knees." Some ot 



their legs stick straight up and they 

 flop along on the joint with the aid 

 of their wings. They soon die. Why 

 is this? Is there any way to avoid it? 

 3. I had twenty ducks hatch with 

 hens and have only eleven left. We 

 first notice them to lag behind the 

 rest, then as they grow more stupid 

 they fall over with their heads thrown 

 back as people do when they have 

 spinal meningitis. Can you tell by 

 this description what was the matter 

 with them? L. B.,. Corcoran. 



Answer The trouble is that, the 

 heat has been irregular in your incu- 

 bator, and probably the eggs have 

 not been aired sufficiently. 



2. Cripples, such as you describe, 

 invariably come from over heating, 

 especially the last ten days in the in- 

 cubator. It may be only for a few 

 hours. It is such a pity, for it always, 

 seems to be the biggest and best 

 chicks. I have once or twice suc- 

 ceeded in straightening out the legs 

 and setting the knee, fastening it with 

 a rubber. 



3. The trouble with the ducks is 

 severe indigestion. It may be they 

 have not had sand enough in their 

 food, or they have eaten some animal 

 food that was not fresh was decay- 

 ing. Lack of shade will give the 

 same symptoms. The drinking vessel 

 must be deep enough for them to get 

 their entire bill under water, for they 

 require to rinse their nostrils many 

 times a day and will die if they can- 

 not. 



Brooders (Mrs. S.M.G.) I would 

 like to tell you about the brooders I 

 made from your description of them. 

 I have used the Fireless Brooder for 

 five months and have had no trouble 

 in . getting the chicks to go inside 

 when they are cold. When I first put 

 fifty chicks into the Fireless, the 

 weather was cold and at first I found, 

 like others, that the little fellows did 

 not know where to go when they felt 

 cold, so on the third day I put a gallon 

 jug of hot water in the center of the 

 brooder, covering the jug with a hood 

 made of several layers of newspaper. 

 I took two or three chicks and held 

 them against the jug until their happy 

 chirping brought all the others; after 

 that I had no trouble. They no longer 

 needed to be shown. I removed the 

 jug at night and put it back in the 

 morning for a few days, filling it with 



