So much for the starting of this well-bred pullet. The egg from 

 which the well-bred pullet comes must be very carefully and exactly 

 incubated or the pullet will be handicapped for life. Here is where the 

 very finest adjustment and care is necessary or that strong germ in the 

 egg will meet obstacles in the way of its development that will hinder 

 natural progress. The temperature should be kept as regular as a 

 clock, between 102 and 103 degrees. The egg must not be chilled in 

 cooling nor over-heated one single time during incubation. Too little 

 moisture weakens the germ and too much makes the chick too large to 

 get out of the egg. Incubation requires the closest attention and exact- 

 ness. Anyone can hatch chicks. It is very easy to hatch chicks. But 

 to do it without injury to that tiny, tender, growing germ or embryo 

 is a very difficult and careful piece of work. 



No careless person can afford to attempt incubation. A well-bred 

 chick correctly hatched and you have a good foundation upon which to 

 build a profitable layer. 



Thus if this well-bred chick is naturally brooded with plenty of 

 sunshine and fresh air during the period it needs artificial heat, with 

 clean quarters free from dust, then it has a good start in life and can be 

 grown into a profitable hen. 



At three or four weeks of age the chicks should be taken away from 

 artificial heat and divided into smaller flocks, the cockerels and pullets 

 being separated. Right here is where my small pen system proves its 

 superiority. We move them from the heated pens into pens exactly 

 the same in every detail except they are without heat. The chicks 

 climb up, always up, for they have the climbing up habit from the 

 start, to the roosting platform as usual, and being divided into smaller 

 flocks are in no danger of piling and sweating, for we never place more 

 than fifty together into one compartment. These have a clean bed of 

 straw to snuggle in, and if the weather is too cold we throw some sacks 

 over the two perches above them and let them hang down over the 

 chicks. Fifty chicks in a clean bed of straw up on this dropping board 

 two feet from the ground floor will snuggle together with each little 

 head out to the fresh air and will seldom, if ever, smother a single one. 



The sooner the chicks can do without artificial heat the better, for 

 artificial heat after a certain age tends to weaken and lessen the vigor. 



One by one they take to the perches of their own accord, for the 

 perches are right above them as they huddle in the clean straw, and 

 it is surprising how quickly they line up. I have six thousand this year 

 taking to the perches with no trouble at all. When I look over the 

 worry and loss of previous years in trying to get chicks to the perches, I 

 draw a long sigh of relief to think that I have at last solved that 

 hardest of problems for the poultryman, the getting of young stock to 

 take to the- perches. As soon as young stock takes the perches we 

 usually think they are just as good as gold. Of all the inventions that 

 have been tried to get young stock on the perches this scheme of 

 teaching the baby chick right from the start the going up habit beats 

 all thatT have ever tried. 



We have followed this well-bred pullet from the parent stock up to 

 three or four weeks of age. If she has had every essential in each de- 

 partment passed through, she now has clear sailing, and it is only a 

 matter of clean quarters, clean water and a wholesome variety of clean 



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