Hot-water boiler for heating eight pens 

 of Weeks System 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE ART OF BROODING CHICKS 



PRODUCING high-grade poultry and eggs is fast growing to be a 

 science, and the knowledge of how to apply this science is an art. 



A scholarly, scientific knowledge of poultry raising does not always 

 make an artist in poultry production. Doing is the art. Science is 

 the accumulated truths that bear upon a subject. All the truths of 

 poultry raising can be committed to memory, and yet this will not 

 make a successful poultryman. We need practice which makes the 

 poultry artist and which is the art of poultry raising. 



Each department of poultry keeping has its art. One may be 

 proficient in the feeding and care of laying hens and get a high percent- 

 age of eggs with low death rate and yet be a failure in brooding chicks. 



Brooding chicks is an art which no careless person will ever learn. 

 Successful brooding depends upon three things being correct to start 

 with. First, that the parent stock of the chick shall have generations 

 of careful breeding for vigor behind it. This parent stock must be in 

 the pink of condition at the time the eggs are to be incubated. This 

 parent stock must be at least two years old, with every condition 

 for health. 



Second, the incubation of this egg from correct stock must be done 

 exactly right or no brooder on earth will make a good chick from this 

 egg. The temperature should be held as steady as a clock between 

 102 and 103 degrees. If it runs above this or below the chick will 

 never be as good as it might be. 



Third, the construction of the brooder must give natural comfort 

 to the chick with plenty of fresh air and no dust. Right here is where 



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