78 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



When the chicks are once in the brooder (of course 

 they have been kept carefully covered in transit) 

 you can soon find out whether the brooder is warm 

 enough. If the chicks lie flat under the hover and 

 sleep, they are warm; if they stand up, they are 

 chilly. "Give them heat till they flatten out" is an 

 excellent rule. 



It will be necessary at first to fasten the chicks 

 under the hover with a board, only letting them out 

 to eat the first day, and they must be pushed back 

 under the hover from time to time when they seem 

 cold or when it is time for them to rest, till they 

 have learned where to go when they are cold or tired. 

 The mother hen calls her babies constantly the first 

 few days, and they learn almost at once that that 

 soft, comfortable cluck means comfort. The person 

 who cares for an incubator brood must be just as 

 unremitting in his attention as the mother hen. Neg- 

 lect the first four days means great loss. After this 

 time the chicks rapidly become hardened and may 

 be left longer to themselves. 



Chicks reared in heated brooders need heat for 

 about six weeks, but chicks that have been trans- 

 ferred to fireless brooders at two or three weeks of 

 age soon learn to do without artificial heat and are 

 more vigorous without it. 



Cold Brooders 



When they have outgrown the need of heat, chicks 

 in the colony-house brooder will begin to roost on 

 low roosts which are provided in the same house. 

 Chicks raised in lamp or fireless brooders can be 

 transferred at this time to small coops, called cold 

 brooders, where they can roost if they wish. It is 

 not usually necessary to teach them to roost. They 

 will learn gradually if the roosts are there. 



