POULTRIY-CRAFT. 165 
CHAPTER XI. 
Hatching and Rearing Chicks. 
230. The Two Systems.— There are two methods of hatching and 
brooding chicks: the z@¢wral, in which the chicks are hatched and brooded 
by hens; and the art/fczal, in which they are hatched in incubators and 
brooded in houses, as described in 46-48, or in separate out-door brooders. 
The conditions which would determine the choice of method were stated in 
§60. The natural method is still in most general use. The other is oftener 
used by those operating on a large scale, and is coming, year by year, into 
more general use. As to results, —that depends more on the operator than 
on the method. * As good chicks can be reared without hens as with them. 
In using the natural method, the operator divides the responsibility with the 
hens; in using the artificial method, he assumes it all. After weaning, the 
treatment of the chicks is essentially the same, no matter which method had 
been previously employed. ; 
THE NATURAL METHOD. 
231. Remarks.— The sitting hen’s reputation for fickleness and per- 
versity is not deserved. The trials of those who find the care of sitting hens 
and hens with chicks too troublesome, are mostly due to the failure to furnish 
proper facilities for the work, and to handle the stock systematically. It is 
easy to handle hens and chicks in large numbers if one goes about it in the 
right way. The complaints against hens are: they do not persist in broodi- 
ness; they will not sit elsewhere than on their laying nests; after being set, 
they desert the eggs; they remain too long away from the nests, allowing eggs 
to become chilled; they quarrel among themselves, and break eggs; they 
trample chicks in the nests; they kill each other’s chicks; their chicks are 
lousy, etc. These are preventable evils. 
* Note. — That those who fail with one method often succeed with the other, is to be 
attributed to personal differences in taste and temperament, and in the Jez¢ of talent. It 
seems to be impossible for some persons to acquire the little, elementary, engineering 
skill required to successfully operate an incubator; yet these same persons may be very 
expert in the use of the natural method. And there are many people who will never 
force themselves to do the routine work of caring for sitting hens in such a way that good 
results are a practical certainty; but will take pleasure in working with machines, and 
will be very successful with them. Many poultry keepers work equally well with either 
method; and not a few people who try to raise fowls fail, no matter which method they 
try. 
