m 



i'^i: FAiiM. 



are large enough to cover their backs, when they are put in a peii, i"hi8 lot 

 is fed the above mixture five or six tiraes, with meat or worms once a day, 

 and a head of cabbage is hung in the pen for them to peck at. The bottom 

 of this pen is covered with dry sand and ashes, with a pile of old mortar and 

 broken oyster shells to be picked over. 



"For a water fountain I use a small tin pan, covering with a stone all the 

 top except just enough to allow the chicks to drink, as shown at Fig. 2. Turn 

 the open part next to the wall, so the little things cannot scratch dirt into it. 

 Chicks are very fond of scratching the feed out of the pan. To prevent this 

 I take a sheet of tin (Fig. 3), bend it over, and put the feed under the bent 

 part. This prevents their treading on or scratching out the feed, and caters 

 to their natural taste for hunting under things for food. It is also cleaned 

 more readily than a pan. 



" The body of the brooder (Fig, 4) is made of zmc, with an air-chamber 



over and under the back 

 end. The lamp setting under 

 it sends the heat up through 

 the heater and out through • 

 the top, where a nursery for 

 young or sick chicks is 

 placed to utilize the waste 

 heat. This form of brooder, 

 with a warm chamber and 

 the chicks feeding in the 

 open air, I believe to be bet- 

 ter than those where the 

 chicks ai'e never subjected 

 to a cool atmosphere. The 

 short stay while they feed in 

 the open air tends to harden 

 and invigorate them. All 

 brooders, boxes, or pens, 

 used to keep large numbers 

 of chicks in, should have the 

 bottom lined with zinc, as 

 wood or earth is sure in time 

 to become saturated with 

 excrement, no matter how 

 clean you try to keep it, and 

 it is the ammonia arising from these tainted floors that causes such pens 

 in time to prove fatal to the chicks. I promised to tell the truth 

 about my experience in hatching the eggs, and here it is: The 

 last eggs that hatched out were bought October 10th. Up to that tiise I 

 had purchased one hundred and five eggs at thirty cents a dozen. 

 About one-third of these proved unfertile, and were cooked and eaten, or 

 hard-boiled and fed to the young chicks, leaving about seventy-five eggs for 

 the incubator to work on. Out of these I now have twenty-seven as fine 

 chicks as I ever saw. By my o^vn awkwardness and want of experience, -I 

 have killed or lost fully one dozen. My macliine was an old one, and the 

 battery was worn out. The gauge never was worth a cent. All the defect- 

 ive parts have been renewed except the gauge, and I have learned to doctor 

 that. Owing to the above faults, the temperature iu the oven has run too 

 B*w for days at a time, and for houi-s it haa been at 82 degrees, while it Ims 



BBOODER. — FIG. 4. 



