23 



brooders* are all made alike, with the lamp door at one side and the 

 chick door at the other. They are located so that the lamp doors 

 are towards the middle of the building and about 4 feet from each 

 other, which gives about 2 feet between the lamp door and the tem- 

 porary partition, sufficient room in which to attend to the lamps. 

 The hinges to the brooder cover are put at the back, which allows 

 the cover to turn up against the back wall out of the way. 



These portable brooder houses are well made, of good material, 

 and if the shoes are kept blocked up from the ground, they should 

 last as long as other fariii buildings. When they are drawn to the 

 range for the warm season, they are turned back to the south, so 

 that the sun may not shine in the windows to heat the house and 

 make it uncomfortable for the birds. Facing the north, the houses 

 furnish good cool shelter during the heat of the day. 



The houses which the pullets occupy are blocked up about a foot 

 and a half and the open space between the house and the ground 

 gives cool shelter which the birds enjoy. The pullets do not trouble 

 about going under the house to spend the night, but the cockerels 

 do, and we find it necessary to board around the cockerel houses 

 and deny them the cool retreat. As the cockerels develop in Sep- 

 tember and October, they become quarrelsome and there are bullies 

 among them, at every house, that domineer over their mates during 

 the day, and stand guard at the doors at dark. With such fellows in 

 the way it is difficult getting the underling into the house at shutting 

 up time at night, if they have a chance to skulk under the building. 



When the houses are drawn to the fields, they each contain from 

 50 to 75 pullets, as they are relieved of their brothers who are taken 

 out and put into the fattening pens a few days previously. If the 

 houses are located near to each other the chickens are liable to col- 

 lect in some of them at nightfall and neglect others as the season 

 advances, but if the houses are separated from each other by a dis- 

 tance of 100 feet, or thereabouts, the birds keep, for the most part, 

 to their own homes. 



When the houses are drawn to the fields, small yards about 12 feet 

 square are made in front of them, in which the birds are confined for 

 a few days, so as to get them acquainted with the new location of 



* No extended tests of incubators, brooders, and other appliances have been made at the 

 Maine Station. In this bulletin the makes that are in use at this Station are named. 

 These may not be the best of their classes but have worked satisfactory here. 



