RAISING CHICKENS 



437 



incubating eggs without live embryos. The two chief 

 reasons for failures with incubators are : poor judgment 

 and irregular attention. 



It must be remembered that when the chicks appear 

 they come as orphans and must be mothered. The most 

 successful chicken men have learned their best lessons 

 directly from the mother hen. The mother keeps the 

 newly hatched chicks quiet and warm for the first day or 

 two ; she gives them 

 plenty of fresh air ; and 

 allows their bodies to 

 dry off without the 

 danger of a chill. So 

 must we, their foster 

 mothers. 



(c) Brooders. One 

 of the first wants of 

 chicks is a warm mother, 

 and to supply this want 

 to the orphans many 

 kinds of brooders have 

 been manufactured. 



The fireless brooder is 



PUTTING CHICKS IN THE BROODER. 



really a modification of 



the basket or box, covered with a piece of flannel or old 

 shawl, which is usually placed behind the kitchen stove. 

 Our grandmothers have used this method for generations. 

 The heat, when the brooder is taken outdoors, must come 

 from the bodies of the chicks themselves. It is held that 

 this brooder in midwinter then requires too much of the 

 chick's energy to supply its own needed heat, leaving 

 little for growth and development. 



In another type of brooder, heat and ventilation are 

 supplied artificially, commonly by a lamp. For the first 



