POULTRY-CRAFT. 47 
house. Fig. 30 showsa ground plan, and Fig. 31 a cross section, of a plain 
style brooder house very commonly used. It is 13 ft. wide, and any length 
desired. The walk is excavated to a depth of 18 inches, thus giving a passage 
along the north side of a house only 44 ft. high at the eaves. The walk is 35 
ft. wide; the brooder 30 in. wide. Each 
pen is 5 x 74 ft. The partitions between 
. the pens is of board 1 ft., wire netting 2 ft., 
making the total height 3 ft. The partition 
between the pens and the walk is at the 
inner edge of the brooder. This brooder 
is really a long box containing, generally, 
four pipes—two flow and two return — 
Fig. 31. Cross Section of Long Brooder House connecting with hot water heater, placed in 
Se eine eye a pit several feet below the level of the 
floor, at one end of the house. (In very long houses the heater is sometimes 
placed in the middle). At the end near the heater the pipes are about 4 in. 
from the floor. They rise gradually until, at the further end, they are 8 in. 
from the floor. They pass through holes bored at the proper height in each 
cross partition of the brooder, (the partitions of the brooder correspond to 
the pen partitions), and require no other supports. The top, or cover, of each 
section of the brooder is of matched boards held together with cleats, and 
lined on the under sidé with building paper. These covers are sometimes 
hinged ; sometimes rest on cleats nailed to the sides of the brooder. The side 
of the brooder next the walk is a solid board. The side communicating with 
the pens is of woolen cloth with slits at short intervals to permit the chicks 
passing in and out. The pens nearest the heater, where the pipes are lowest, 
are used for the smallest chicks. As each hatch comes off the whole lot of 
chicks is advanced one or more pens, being driven through small doors in the 
partitions between the pens. 
In the plan shown in Fig. 32 the pipes are laid level, and the smaller chicks 
brought near the heat by the use of movable floors or by filling up the brooder 
-floors with chaff. This plan is preferred by many, as it does away with 
moving the chicks to accommodate each new lot. If pens are all of a size, 
the lots must be divided as the chicks grow. In some houses the pens are 
made of varied widths to provice for lots nearly equal in number, but varying 
in-size. In the colder sections of the country many have put pipes along the 
north wall of the brooder house, because they found it difficult to keep up the 
temperature on cold nights. Their difficulty was due to using too small a 
heater; and the builder should take care to avoid their mistake instead of 
imitating their way of correcting it. 
47. Nursery Brooders in a Long House. — Instead of starting chicks 
under pipes a few inches from the floor, many use nursery brooders. These 
are small separate brooders heated by lamps. They are purchased complete 
