64 BROILERS AND ROASTERS. 



one or two illustrations : A brood of a dozen chicks run- 

 ning with a hen may have their drinking water in an open 

 saucer, and paddle through it, wetting themselves a little, 

 but fifty or a hundred chicks with access to an open water 

 vessel will soon have themselves and their surroundings in 

 sorry condition, and so many bedraggled brooder chicks, 

 will hardly dry off without some of their number being the 

 worse for the wetting, while it is no uncommon thing in 

 such a case for chicks (and even ducks) to be so exhausted 

 in the dabbling that they are run over and killed by the 

 rest. 



In feeding, too, there must be more care. The average 

 hen hatched and brooded chick will- thrive in spite of 

 irregularities in feeding which would stunt and perhaps- 

 eventually kill the average brooder chick. When all goes- 

 right by the artificial methods, results should be identical 

 with the best results by natural methods, but the operator 

 of incubators and brooders who keeps things right so gener- 

 ally that his average results are as good or better than 

 average results by the other method, does it by combining 

 good judgment with unfailing vigilance. 



