CHAPTER XIV 



THE BUILDING OF BROODER HOUSES 



There are several things to keep in mind when building brooder 

 houses for small chicks. There must be just so much warmth. Whether 

 it is to be all artificial warmth or whether we can conserve some of the 

 natural heat of the chicks by eliminating the cold air, is the question. 



This much I have proven, that thin walls are not good for a 

 brooder house. Too much cold gets in at night and too much heat 

 during the day. This makes a very irregular heat that does not add 

 to the comfort of the chicks, nor to their health. One-inch lumber 

 of the shiplap or other matched varieties is the best material for a 

 brooder house. The thicker the wall the more cold it keeps out and 

 the more we conserve the natural, the less artificial heat need be used 

 to consume the oxygen in the room. 



Where direct heat is used, the burner is usually placed in the cen- 

 ter of the room, and very few methods of ventilation have so far been 

 siifficient to cope with the amount of oxygen consumed by this burner. 



More chicks die from a lack of oxygen than from shortage of heat; 

 one thousand chicks require, and must have, if they are to be well 

 brooded, an immense volume of fresh air. Now with ordinary methods 

 of heating, the heater consumes half the oxygen the method of venti- 

 lation allows for, so here is the problem. If fresh, warm air can be 

 conducted into the brooder house in sufficient quantity, very few 

 chicks that are at all fit to live will die. Hence the idea of conserving 

 what heat is possible by building with this view in mind. Good walls, 

 a good roof and a warm floor are great aids along this line. 



For most of the brooder stove systems in use now, the size of house 

 called for is 14x16. Some I have seen were 12x14, but the large size 

 prevails. These houses have windows in all four directions, but they 

 are small and set well up away from the floors. Too much light 

 causes toe picking and other cannibalism in chicks. 



One of our prominent poultrymen is quite well satisfied with this 

 system of brooding. He finds the pullets are more gentle, therefore 

 easier to handle than when brooded in small lots. This is quite nat- 

 ural because the tender is continually going in and out amongst them. 

 In another case, one of my neighbors lost a number of chicks just a 

 few days old because a man shouted to him near the brooder house; 

 the chicks stampeded like so many cattle and before he could separate 

 them, quite a number were suffocated. This, too, is natural. When 



