<6 2 BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 



;the first few days, be kept warm and not allowed to get 

 far away from the heat. To insure these conditions it is 

 customary to use at first a board, as described on page 44, 

 io confine them to the space under and near the pipes. 

 For the first few days warmth is more essential to them 

 than anything else but air, and the most approved practice 

 is to keep the chicks quite closely in the brooder, and keep 

 the temperature at 90 to 95, rather high than low. 

 The action of the chickens toward the heat is sometimes 

 <cited as a reliable index of the proper conditions. While 

 it probably is so to an experienced operator, a novice's 

 lack of familiarity with the habits of chickens, and inex- 

 perience in observing them, is apt to lead him to make 

 serious errors in judging conditions this way, and it is 

 generally safer for him to go by the thermometer for tem- 

 perature. Under the system we are now considering, 

 .there is little danger of the chicks not getting enough air. 



Another point to be noted in connection with this system 

 is that there being a free circulation of air all about the 

 <chicks the chick capacity of the space is very much 

 increased, especially for the very young chicks. Where 

 '.the pipes are closed, and the temperature outside the hovers 

 much below what is required, it is, of course, more diffi- 

 cult to maintain an even temperature under the hover, and 

 it was this difficulty that led to so general use of individ- 

 ual u nursery " brooders for the smallest chicks. 



In a general way the care of the individual brooder is 

 .much like the care of the incubator. By far the greater 

 :number in use are hot air brooders, heated by lamps or 

 *' stoves" which require attention as often as incubators, 

 so high a temperature is to be maintained under the 



