42 California Poultry Practice 



house is 16x150 feet and is separated into runs entirely apart from each 

 other. Each hover is 3x4 feet. The runs lead outdoors to other runs 

 so that each lot of chicks is separate whether indoors or out. Thus a 

 person can stand at the door of this brooder house, in the end of the 

 building, and look down where chicks of all ages up to three months 

 can be seen; or on other occasions one may see three thousand chicks 

 of one age, yet separated in small lots with their own hover and run. 

 The system of heating is with pipes, the pipes being below the floor 

 about eight inches and confined in a box made of inch lumber. At the 

 top where both heat and air ascend it is partially confined so as to 

 make the heat diffuse better. At the top of the hover is a burlap that 

 acts as a diaphragm to carry the heat over the backs of the chicks. At 

 the front of the hover a curtain keeps in the heat and all over their 

 backs this mild, warm air is on the move all the time. If it is desirable 

 to close up, or rather shut off the heat from one, two or several hovers, 

 a piece of board with holes the exact size of the ones that let in the 

 heat and air, is right there and can be placed over the heating aper- 

 tures and thus shut off for as long as necessary the heat from any 

 number of brooders. From SO to 75 chicks are as many as Mr. Norton 

 cares to put together. He is in the hatching business, and sometimes 

 has just a few chicks left over. Another time he may have a hatch 

 come off that he has not sold, and he always has a place to put them 

 where they will be kept warm and comfortable. The death rate is very 

 low, as one would expect where such small lots of chicks are kept in 

 almost perfectly natural conditions. The hot water pipes are heated 

 by an oil burner. Being confined in the box under the floor it does 

 not take very much heat to keep them hot. Now if this is not plain it 

 ought to be, for it looks so easy to me that I could make one myself 

 (if I were a carpenter). 



The heat from this brooder is indirect heat and the warm air is 

 always coming up, because that is the natural outlet, as warm air can 

 never go downwards. 



The George system is something after this plan of warm air com- 

 ing upwards, but where twelve hundred chicks are in one body it 

 would require volumes of air to furnish all they require. By distribut- 

 ing the chicks in smaller lots they have a better chance. Overcrowd- 

 ing is the greatest mistake of modern poultry raising. We want to 

 bunch chickens up like plants, and like the hothouse plants that are 

 given too much heat and too little air, chickens grow spindly and weak 

 with no constitution or vigor. Chicks that are overcrowded fall easy 

 prey to disease, and instead of being a source of income they are a 

 continual source of expense. 



With a brooding system where the heat is direct, the chicks may 

 be kept just as warm and comfortable as with indirect heat, but they 

 are not getting the movement of fresh air. By the direct heat method 



