POULTRY MANAGEMENT. 7 



even with this precaution we have had two fires, one of which 

 was very serious. The old Peep O' Day lamp was of this kind, 

 but the new ones are entirely different and by far the best of 

 any we have seen. They have no water pans, but are so 

 arranged that currents of cool air pass constantly over the oil 

 tank and keep its contents cool. We have used these lamps, or 

 stoves, for three years — last year more than twenty of them — 

 and regard them as safe, for the oil has never become warm. 



TREATMENT OF YOUNG CHICKS. 



When the chicks are 30 to 40 hours old they are carried in 

 warm covered baskets to the brooders, and 50 or 60 are put under 

 each hover, where the temperature is between 95 and -ioo 

 degrees. The temperature is not allowed to fall below 95 

 degrees the first week, or 90 during the second week; then it is 

 gradually reduced according to the temperature outside, care 

 being taken not to drive the chicks out by too much heat, or to 

 cause them to crowd together under the hover because they are 

 cold. They should flatten out separately, when young, and a 

 little later, lie with their heads just at the edge of the fringe of 

 the hover. Under no condition are they allowed to huddle out- 

 side of the brooder. They huddle because they are cold, and 

 they should be put under the hover to get warm, until they learn 

 to do so of their own accord. Neither are they allowed to stay 

 under the hover too much, but are forced out into the cooler air 

 where they gain strength in the day time. They are not allowed 

 to get more than a foot from the hover during the first two days ; 

 then a little further away each day, and down onto the house 

 floor about the fourth or fifth day, if the weather is not too cold. 

 They must not get cold enough to huddle or cry, but they must 

 come out from under the hover frequently. 



The floor of the brooder is cleaned every day and kept well 

 sprinkled with sharp, fine crushed rock, known in the market as 

 "chicken grit." The floor of the house is covered with clover 

 leaves, or hay chaff, from the feeding floor in the cattle barns. 

 For raising winter chickens the long piped brooder house is 

 indispensable, and it has many advantages when used at any 

 season of the year. The advantages are especially great when 

 raising chickens, if April or May prove to be cold and wet, for 

 then the small houses are apt to be cold outside of the brooders. 



