CHAPTER IV. 



Brooding 



REARING BABY CHICKS 



The principles of chick raising are the same, 

 whether the chicks are raised by hens or in brooders 

 or in a box with a jug of hot water. Warmth, nour- 

 ishment, fresh air, cleanliness, sunshine and exer- 

 cise, and protection from insects and marauding 

 animals are the sum total of the requirements, and 

 the art of rearing every chick hatched, providing 

 the parent stock is what it should be, is simply the 

 art of giving careful attention to these details. 

 Losses of chick life each year are enormous, aver- 

 aging the country over, half the chicks hatched, 

 and by far the greater part of these could be avoided 

 by painstaking attention to these simple, essential 

 requirements of all young life. 



Rearing chicks with hens is easier and more satis- 

 factory than raising them in brooders, despite the 

 "crankiness" of the mother hen. It is Nature's 

 way, and provides a combination of warmth with 

 fresh air and exercise which can not be duplicated 

 in any other way. Sometimes it is best, when several 

 hens are caring for large broods all the same age, to 

 put hens and chicks together in a large yard, confin- 

 ing each hen in her own coop. If they are together 

 from the start, the chicks will run together, and the 

 hens will know no difference, but will brood any 

 chick that comes. By putting four hens with 100 

 chicks in such a yard the chicks can be fed with much 

 less trouble, and a fine flock will grow up together. 



