AMERICAN POULTRY CULTURE 



sleep, the temperature is just suited to them; if 

 too cold, they bunch up and each one tries to get 

 as close to the others as it can ; if too warm, they 

 scatter apart as widely as they can, spread their 

 wings out from their bodies, and breathe faster 

 than ordinary, or even pant. 



So far as rules are concerned, ninety-five to one 

 hundred degrees is usually considered the best tem- 

 perature to maintain under the hover for the first 

 day or two. Remember in warming up the hover 

 that a bunch of chicks in it will raise the tempera- 

 ture five to ten degrees with their animal heat. 

 Gradually lessen the amount of heat supplied from 

 the time the chicks are placed in the brooder until 

 they are able to do without supplied heat. At the 

 end of the first week the temperature should not 

 exceed ninety degrees. At the end of the third 

 week the temperature of the hover, when the chicks 

 are in it, should be about eighty degrees. 



It is very desirable that the brooder temperature 

 be reduced as rapidly as possible, and the chicks 

 weaned away from artificial heat. How rapidly 

 this may be done depends very largely upon the 

 weather conditions, and also somewhat upon the 

 nature of the breed to which the chicks belong. In 

 winter or early spring it may be found desirable 

 to supply heat in the brooder until the chicks are 

 five or six weeks old. At all times, however, it 

 should be remembered that a bunch of lusty, grow- 



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