CHAPTER XI. 



Chicks and Their Care. 



Poultry keeping is not with me a means of livelihood, but 

 is more in the nature of a recreation. It is a matter of personal 

 pride with me, however, to make poultry keeping pay. I do not 

 at present get out my own chicks, but supply eggs to those 

 who have a knack for the business and let them hatch chicks 

 for me and keep them until they are weaned. Then I select 

 what I want in accordance with the principles laid down in 

 Chapter VII. People often wonder how I get such a growth 

 on my chicks after I take them into my hands. The reason is 

 very simple. I select only as many chicks as I have room for 

 and I keep chicks of the same age together. The average poul- 

 try keeper gets out altogether too many chicks. There is a 

 temptation when eggs are hatching well to set every hen that 

 is broody or to fill up the incubator just once more. There is 

 plenty of room for the chicks at first, but as they grow older 

 they are crowded and do not do so well as they ought. Then 

 when chicks of different ages are left together, there is too 

 much "rough house" for the younger ones and they become 

 stunted. If you want fine birds get out only as many chicks 

 as you have room for, divide them into small flocks, and keep 

 chicks of the same age by themselves. 



WHY NOT INSTALL A BROODER? 



Even where an incubator is not employed a brooder may be 

 installed to good advantage. I know a man who gets out in 

 the neighborhood of 1,000 chicks every spring hatching them 

 all under hens and brooding them in brooders. I am as great 

 an admirer of the American hen as any other man, but I con- 

 fess that her conduct as a mother is often not such as to im- 

 press me with an exalted opinion of her mentality. 



The best brooder, in my opinion, is one built for 100 chicks, 

 and costing about $12, just as the best incubator is one built 

 for 200 eggs or thereabouts. The out-door brooder is not gen- 

 erally satisfactory, as it is difficult to keep chicks warm enough 

 in it when the temperature ranges,low. The brooder should be 

 placed in a brooder house, and there is no better brooder house 

 in my opinion than the colony-community house described in 

 Chapter II. 



