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TWO SECRETS OF SUCCESS HEAT AND FEEDING. 

 The two great secrets of success in raising brooder chicks are 

 proper heat and proper feeding. The heat should come from 

 overhead, as this is the most natural method, and should be hot 

 air. Bear in mind that the young chick needs a great deal of 

 heat. He has come from a warm place the temperature of his 

 mother's body being 103 degrees. For the first two or three days 

 the temperature in the brooder should be 95 degrees ; then it may 

 be gradually lowered, as the chicks grow, until it drops to 80 

 degrees if the weather is warm and pleasant. "The best rule to 

 follow is to observe the chicks. . . . If they arrange them- 

 selves at the edge of the brooder, and separate, by spreading out, 

 the heat will be just what they desire. If too cool they will come 

 closely together and cro\vd. Many operators have left their 

 chicks apparently contented at night, only to find in the morning 

 some of them dead under the brooder, because the heat lowered 

 and the chicks trampled among themselves in the effort to secure 

 more warmth, and this, too, when (to the operator) there seemed 

 to be sufficient." 



CARE OF THE BROODER. 



The brooder is to be the home of the chicks until they are at 

 least six weeks old. It is a good idea to keep the brooder in the 

 brooder house until August, and then on the cold, wet days which 

 we sometimes have in summer give the chicks a little heat. The 

 floor of the brooder should be kept sprinkled with sand, and 

 should be cleaned every morning. The floor of the brooder house 

 should also be kept covered with clean sand, and the windows 

 should be opened every warm and sunny day. There is no hurry 

 to get the chicks out on the ground ; indeed it is better for them 

 to spend the first four weeks of their lives indoors. 



The brooder should be enclosed with a low fence of boards 

 for the first few days, so that the chicks cannot get far away. 

 They should be given their first feeds in the brooder and watered 

 there, but in a little while the feed tray and fountain may be 

 placed outside the brooder, but close to it. Grit of some kind 

 should be supplied. 



HOW TO FEED BROODER CHICKS. 

 My method of feeding brooder chicks is as follows : The first 

 week or ten days I feed rolled oats and nothing else, just the 



