84 POULTRY BREEDING 
long lath, so when the hover is in place this curtain will 
hang down over the door. Then on the under side tack 
some heavy material as long as the box and wide enough 
so that when the edges are tacked to the frame it will 
sag down about 244”. Fig. 2 shows how this is done, the 
illustration being exaggerated slightly to show the sag 
in the cloth more plainly. Using the middle piece of the 
frame as a handle lift it up and set it down on the cleats 
in the box and the brooder is ready for the chicks, as far 
as the brooder part is concerned. <A hd is used on this 
brooder that may be propped up when the weather is 
warm or during the day, as shown in Fig. 1. Before put- 
ting the chicks in the brooder cover the bottom with 
newspaper and over this put a thick coat of chaff, cut 
clover or short straw. A door is provided for the front 
of the brooder. For the curtain and hover material Mr. 
Keyser recommends cotton bed blankets of the quality 
that costs 50 cents a pair in preference to the more com- 
monly used Shaker flannel. The curtain is slit every 3” 
so the chicks can easily run out and in. Note that the 
cleats which support the hover are nailed on the right 
and left sides of the box and that the hover frame from 
front to back is 44” narrower than the width of the box. 
This leaves 44” space between the front and back sides 
of the box and the hover for ventilation. To secure ven- 
tilation a 14" hole is bored in each corner at the back and 
three 14” holes are bored in each end and five in the back 
34" from the top. These allow air to circulate in suffi- 
cient quantities for the chicks in cold weather and in 
warm weather the cover is kept lifted, giving free cir- 
culation of air. For sudden cold weather a cushion made 
of feathers, chaff or cutton batting the size of the hover 
frame is laid on top of the hover at night. Clean the 
