POULTRY FOR PROFIT 67 



always be provided with some sort of windbreak. 

 Burlap sacks, fastened to the side of the coop from 

 which the wind comes, make an excellent windbreak 

 in ordinary weather, and in very stormy weather 

 the coop may be placed in the lee of a house. 



Hardly less important than warmth, even at the 

 start, and even more important in the long run, is 

 an adequate supply of pure air. Chicks cared for 

 by hens in open coops breathe fresh air .day and 

 night. The brooder chick is handicapped in this 

 respect, and the greatest care should be used in 

 selecting a brooder to make sure that it has a good 

 circulation of air under the hover. Professor Rice 

 says in one of his Cornell bulletins: "Pure air is 

 of more importance to fowls than it is to other 

 domestic animals because of the warmer tempera- 

 ture of the fowl's body. This high body tempera- 

 ure is maintained by combustion of the food nutri- 

 ents contained in the blood in the presence of pure 

 air. Without pure air perfect combustion is impossi- 

 ble. Without perfect combustion the chick cannot be 

 warmed from within the body and therefore will 

 not be comfortable nor healthy even in a warm 

 brooder. The chick is a quick-growing, quick- 

 breathing animal, requiring rapid digestive and as- 

 similative changes, and therefore suffers seriously 

 and quickly when closely confined and compelled to 

 breathe impure air. Leg weakness is almost cer- 

 tain to result from close confinement and heavy 

 feeding, which usually are accompanied by a close 

 and more or less vitiated atmosphere." 



THE HEN AND HER BROOD 



When the hen is hatching she should be left 

 quietly on her nest and not disturbed, except by 

 slipping the hand under her to remove the egg shells, 



