CHAPTER XIII 



BROODERS AND BROODING SYSTEMS 



First we will consider the small brooder, as the average farmer or 

 small poultry man does not need a system, but just something that 

 can be relied upon to brood a hundred or two hundred chicks without 

 building special brooder houses. 



For this I do not know of any better than one that has been got- 

 ten out by the International Correspondence Schools. 



The "hover" is round and made of galvanized iron; the lamp sets 

 in the center, making it absolutely safe, because even though the lamp 

 got on fire it is confined in the metal frame and the blaze cannot get 

 away. My belief is that if the lamp should run very high through bad 

 management, that it would smoke and clog up until it went out. But 

 after using two all one season I see no reason for any accident happen- 

 ing at all. They have been thoroughly reliable. The good feature 

 outside of the safety lamp is that there are no corners, no closed 

 boxes; the chicks are all around the hover, a curtain of canvas 

 hanging down and they can run under or out at leisure. Yes, there is 

 another good feature and one that will appeal strongly to the farmer. 

 These hovers can be set in any small house, shed or barn and the 

 chicks raised just as well as if they had a high priced brooder 

 house. When the chicks are through with them they can be carried to 

 another house in one hand, they are so light and handy. These can be 

 purchased from poultry supply dealers. 



Brooders for Outdoors. There are other small brooders for out- 

 door use, or they can be bought for indoors without the little house 

 part. One hundred chicks is usually the capacity, though there are 

 people who crowd more into them. 



The Stove Systems. There are several of these stove systems on 

 the market, and they must all have some merit or they would not be 

 bought. With most of them the chicks are all out where they can 

 have what air the brooder house contains, and so that is in their favor. 

 But the idea of twelve or fifteen hundred chicks being confined in one 

 house is entirely wrong. If, as has been the case, the stove becomes 

 faulty and either goes low or goes entirely out, just think what will 

 happen to those chicks. I know they have just about perfected some 

 of these stoves and put automatic alarms on them so that the danger 

 is not nearly so great as one might think, but even if they were per- 

 fect, there should never be such a number of chicks together in one 

 place. 



